It is as if a half season putting up monster stats wasn't enough for Texas Ranger outfield Josh Hamilton.

Hamilton, who closed out the first half of the season with a .310 batting average, 21 home runs, 60 runs and 95 runs batted in, put on quite a show at the 2008 Major League Baseball All-Star Game Home Run Derby 

Hamilton certainly didn't disappoint his handful of Ranger teammates on hand at the derby or the thousands of people watching the television from his hometown of Raleigh, North Carolina. 

He put up 28 home runs in the first round, breaking Bobby Abreu's 2005 single-round record of 24 homers.

Such a showing would have certainly won the derby one would think especially when in the first round no other participant totaled double digits (Lance Berkman and the eventual winner Justin Morneau had the next highest total with eight).

This isn't the case however.

And there lies the problem with the derby.

The person who puts up the best showing, in this case Hamilton, doesn't win the contest. Perhaps—Bud are you listening—MLB needs to forget all these fancy derby rules and variations and keep it simple.

The player who has the most home runs at the end of the contest wins. Plain and simple.

Restarting the contest for the third and final round makes no sense. Doing so, contradicts the whole premise of the contest: to see how can hit the most home runs.

Even though Hamilton, already the feel good story of the season, didn't win the contest, something tells me his impressive performance in the 2008 homerun derby will not be forgotten and will be the subject of highlight footage for years to come.

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