Home Run Derby

Now THAT was a derby…107 total home runs including 41 from Mr. Abreu. The only thing I hated was not being there. Once again, I was forced to watch it on TV, and once again, I studied the direction and distance of the homers so that when I do finally make it to a derby, I can dominate (or at least enter the ballpark with slightly more of a plan than everyone else). The thing that worries me is that the derby is not like batting practice in that you can’t sit anywhere you want. People actually buy tickets and have assigned seats. Security’s gotta be extremely tight.

Anyway, in case you make it to next year’s derby, here are three observations/strategies that might help:

1) Most home runs were hit to straight-away left and right field–no surprise there–while some landed a bit closer to center. Take a look at ESPN’s home run tracker for Abreu’s final round…and keep this graphic in mind during regular batting practices, too. (Lousy picture. Sorry. I took it right off the TV.)

2) You’re better off sitting (or standing) in the front row of the 2nd deck that’s 460 feet away from home plate than in the 10th row of the lower deck that’s only 360. (If you can get into the front row of the lower deck, go for it.) These guys were hitting bombs. They’ll reach you. Abreu’s longest shot was 517 feet! Don’t get trapped in a sea of aggressive fans. As a general rule, you never want to have people sitting right in front of you, especially at a derby where everyone is waiting to jump for the next ball.

3) Foul grounders. There aren’t nearly as many of these as there are home runs, but if you can somehow find a seat (in the first row, of course) down one of the foul lines, you’ll get some action. Last night, some dude in the corner spot down the right field line got a ball and came VERY close to a few others. (If I’d been sitting there, I would’ve caught three or four. Or maybe I would’ve missed them all because I’m a miserable, bitter human being. And as long as I’m being negative, what’s with those loser kids with zero athletic ability who get to shag balls in the outfield?)

Enjoy the All-Star Game.
I know I will…on TV…once again.

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IN OTHER NEWS…
I have a radio interview tomorrow (Wednesday) sometime between 7 and 7:30am, and you can listen to it online. Just click here and go to “LISTEN LIVE” in the upper right hand corner and pray that your computer doesn’t blow up. The station is in Miami, so if that’s where you happen to live, forget the Internet and tune into “BIG 105.9.”

Actually, I have two interviews tomorrow, but I don’t yet know the details for the the second one. It’s going to be around 10:45am (Eastern Time) with some station in Milwaukee.