Last night was RIDICULOUS!
I thought the event as a whole was a step in the right direction for Major League Baseball. Uggla, Longoria, Sizemore, etc. There's nothing wrong with giving the young, fresh faces of the league a chance to grab some spotlight away from the established veterans who are already household names. Besides Lance Berkman, every participant in the Derby last night has five years or less big league experience. And although Hamilton didn't win the thing, it doesn't really matter.
"Dude, you see how far I hit that?"
He hit 35 total homers, 28 of which came in the first round. There was a stretch of 13 in a row! It honestly looked like a video game. And for a New York crowd that didn't have one of their own to cheer for, (Seriously A-Rod, ya couldn't use some good PR right about now?) Hamilton gladly stepped into the role as hero. The crowd was chanting his name and was going ballistic after the monstrous 500 feet shots he launched.
And how about that old dude pitching? He's 71 years old and tossing BP like it ain't no thang. He and Hamilton were definitely on the same wave length. And it was great to see Hamilton's Rangers teammates goofing around and cheering him on. (The Rangers have four All-Stars?!?!) I also thought it was a nice touch when Edinson Volquez left the briefcase at home plate referencing Hamilton's "Natural" nickname. I'm not sure if any of the announcers caught on. Speaking of announcers, it was a great move by ESPN to switch back and forth from the Berman/Morgan/Phillips team to the Baseball Tonight crew (now with 100% more Rick Reilly). I know the Home Run Derby is sort of Berman's "thing" but there's only so much one person can take.
But there's always plenty of time to knock bad announcers. Hamilton made them irrelevant. They seriously could have just shut all their mics off after about home run number 10 and just let the crowd take it from there. I don't know if MLB/ESPN knew what they were doing when they had him bat last but I couldn't imagine anyone following that performance in the first round. And props to Justin Morneau who actually won. He was really gracious in accepting the trophy acknowledging Hamilton. I really hope Hamilton can stick with it and have a great and productive career. Dude looooves Jebus so he's got that going for him. I wonder if he'll be back in the contest next year? (Hamilton not Jebus)
Anyway, last night was definitely something special and for a guy who didn't even play baseball for three years, he didn't do half bad. And can you imaging if he was playing for the Rays right now?
Oh yeah, and I forgot the obligatory sports blog ogling of Erin Andrews. Seriously though, she's hot.
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