There’s a Derby Tonight

Alright, so who out there is excited for the 2010 Home Run Derby tonight in Anaheim? I have to say, once I saw the lineup (Miguel Cabrera, Corey Hart, Matt Holliday, David Ortiz, Hanley Ramirez, Nick Swisher, Vernon Wells, Chris Young); I immediately decided I’m not moving everything else around in my night tonight to watch it.

This used to be one of the sexiest events in the entire baseball season. I actually got to attend the 1997 Home Run Derby and All Star Workout day in Cleveland as a kid. The lineup was about as boring as this year’s, except Ken Griffey Jr. in his prime. I got Curt Schilling’s autograph on a plastic All-Star Baseball that day. A guy named Nomar Garciaparra won the rookie home run derby; which no longer exists.

Tonight is the night that Chris Berman will make you pay for ever being born with his terrible puns, his horrific hair, and his ‘back-back-back-back’s’. We won’t make this post about him. This is about someone doing something legendary. Like Hamilton’s round of like thirty a few years back at Yankee Stadium or the night that Bobby Abreu homered until you wanted to turn the thing off.

While you’re waiting for Berman to get fired up, here’s the 25 best moments in Home Run Derby History by ESPN’s Jayson Stark. Also there are some players like Joey Votto who have elected to sit out of this year’s derby because they’re worried about being ready for the 2nd half of the year. Does Joey Votto have a point?

I honestly think this event is becoming a bit watered down. Stars who I’m craving to see in it no longer really take part in it (Pujols) or never make it there (Adam Dunn).

I’m dying to see guys like Jason Heyward, Jay Bruce, and Joey Votto take some hacks in it but by the time they make it to the contest; they’re either hitting so well they don’t want to screw with their swing or as the case with Dunn, they’ll be 30 years old and never to an All-Star game.

This B-list talent that tonight is featuring adds up to another year of me missing the thing altogether.