Brewers’ First Baseman Prince Fielder won the Home Run Derby last night in St. Louis by besting the Rangers’ Nelson Cruz in the final round, 6-5. I’ll say this year’s event was kind of, um, lacking in excitement, as it didn’t have the star power of year’s past and sadly, despite Fielder’s heroics, it was actually a tad boring. The National League had a formidable lineup with some of the premier first baseman and sluggers in the game — the American League, um, not so much; however, Nelson Cruz can hit bombs with the best of them.
If you’ve never been to a Home Run Derby — I have been to one every year since 2003 — it’s a slickly produced TV event with also a lot of dead time between breaks. It felt at times that a three hour event dragged on and became six; plus, sitting in the seating area, it can be kind of hard to see what’s going on with the photographers, media, players and baseball officials around.
Seeing everything in the park, it seemed that everyone was dressed in red and seemingly all of Cardinal nation came out, although there some smattering of fans from other teams like the Yankees, Cubs & Red Sox. In addition, I don’t if know if this is a Midwest thing, but every one has been unfailingly polite so far.
The most inetersting part of the day might be the pre-game workout just in terms of people watching and seeing the interviews conducted. It’s a mad house that day, and unlike last year, there were players actually signing for the fans (something that I didn’t see too much of in the past renditions).
Finally, for us Oriole fans, Adam Jones has a Facebook page, and has been keeping fans up to date with the happenings in St. Louis. He’s only got two posts from the event itself — I mean it could be kind of hard for him to update — but Mr. Jones seemes to be very happy to be a part of All-Star Week…
