Bryce Harper won the 2018 Home Run Derby last night. The format in recent years has been to give batters periods of time to swing as often as they can. Previously, batters were given a certain number of swings.
MLB News: Round-by-round recap of HR Derby
By Andrew Simon and David Adler MLB.com Jul. 16th, 2018
(Harper) demolished nine homers in the final 50 seconds of regulation to pull even with Schwarber.
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I wasn't paying much attention when it was live on TV last night but this is one example in the article of just how quickly the batters were hitting balls. This suggests at least 9 swings in 50 seconds, about one swing every five seconds.
Yes, of course, the "pitching" is from a very short distance for some reason and the person throwing is grooving it. Harper had his father throwing as did a previous winner, Robinson Cano.
But the activity of swinging obviously confirmed common sense: there is no physical reason for batters to step out of the box and otherwise delay being ready to swing during real games.
So why do these morons jerk around before every pitch?
1. Part of it is a reaction to the preening jackass pitchers, whose self importance is augmented by they're being the arbiters of batter behavior and dispensers of physical punishment.
2. What has been passing for coaching both batters and pitchers is to have their charges make the other wait. This is especially ludicrous for batters since pretty much all they need to do is swing using twitch muscle reaction and hand eye coordination. See ball, hit ball. Pitchers, have to pretend that the weight of the world is on their shoulders on every pitch.
So, have the batters been exposed? Not for traditional baseball people and other apologists. They want a slow rhythm to the game even if means being bored out of their minds.
Home Run Derby 1960: a different perspective. Wednesday, February 5, 2014
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