Chicks Dig the Long Ball

In the past this feat wouldn’t have seemed possible. Even with the magical display put on by Josh Hamilton in the ’08 derby with his 28 homers couldn’t out do Dwight Howard’s gravity defying Superman Slam. But with this past year’s slam dunk disappointment the State Farm Home Run Derby has a chance to shine above the myriad of NBA all-star festivities.

For those who sat and watched this year’s dunk competition, I can only hope that wasn’t the highlight of your night. The 2010 dunk competition had to be the worst all-star festivity since, well, ever.

This year, the MLB has a chance to do something I never thought I’d see, top the dunk competition with the Home Run Derby. Who thought hitting a baseball would outweigh an acrobatic slam dunk?


It was just terrible, Shannon Brown, my dark horse, was supposed to use his NBA leading vertical leaps to wow the audience and steal the show. However he flaked out on me with a rather pedestrian performance in the first round; doing dunks that made Chris Anderson’s 2005 dunk performance not seem nearly as bad.



My friend, Malik, and I had a good laugh about it a few days later. We suggested that the league should have held open tryouts for the public, or maybe just switch to a layup competition starring Steve Nash.

One thing that does bother me about this year’s Home Run Derby is the fact that Nick Swisher is one of the participants. I love Swish, even though he’s a Yankee, he’s a fun guy and his personality is great for baseball; however, the dude has only had one season where he hit over 30 homers and isn’t really known to be a home run hitter.

The voters got it wrong on numerous occasions with this one because, according to an article I read over the weekend, the MLB didn’t even invite the HR king of the first half of the season, Jose Bautista. The dude hits a MLB leading 24 dingers in the first 88 games and yet doesn’t get voted to the all-star team, nor does he get invited to the home run derby. One question: how can the MLB’s HR leader not be in the home run derby? That just doesn’t make sense, and then you add the fact that Nick Swisher was the last AL invitee with nearly half the HR production (15).

Maybe Swish will hit 20 in the first round and go on to win the whole thing, but I seriously doubt it. Either way it goes, this year’s Home Run Derby should be an astronomical improvement on the sham that was the 2010 Dunk Competition.

By Aaron Hilton
follow me on twitter @Way_2_Tall401