Baseball has come a long way in the past 100 or so years, since Frank Baker was given the name ‘Home Run’ Baker because he led the American League in homers four years in a row. His career total: 96. His best season: 1913, when he hit 12. Yawn!
The home run is back in Major League Baseball. Total home run records in 2019 are likely going to be shattered; individual single-season marks are in jeopardy; and rookie sluggers are becoming household names.
"Home run hitters drive Cadillacs and singles hitters drive Fords” is a popular baseball saying, often attributed to Pittsburgh Pirates slugger Ralph Kiner.
In 2019, the home-run metaphor is more likely related to money: Home-run hitters get $300 million multi-year contracts; singles hitters starve by comparison.
Last year’s New York Yankees, led by Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Judge, broke the single-season team record for homers with 266. This year, at not quite the halfway point, three teams — Minnesota Twins, Houston Astros and Los Angeles Dodgers — are on pace to eclipse that mark. The Twins, in fact, would finish with 326 blasts if they maintained their current pace.
In Canada, the home-run story has centred around rookie Vladimir Guerrero, Jr., who was called up to the Blue Jays in late April and slammed seven homers in his first 40 games, a full-season pace of close to 30. Guerrero, Jr., however, is not even close to being the top home-run-hitting rookie; that honour goes to Pete Alonso of the New York Mets, a 24-year-old first baseman whose 23 homers through June 16 left him only three shy of the Mets’ single-season rookie record (Darryl Strawberry, 1983).
Anther freshman star is Atlanta’s Austin Riley, who was leading the AAA International League in homers when he was called up by the Braves on May 15. In his first 29 MLB games, he belted 11 homers. And how about Houston rookie Yordon Alvarez, who hit four home runs in his first five games. How does Home Run Alvarez sound?
Overall, the home-run leaders in MLB were Milwaukee’s Christian Yelich, whose 26 homers in 63 games was proof that his MVP season of 2018 was not a fluke. Alonso, almost certainly the National League rookie-of-the-year favourite, was tied with the Dodgers’ Cody Bellinger for runner-up with 22. Edwin Encarnacion, the A.L. home run leader with Seattle, was traded June 15 to the Yankees to add to their Murderers’ Row.
With the World Series on the line this October, don’t be surprised to see a walk-off home run end the 2019 season.
- Richard Deitsch of The Athletic, following criticism of the U.S. women’s soccer team routing Thailand 13-0 in a World Cup soccer game: “I believe Secretariat should have slowed up in the 1973 Belmont Stakes so as not to beat Twice a Prince by 31 lengths.”
- Bob Molinaro of pilotonline.com (Hampton, Va.): “A little sympathy, please, for New England fans in the wake of the Boston Bruins’ Game 7 Stanley Cup final loss. It’s gotta be tough dealing with a championship drought of five months.”
- Janice Hough of leftcoastsportsbabe.com: “It's 100 degrees in Las Vegas, and in some sportsbooks Lakers are favourites to win 2020 NBA championship. Need any more proof that excessive heat can cause brain damage?”
- Comedy writer Jim Barach: “Mike Tyson is planning a 420-acre pot themed holiday resort in the California desert. The idea is to get so stoned that it sounds like a good idea to have a Maori tattoo inked onto your face.”
- Comedy writer Alex Kaseberg: “During their live Stanley Cup celebration on NBC, the St. Louis Blues players said the F-word 11 times. But the U.S. women’s national soccer team gets criticized for celebrating after their World Cup goals.”
- Headline at SportsPickle.com: “Warriors GM Bob Myers announces Kevin Durant tore Achilles, clears him to play Game 6.”
- Headline at Fark.com: “Raiders to be the subject of ‘Hard Knocks’ this year, giving us our long-awaited sequel to ‘COPS’.”
- Swiped from Dwight Perry’s Sideline Chatter: “Opening line to a 49-year-old’s online obit at a Rhinebeck, N.Y., funeral home: ‘Daniel Neufeld would like you to know that he got sick and tired of waiting for the Buffalo Bills to get their act together and has finally thrown in the towel.’”
- Rob Merc, via Twitter, on news that Yankees shortstop Didi Gregorius, while sidelined after Tommy John surgery, taught himself to play the piano: “Maybe he accidentally had Elton John surgery.”
- Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times: “The Chicago Bears waived kicker Chris Blewitt. Headline writers were inconsolable.”
- Comedian Argus Hamilton, on the perps in Belgium who stole $2 million worth of Red Bull from a delivery truck: “How do these thieves sleep at night?”
Care to comment? Email brucepenton2003@yahoo.ca
