What a night for baseball!
I feel I always get into this debate with people about the current state of the game. Did you see Coors Field? Did you see the atmosphere? Did you watch the stars reacting to the action off to the side?
That was a fucking awesome Home Run Derby with so many great storylines.
Let’s start with the back-to-back champion, Pete Alonso.
Wow. Was he dialed in or what? In round 1 he crushed 35 home runs. I feel bad for Salvador Perez who smashed 28 which would have won other matchups.
Here’s what I am not going to do: Criticize the bracket and how it’s 1 player vs 1 player. There’s literally no perfect way to execute this system and the product was so damn entertaining. What more can you possibly want?
Alonso’s longest home run of that 1st round was 514 feet with an exit velocity of 113 mph…
The way he was bobbing his head to the music, pumping up the crowd, the tone in his voice when talking to the broadcast in between at bats, and barreling up almost every pitch, it was obvious how bad he wanted it.
There was no way someone was going to get in his way.
Let’s give credit to David Jauss by the way, who just threw meatball after meatball over the middle of the plate all night long!
In round 2, Alonso only needed 16 HRs to take down Juan Soto. In the final, 23 got the job done against Trey Mancini. He delivered 6 bombs with all of his bonus swings to hoist the trophy yet again.
Pete Alonso went all out!#HRDerby pic.twitter.com/U0WatSPVM6
— Brodes Media (@BrodesMedia) July 13, 2021
It's too easy for Pete Alonso#HRDerby pic.twitter.com/49y5OVpJaO
— Brodes Media (@BrodesMedia) July 13, 2021
Pete Alonso is the champ again!!#HRDerby pic.twitter.com/6YRtyi6ORM
— Brodes Media (@BrodesMedia) July 13, 2021
Speaking of Trey Mancini, what a journey he went through battling stage 3 colon cancer last April. He was definitely who I was rooting for, but unfortunately he just fell short. Still an incredible night for him and his family getting all the way to the final!
It’s never easy to start this type of event off and I’d say he did well knocking 24 homers over the wall. After a slow start, he used his timeout and destroyed 17 home runs in the last 25 swings.
It wouldn’t be the Derby without some drama, am I right?
Shohei Ohtani vs Juan Soto featuring a double tie breaker.
There’s no denying the amount of pressure put on Ohtani to explode. He made it interesting, but I feel it’s fair to say he was a tad underwhelming. His first home run did not come until 50 seconds in which resulted in fighting the clock and having to come from behind.
He did provide power though, launching 3 home runs over 500 feet.
Once Soto went 3 for 3 in the final swing off, it was over. Ohtani was hitting too many line drives previously throughout. It was basically inevitable. If he had Alonso’s pitcher though we could be having a different conversation!
I thoroughly enjoyed everything about this event and it kept me super engaged throughout the entire night. It seemed twitter and the sports world felt the same.
I can’t remember a Home Run Derby that popped this much in recent memory. I honestly feel a lot of that had to do with the face of baseball, Shohei Ohtani.
It would have been cool to see Trevor Story send Coors Field into another dimension with a deep run.
Oh well.
On to the next. I can’t wait for the All Star Game!