A Boost for the Mid-Summer Classic?
Let’s be completely honest with ourselves here, the next couple of weeks are the absolute worst time of year for a sports fan. After the thrills of the NBA and NHL playoffs and this upcoming weekend’s U.S Open tournament come to an end, the casual sports fan will have nothing to do but lounge around and get Cheeto dust glued onto the keyboards of their laptops while doing some advanced scouting for their impending fantasy football draft.
However, there comes a shining glimmer of hope every year in the beginning of July: the Major League Baseball All-Star Game. Baseball’s All-Star Game is head and shoulders above all other leagues' All-Star Games due to the stakes surrounding the game itself. The game’s biggest and brightest stars battle for their respective divisions to host the World Series.
But as we know, the real show of any All-Star Game comes the day prior when the league flaunts athletes around in competitions to bolster ratings and draw interest of fans who usually hate sitting through four hour contests.
MLB is especially notorious for spreading the viewership of its sport through novelty. They used to hold silly competitions like the Outfield Relay Race and the Throwing Accuracy Challenge, both of which were discontinued after 1989 when future Hall of Famer Barry Larkin threw out his MCL in his elbow during the competitions.
One baseball skills competition that did stay around was the Home Run Derby, which over the years has blessed us with the memories of Bo Jackson’s 450 foot bombs back in the 1980s and Josh Hamilton’s record 35 home run performance in the last All-Star Game in the old Yankee Stadium in 2008.
But other than these rare occurrences, the Home Run Derby usually passes without as much as a 5 minute segment on ESPN. Major League Baseball did make a few strides towards success last season when they changed the format of the competition from a long, drawn out affair, to a tidy and quick tournament. However, a few players in the league think they have discovered a way to take the event to the next level.
When you usually think of players such as Madison Bumgarner, Jake Arrieta, Noah Syndergaard, and Adam Wainwright you tend to think of the images of them making the best hitters in the world look like blindfolded children swinging at a piñata, but now, these pitchers want their own turn at the dish.
These four men have been outspoken about their desire to hold an all- pitchers Home Run Derby. Before you laugh, let me remind you that apart from being the best pitchers on their respective teams, they also are all in the top 5 on their teams in average home run distance. In fact, some of Bumgarner’s batting practice home runs have been measured at over 400 feet.
Of course there are many people who are against this idea, including Madison Bumgarner’s own manager Bruce Bochy, who claims that it is a terrible idea because it puts the pitchers in a position to get injured and risk going to the DL for extended periods of time.
(In all seriousness, Bochy is probably correct and this idea will never go any further than it is right now.)
But just imagine how amazing it would be to see the best pitchers in the National League competing not on the mound, but at the plate. How incredible would be to see men like Bartolo “Big Sexy” Colon and Zach Greinke duke it out to see who would claim the title of “Best Hitting Pitcher in Baseball”?
While this event is far from actually occurring, even the most casual of sports fans would admit that it would be quite a spectacle, and that is something that would certainly be good for Major League Baseball in terms of expanding its viewership. And if letting Madison Bumgarner take the plate in a Home Run Derby is what it takes to grow your sport, then I say grab a bat Madison, you’ve got some work to do.
