In the regular season, there is no play in baseball that continuously rouses fans from their seats like the home run. Fact is for as long as this game has existed, it has been that way and fact is for as long as this game has existed, the guys who swing the hardest and hit the farthest have always been the ones who go down in history as the greats of the game.
Babe Ruth and Ted Williams, Mark Maguire and Sammy Sosa, Yastemski, Barry Bonds, David Ortiz, Prince Feilder: so many names so many different traits yet for those 8 men one underling commonality remains ever so prominent the ability to hit home runs.
So naturally, in a game punctuated by the crack of a bat and the roar of a crowd as a ball goes yard the great minds of the game devised a competition focused entirely on the long ball.
In 1985, those minds created the Home Run Derby and to this day it remains one of Baseball’s most watched events.
As said before, the Home Run Derby began in 1985 after the MLB would struggle to keep fan’s attention during the long all-star break with just one event (the all-star game) scheduled. Nevertheless in its first years of competition, the league struggled to build a following of the event as due to the fact that no major television networks were willing to air the competition, fans would be hard pressed to really get into watching the derby.
But TV troubles were not the only thing holding the event back. Through the first 6 years of its existence, the Home Run Derby was structured in a very odd fashion consisting of a two inning affair and coordinated in such a way that would allow for ties for the win, thus taking a lot of the suspense out of the event.
Yet things like rules and logistics surrounding the event were far easier to fix than the live coverage problem that was not under the leagues control. Nevertheless at that time what the MLB did not seem to notice was that the basic layout of the Derby and the lack of coverage were closely intertwined
But regardless of how long it took, that all changed in 1991 when the Derby was switched to a format much closer to the one used today.
Prior to that 91’ derby it was agreed upon that while ties for 2nd or 3rd still would be allowed to stand, two players could not win the overall title in the same competition meaning that when tied after the final, the involved players would compete in a 5 pitch “swing off” to decide the winner.
Fact is, over the next few years, the MLB and its fans would realize that, in truth that was all it would take to bring the Home Run Derby to the next level of greatness as in the days before the 1993 edition of the event, ESPN announced that they would sponsor and broadcast a delayed version of the Derby, finally bringing more and more fans to the event.
Yet for the MLB while they might have been happy with finally getting some extra revenue from the Derby, having a network broadcast what is supposed to be your marque event 4 hours after the fact is not cool. They wanted live TV and in 1998 well: the got just that.
From 98’ on the popularity of the Home Run derby exploded as within just 10 short years, the Derby went from being the laughing stock of professional sporting events to holding the title of, at least in 2008, “the most watched show on basic cable”.
Nevertheless, as the Derby’s popularity grew, so did the pressure to preform and take part in the event thus initiating a weak controversy that has hung over the MLB for over a decade now.
Fact is, since ESPN’s first live broadcast of the Home Run Derby, it has done what many initially hoped it would do, aka, bring in the best hitters in the game together and have them smack together ALOT of home runs.
So therefore why all this controversy? One word: fatigue.
Obviously, no part of the all-star festivities are more important than even 1 regular season game. But nevertheless, the lure and awe of the thought of winning the derby along with the imminent bragging rights and possible endorsement deals such a victory could bring remain key factors in bringing players into the competition.
These athletes love competing in the Derby yet over the past few years the fatigue brought on by participating has obviously taken its toll on them.
In 2005, Bobby Abreu hit 18 homers in the first half of the season and then demolished the field in the Home Run Derby with 41 long balls, all before mustering a meager 6 home runs following the all-star game.
Pretty big drop-off there.
One year later, Mets 3rd basemen: David Wright suffered an even greater loss via the Home Run Derby as even while hitting 20 homers pre all-star break, he dropped off in the second half and managed to put together just 6.
The stats are there for Abreu and Wright and while they are not the only casualties of the Derby, some did not even go so far as to participate fearing similar drop-offs: most notably, Ken Griffey, Jr. back in 1998 who initially declined to participate in the Home Run Derby but was finally convinced by ESPN to join.
Throughout the world of pro sports there is nothing like the MLB Home Run Derby. With its annual output of normally upwards 80 homers, fans love the thrill of watching balls go yard and players love to brag about the whopping 30 they hit in the competition. There is nothing like the home run derby but if it is to stay on the course of greatness it has set for itself major changes will need to be made, major changes.
0 comments:
Post a Comment