Home Yawn Derby

wordygurdy · **Posted:** Mon Jul 11, 2005 4:49 pm

Am I the only one who couldn't possibly give a flying fig about the Home Run Derby?

What is so exciting about seeing people who are paid to hit home runs do so off of 70-mph "fastballs" right down the pipe? For the life of me, I haven't been able to figure out why ESPN and MLB have been hyping the bejesus out of this event for the past several years.

I have yet to watch a Home Run Derby, and that is saying something for this baseball fan.

The revelation a few years ago that in 1999, for the Derby at Fenway Park, they used smaller-than-regulation baseballs just confirmed my resolve not to pay attention to this event.

The only way I can think of to make it interesting is to have All-Star pitchers out there trying to get the batters out with offspeed stuff, cutters in, sliders in the dirt, what have you. But then you'd have the actual All-Star game, minus fielders, and I suppose that wouldn't work.

Wayne Countryman · **Posted:** Mon Jul 11, 2005 4:57 pm

They should call it "All-Star Batting Practice," use regulation balls, and let kids without connections who'd never get into a stadium for the game shag for them.

That I might watch, if I had cable.

Matthew Grieco · **Posted:** Mon Jul 11, 2005 6:01 pm

The Home Run Derby is a pointless waste of time. It's also insufferable, because they let Chris Berman call it.

SusanV · **Posted:** Mon Jul 11, 2005 6:39 pm

And what, exactly, is the point of choosing players to represent their home countries? I thought this was Major League Baseball, not the Olympics.

Wabberjocky · **Posted:** Mon Jul 11, 2005 7:31 pm

The best home-run hitters aren't even it. Without Ichiro, who could hit a home run anytime he chooses to but is smart enough to choose to play a different and better kind of game, the competition is a joke.

Bood · **Posted:** Mon Jul 11, 2005 8:07 pm

Wabberjocky wrote:

Without Ichiro, who could hit a home run anytime he chooses to but is smart enough to choose to play a different and better kind of game, the competition is a joke.

If he could really hit a home run anytime he chooses to, the smart thing would be to do so.

Wabberjocky · **Posted:** Mon Jul 11, 2005 8:12 pm

He feels it disrespects the game to do so. I'll dig up some quotes of his to that effect.

Matthew Grieco · **Posted:** Mon Jul 11, 2005 8:36 pm

Ichiro's the most overrated player in decades, and he doesn't hit home runs because he's not a slugger. He's mistakenly perceived as a great player because people overestimate the value of batting average. Someone who hits for an average thirty points lower but with significantly more power is a more valuable hitter.

Ichiro is merely a good player. There are a couple dozen players I'd draft before him if I were starting a team from scratch.

ADKbrown · **Posted:** Tue Jul 12, 2005 8:44 am

What about his base stealing? That should count for something.

Ty Cobb also disdained home runs.

Matthew Grieco · **Posted:** Tue Jul 12, 2005 9:37 am

I'm extremely skeptical of any player who claims he wouldn't hit more home runs if he could.

That sounds just like something Cobb would say to cover his insecurities. But for the record, Cobb is the Hall of Fame version of Ichiro. A great hitter for average but with significantly more power than Ichiro has.

wordygurdy · **Posted:** Tue Jul 12, 2005 11:05 am

Hmm. I dunno, Matthew. I'm writing this in the spirit of debate, not contentiousness. I'm no great defender of Ichiro's, and I certainly don't agree with the premise broached earlier in this thread that he should have been in the Home Run Derby to have made that contest legitimate.

But Ichiro seems like much more than a one-dimensional player to me. He hits for high average, has an on-base percentage close to or above .400, as a leadoff hitter should, steals bases with a good percentage, scores 110-plus runs a year and has the proverbial cannon for an arm in right field. How much more do you want a player to do?

Rickey Henderson, for instance, eschewed home runs for the most part, though he did have a few seasons when he focused more on power and hit 20-plus. And he was far inferior defensively to Ichiro; you'll have to trust me on that one if you don't know yourself. Did you have any qualms about his worthiness?

Just to play devil's advocate, did you think Wade Boggs and Tony Gwynn were great players? They're not exactly Ichiro's equals because in Boggs' case, he was a solid but not spectacular defender, whereas Gwynn was largely immobile for the last 10-15 years of his career. But both hit for high average at the expense of home runs, and both will be in the Hall of Fame.

PunkOnce · **Posted:** Tue Jul 12, 2005 11:27 am

I just want to go on record defending the HR Derby (gently) on the grounds that it's pretty entertaining.

Actually my girlfriend is the one who got me watching it, and as a way of watching baseball once a year where nothing's at stake and the players are obviously just having fun, it beats the All-Star Game itself by a country mile. (Though that's hardly stiff competition.)

Criticisms that the Derby is inauthentic and just plain silly are exactly on the mark -- no argument here. But I submit that its unique value is in reminding us that it's still a kids' game. I wonder how many other sports do as good a job of illustrating that fact.

Wayne Countryman · **Posted:** Tue Jul 12, 2005 1:08 pm

[I love tangents far more than the All-Star Game.]

I'd call Ichiro better than good but not great.

Yes, he could hit a few more home runs if he tried, but so could David Ortiz and many other sluggers. His batting average and on-base percentage aren't that much higher than those of some players with far higher slugging percentages.

He's a very good leadoff hitter--getting on base is his job. If he batted third or fourth, he'd be expected to hit more home runs; then his average would drop. So, he should be compared to Johnny Damon or Brian Roberts, not Derrick Lee or Vlad Guerrero.

He's a very good base runner and right fielder. As far as I know, he's a good team player.

A very good all-around player.
[Disclaimer: I haven't seen him this season, or even checked his stats. I've seen a lot of Roberts and Damon.]

SusanV · **Posted:** Tue Jul 12, 2005 3:30 pm

I saw him in June. As I recall, he didn't do much of anything at that particular game.

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