7-14-25 Home Run Derby
Granted, not quite as good listening as watching this event, but I got the radio call of the Home Run Derby on ESPN Radio. I was able to supplement the call with clips on Twitter. For example, you needed to see O’Neil Cruz hit that 513’ home run out of the park. He was a definite crowd pleaser with his monster shots. Cruz wasn’t even an all-star and possibly slightly injured, but he showed up to hit home runs. He had 21 homers in the round, tied with Junior Caminero. Cruz hit 5 of the 6 longest home runs in the round.
MLB home run leader, Cal Raleigh, hit from both sides of the plate in his at bat. Did I hear this right? He’s 5 for 39 this month, but all his hits are homers? Cal faced Junior in the final. In Junior’s final, a kid in the outfield robbed him of one. (I think it still counted.) “Big Dumper,” though, won it. He was humble afterward, and the only catcher and only switch hitter to win the competition.
7-15-25 All-Star Game
Once again, I was listening to ESPN Radio’s coverage of the All-Star Game. I heard the whole pregame show. Aaron Judge got on my good side. In an interview, when asked about his first all-star game, he talked about getting to see the players he looked up to. (There are no players he looks up to.) Judge’s first at bat, Buster Posey was behind the plate calling signs against him and he thought it was so cool. Buster is one of my favorite players as well.
The players were wearing their regular uniforms for the game, which is a change everyone agrees with. (ASG uniforms tended to be embarrassing.) Paul Skenes worked a clean first for the NL. In the bottom, Tarik Skubal was touched up with 3 straight hits. Ketel Marte drove in 2 for the NL. ABS was in was use this game. Skubal used ABS to get an out.
Clayton Kershaw was mic’d up for his two-batter outing on the TV coverage. I was able to later to find the video. He was so happy to be out there. Also during the game, there was a Hank Aaron tribute. It was pretty impressive with the tribute video being showed as a hologram on the field of play. I had to find the video of that later, as well.
In the sixth, Pete Alonso hit a three-run homer and Corbin Carroll added a solo shot to make it, 6-0 NL. It’s never that easy. In the seventh, Brent Rooker three-run homer and Bobby Witt Jr. drove in another for the AL, 6-4. Atlanta home town player, Matt Olson, was not given an error on the Witt RBI, though the broadcasters thought he probably should have. Man, whoever was playing the organ in Atlanta was giving Dieter Ruehle a run for his money as best ballpark organist. I was seriously impressed with what I was hearing in the background.
Jacob Misiorowski came in to pitch for the eighth for the NL. “The Miz” has been in the Majors for five weeks and many of the pundits have been grumbling about his presence in the ASG. “He’s taking the place of more deserving veterans.” This would be a great argument, except for how many All-Stars, especially marginal ones, get the nod and then bow out. They just want the designation for contract negotiations. The fans wanted to see The Miz. He came out throwing 102mph and had two flyballs, one line drive, and one single.
There was a discussion of a Persian cat on the red carpet. A player had made a viral video of his dressed up cat walking on a red carpet at his hotel. He thought about bringing him to the actual red carpet ceremony, but wasn’t sure how that would work out. (Translation: he was afraid the cat would upstage him and everybody else.)
Robert Suarez came for the save in for the ninth. Witt drove in another run for the AL to make it, 6-5. Edwin Diaz was brought in with the Narco trumpets. With one out, Steven Kwan had an infield hit that drove in Witt to tie it at 6. Witt and Kwan are clutch, but we’ll get a more clutch performance here in a minute.
We were tied after nine innings. Before the game, the announcers wondered how anyone would score with this all this great pitching. 12 runs later, we get to finally use the tie-breaker rules, which had been instituted a couple of years ago to avoid any ties, but not continue the game; we’re playing another round of home run derby.
Pity anyone who left the game early. This would also include some the players that were subbed out in the game early, who showered, dressed, and left. Anticipating this, the three players from each team, who would be participating, had to still be in the lineup or available on the bench. Each player would get three swings, whoever scored the most home runs would win.
Brent Rooker from the AL set the pace with two home runs. After a round and a half, the AL was up 3-1. Kyle Schwarber came up and went 3 for 3. He went down to a knee to swing out his final shot. The NL would win the derby, 4-3, and officially the game would end, 7-6 NL. Honestly, you kind of had to like the NL’s odds. Alonso, two-time derby champ, would have been the final batter. Well, this was a great game. I’m really glad I got to listen to it. We’ll take a couple days off and then get back to the season.
No comments:
Post a Comment