The Annual Taking A Stab At Predicting The Home Run Derby
MLB has a marketing problem, the sport is dying, blah, blah, blah. That story has been beaten into the ground for a few years now, despite the league setting revenue records annually and player salaries skyrocketing. Listen, I understand that kids these days aren’t going to sit down and watch a three-hour baseball game every single night. But changes are on the way, and we’ll see the game’s pace quickened as soon as next year. Helping the pace of play is a step in the right direction, but what about the player marketability? When I was growing up, the league had stars on almost every team. In today’s game, there are still stars on every team, but the problem is that the casual fans don’t realize it for a multitude of reasons.
But tonight’s a special night. You have a chance to market those stars when a whole lot of people will be watching, which is why I’m totally fine with Gary Sanchez and his 13 home runs being in the derby over Logan Morrison and his 24. Morrison’s having an All Star-worthy season, but I don’t care to see LoMo in the Derby over a future megastar like El Gary. Tonight’s about putting on a show while the whole world is watching. And they will be watching. MLB annually boasts the most-watched All Star Game of any of the four major sports.
You know what else helps the sport? Storylines. People looooove storylines, and there’s a really good one this year. Tonight’s Home Run Derby features a bracket that would make Vince McMahon proud. You’ve got the No. 1 seed and defending Home Run Derby champion Giancarlo Stanton on one side of the bracket, and the newcomer, the rookie with the major league-leading 30 bombs at the All Star break, Aaron Judge as the No. 2 seed. Anything can happen in a Home Run Derby, but if the stars align tonight, we will see the showdown that the people came to see, and that’s Stanton versus Judge.
This one has been building for a while, too. Back in the first week of May, Stanton was already sick of being compared to Judge.
I had it right last year. Here’s how I’ve got tonight shaking out:
Tonight’s Home Run Derby MUST come down to Judge and Stanton. It just has to. Those quotes above are from May, so you can imagine that Stanton is even more than fed up with the Judge comparisons two months later.
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Giancarlo Stanton has been extremely good-natured about it, but he’s clearly getting worn out by Aaron Judge questions. “You’re the 7,000th person to ask me that today,” he said to a TV reporter during the All-Star Game player availability. Stanton, to his credit, was polite from the first request through the last.
Tonight, despite Judge coming into the Home Run Derby with the most home runs by a Yankee prior to the All Star Break since A-Rod also hit 30 in 2007 en route to hitting 56 homers and winning the MVP award, Big Dick Stanton will prove that this is still his yard, and he’s still the big dog who runs that yard.