Home Run Derby Disappointing

After the awesome first round by Josh Hamilton last year, when he hit 28 homers in the first round, it was disappointing that Prince Fielder and Nelson Cruz only hit 11 homers each last night in the first round.

Only 46 homers were hit in the first round last night compared to the 71 homers hit last year.

Bobby Abreu hit 41 by himself in the 2005 Home Run Derby. Mark Teixeira and Jason Bay hit a grand total of two homers in 2005, with Teixeira hitting both of those homers.

Back to last night. The 2009 Home Run Derby took even longer than usual because Albert Pujols, Joe Mauer, and Carlos Pena had a bat-off when they each finished with five homers after the first round. Pujols outhomered them during the bat-off.

Fielder won when he outhomered Cruz 6-5 in the final round, with a total of 23 homers to the 21 hit by Cruz.

Brandon Inge, who is tied for third in homers in the AL with 21 with Justin Morneau and Teixeira, was the only participant to not hit a homer in the contest. Adrian Gonzalez didn’t do much better, hitting only two homers before being eliminated.

The hitters understandably didn’t swing at a lot of pitches that weren’t to their liking. It would be a real time saver if they used pitchers who could throw the ball over the plate consistently.

Between all the bad pitches and the commercial breaks, the home run derby lasted three hours.

Fielder and Cruz put on a show in the first round, but other than that, this home run derby was very disappointing for baseball fans.

Cruz was not that well known despite being tied with Russell Branyan for second in the AL in homers with 22 each. Millions of fans know who Cruz is now after his display of home run power in the first round.

This home run derby will be soon forgotten since nobody really got hot to the point where they were hitting homer after homer out of the park like Hamilton did in 2008 and Abreu did in 2005.

It took Pujols two rounds and a bat-off to match the 11 homers hit by Fielder and Cruz in the first round.

Fielder did hit some monstrous shots, but that is no surprise considering he was hitting home runs into the stands when he was 12 years old when his dad Cecil Fielder was playing for the Detroit Tigers.

It is time for Major League Baseball to institute some changes to reduce the time it takes to complete the Home Run Derby. It wouldn’t hurt to eliminate a player from each league, which should speed it up some.

The two players who finished last only hit a total of two homers anyway.

Watching players hit home runs is fun, but three hours may be a little bit too long for those fans in the East who stayed up until 11 p.m. to watch the conclusion.