Home Run ..YAWN......Derby

Home Run ..YAWN......Derby

Every year it gets hyped up, and every year maybe MAYBE there is one moment worth the hype….. but otherwise the whole thing one big over blown letdown.
So how do you take something as beautiful and majestic as the home run and screw it up so bad. Well first hype it to death, and then run replays ad naseaum. Second, put too many announcers on the broadcast trying to call the "game" and build artificial excitement. Third, make it 3 rounds that seem to last 14 hours.
And heck, you think the winner of the all star game is meaningless, can you name the winner of 2008? Right, all I remember is it wasn't Josh Hamilton……
So very simple, first kill the music and announcers…. The CRACK of the bat is 50% of the experience of a Home Run…. you can barely hear it over the Music and the Berman….. Take advantage of the interesting camera angles, I see a camera behind the batter and two in front of the batter, lets see a few majestic shots live from behind the batter…...Also, every one wants to see the monster shot, not a 330 foot wall scraper. Give bonus points for long homers, +1 for 400 ft, +2 for 425, +3 for 450, +4 for 475, +5 for 500 ft……… And really you don't need a 3rd round, let the 2nd round of 4 determine the winner…

And now for the big one…… we need a skills competition. Now probably not the first with this idea, and certainly not the last….. The other 3 major sports do something like this either official or unofficial…. time we saw it in baseball. You could milk this whole day….. Best bunter, best bat control, best catcher arm, best OF arm, best infield arm, best relay arm, fastest home to 1st, fastest 1st to 3rd. Heck you could probably get drills together for fastest double play pivot, or scooping balls at 1st. You could do all this and include the Home Run Derby and make it one big National League vs American League skills day.

And now to prove I have thought about this WAY too much,….

Best Bunter, like the shot drill in the NHL, you are given 10 pitches and have 3 different targets to bunt at, like a bulls eye the closer you get to the center the better the score

Bat Control, like the bunt you have targets on the field, the closer the ball lands to the target the more points you get

Catcher Arm, a target to hit at 2nd, and timed from glove pop to ball hitting target. get 5 balls , ranked by best time on target.

Best OF Arm, players from each position, draw a line in shallow OF, a grounder is shot from a machine and the OF charges but has to field ball from behind the line and throw home. 5 Balls, best time from ball crossing line to target.

Best Infield arm, like OF arm from 3rd and SS.

Best Relay arm, player stands at a set point shallow OF, a machine feed a ball from behind them and then throw to the plate. 5 balls , best time from pop of glove to target.

Best pivot, 2nd basemen only are feed a ball from SS position by machine. Must catch touch bag and throw to 1st. time from pop of glove to 1st.

Fastest home to 1st, Ball on tee player must hit ball with enough force to get out of infield on a fly, and then run to 1st. Timed contact of bat to 1st. Lefties and righties compete separately.

Fastest 1st to 3rd, just straight up timed

Scoops at first. Machine throws balls in the dirt one after another and 1st basemen has to scoop. Lets say 10 balls, and ranked by percentage converted.

Yeah that's a lot of stuff, but you really don't need to do ALL that, lets say Catcher Arm, Best Bunter, Best OF arm, and fastest 1st to 3rd……that would make the day a little more complete, would make the whole thing more watchable and hey MLB….. you could get more commercials and more corporate sponsorship…..