One of the main events of All-Star Week is the Home Run Derby. After the First Round the star of the show is Josh Hamilton of the Texas Rangers. He set a new record for the highest number Home Runs in the Home Run Derby Contest with 28 bombs (from 10 outs). And those were bombs in every sense of the word.
Three of the Home Runs had a distance of over 500ft. That's almost twice the distance from home plate to the Left Field foul pole at Grovehill Ballpark. The previous Record was set in 2005 by Bobby Abreau with 24.
This year Yankee Stadium is the venue in its last year before the Yankees move next door to their new Ballpark. To the chants of Hamilton…Hamilton… from the sell-out New York crowd the man of the hour kept sending the ball to the upper deck in right field again and again.
As the ESPN commentators described it, this is a story waiting to be turned into a Hollywood blockbuster. Josh Hamilton missed two years of his career with cancer and despite that he managed to jump straight into the big league. His BP pitcher is another great story. He is 71-years old and specially picked by Hamilton. In the first round he threw 54 pitches. Let's hope he still has some gas left with two Rounds left in the Home Run Derby.
For the full story and the results of the next two Rounds tune in to www.mlb.com
In a head-to-head contest between Josh Hamilton and Darrin Ward, my money is still on Wardy.