subject: 2010 Home Run Derby - Does Anyone Care anymore? [print this page] 2010 Home Run Derby - Does Anyone Care anymore?
The homerun Derby has quickly become the "Pro Bowl" of allstar weekend. Ryan Howard, Josh Hamilton and Prince Fielder all opted out of this years event....the reason? They didn't want to mess up their swing. Wow. This excuse seems more of an excuse than an actual reason not to participate.
This event is quickly becoming the joke of All Star Weekend. Sure, this years participants will hit plenty of jacks, but at what cost?
Our solution? Change things up a little bit. Add a Skills Competition to the mix, and see who has the most baseball talent. Kind of like the Quarterbacks Challenge of years past. There could be different events like outfield accuracy or pitching performance, hitters skills challenge and a fastest runner race.
Hitters could have a bunting challenge, hitting placement challenge or something similar. Pitchers could have targets to hit kind of like hockeys precision shot challenge. Outfielders could throw runners out from the outfield by throwing at targets.
There could even be a all around skills challenge like in basketball. Running, hitting, fielding. All aspects of the game could be covered.
So what do you think? Is the homerun derby meaningless and could we add something to stir up the interest such as a skills challenge?
What skills would you like players to compete and show off?Should the All Star weekend change at all? Do you even agree that home field advantage should be based off of the winner of the game?
As always, your comments and suggestions are welcome.
