Am I the only one wondering? The fans in Cincinnati last night were frantically enjoying the Major Baseball League (MBL) long ball contest as one batter after another hit lots of home runs, many a very long distance, off pitches with minimum velocity, which means that the batter supplied all the power. For a decade the MBL made use of performance enhancing drugs (PED) a big issue, which focused almost exclusively on home run hitting even though pitchers were often caught breaking the rules.
So why glorify the act, which resulted from the use of PED? And were the accomplishments in the Home Run Derby enhanced by the juicing of:
- players
- bats
- balls
- all of the above?
Who hasn't wondered about that, not just in this year's derby, but in others in the last decade? And why would a league feature and promote the one specific aspect of its game that was at the center of its own self defined scandal?
Is that old black magic (PED) back? Home run leaders way up. Friday, July 3, 2015
1 comment:
The derby and the All Star Game continue to be a messy situation for baseball. Pitching and defense win championships. Homeruns get ratings and advertising revenue. What happens when the weather is lousy midday Monday in Cincinnati? There was serious discussion about moving the time of the All Star Game if the HR Derby was rained out. A long, drawn-out session of batting practice was going to affect a game that now significantly affects the outcome of the league's championship (and don't get me started on Tie-gate and the ASG). Manny Machado and Joc Pederson can hit, but I'd much rather see a double robbed in the gap or down the line at third during an actual game than see a few batting practices pitches hit into the seats of "Great American Small Park." It's all about the money. Advertisers and the sports networks dig the long ball, so we'll keep seeing the long ball. It's just a matter if the fans change the channel or fall asleep during the walks, strikeouts, and pitching changes.
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