Wow, that was amazing to watch. The one baseball event out of the year that doesn’t disappoint was amazing again this year. The 2012 State Farm Home Run Derby finished off with Detroit Tigers slugger Prince Fielder winning the title with 12 home runs in the finals over Jose Bautista of the Toronto Blue Jays.
Prince is this year's HR Derby Champ
For me, I’ve become disenfranchised with the MLB All-Star game. Too many of the stars back out and it’s the Almost-Stars that end up playing. Too often name power gets players on the team that don’t truly belong there. After the 2002 debacle where commissioner Bud Selig called off the game and it ended in a tie, the All-Star game has just become another game.
But the Home Run Derby is something special. When it was in Seattle, seeing Jason Giambi go upper deck in right field of Safeco was unbelievable. Watching Jason Hamilton put on a home run hitting clinic in New York in 2008 was incredible. This year watching Prince break Bo Jackson’s record twice for longest home runs in the history of Kaufman Stadium in Kansas City, was unbelievable.
Even with the unbelievable feat of Fielder this year, I still found it amusing that AL captain Robinson Cano of the New York Yankees got booed because he didn’t select a home town player to be in the derby. Even better was watching Baltimore Orioles outfielder Adam Jones steal ribs from the ESPN commentators Chris Berman, John Kruk and Nomar Garciaparra that Hall of Famer George Brett brought them while they shared the stage with him. Jones had no shame, just reaching over to grab a rib and standing next to Brett while he was talking on air.
All in all, I can’t wait to see what they roll out next year in New York, hosted by the Mets, for the competition. I expect it to be just as amazing.
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