To the Moon Alice

The Minnesota Twins' Justin Morneau walked away with the Home Run Derby trophy last night, but the Texas Rangers' Josh Hamilton walked away with the crowd and the television viewing audience.

Though he had clearly tired in the final round, Hamilton put on an unbelievable display in the contest's first round. Not only did he hit 28 dingers (eclipsing then Phillies' Bobby Abreu's 24 in 2004), but most of them were tape measure shots. Hamilton said he'd like to try to be the first one to hit a ball out of a Yankee Stadium (Josh Gibson legends aside), and he came awfully close. One shot hit high atop the back of the right-center field bleachers, stunning everyone watching.

Hamilton also hit the back of the black-painted bleachers in center and hit several moon shots to unsuspecting fans well up in the upper deck in right field. He hit for what seemed like 3 hours as one ball after another easily left the park. At one point commentator Joe Morgan (who was probably muttering this guy's not as good as Johnny Bench) thought he had finally made an out and the ball landed in the upper deck.

Hamilton's story has been well documented by now and you will here more about it again tonight. But he also made the classiest move of this gala by bringing along 71-yr old Clay Counsil, who threw batting practice to Hamilton when he was growing up. Counsil was nervous, but it didn't show as he poured in one strike after another (54 pitches alone in the first round) and Hamilton hit one after another into the seats.

Chris Berman wasn't even overly obnoxious. All in all, it was a great show.

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The Daily Yankeeland - 7/15

The Home Run Derby can get quite dull, but last night's display by Josh Hamilton was beyond phenomenal. Reggie Jackson threw out the ceremonial first pitch to Derek Jeter. More on that later though.

A celebrity softball game was played on Saturday as part of the festivities. In addition to actors, actresses, and comedians, the teams included hall of fame players Goose Gossage, Gary Carter, Paul Molitor, Wade Boggs, Rollie Fingers, George Brett, and Dave Winfield, and former Yankees Paul O'Neill and Tino Martinez.

Never in our wildest imagination would we ever have expected to hear a (Whoopi) Goldberg to (Billy) Crystal to Tino Martinez, 4-6-3 double play, but it did in fact happen.

Paul O'Neill brought back some memories with a tremendous 3-run home run home run that easily cleared the temporary fence and landed well out into the territory Paulie used to roam. Boggs also homered.

ESPN's Kenny Mayne, by far, was the worst player on either side (though Chris Rock struck out), playing a couple of fly balls like he was Pele. Maybe worse was the fact that he's just not funny any more.

And despite the fact that she wore a Red Sox hat and wasn't very good, Hollywood reporter Maria Menounos looked quite hot.

Phil Hughes threw a 35-pitch mound session on Monday, made up of 25 fastballs and 10 curves.

Johnny Damon was supposed to hit off a tee yesterday, but held off due to soreness in his shoulder.

Brian Bruney threw 15 pitches in a scoreless inning for the Trenton Thunder last night.
Hideki Matsui continues to hit, but has not been cleared to run yet.
Alex Rodriguez received trophies for getting the most votes in the American League and the most votes over all. No truth to the rumor that he "Vogued" when he accepted them.

Kudos to the YES Network for their magnificent coverage on the life and death of Bobby Murcer. It was point on. Tasteful, respectful, and extremely well produced. Great job guys!

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Giambi Says No Thanks

According to the Journal News' Peter Abraham, Jason Giambi became the first major leaguer to be invited to participate in the home run derby despite not being on the All-Star team. Giambi said, "no thanks", and who can blame him. He would be giving up spending 3 days at home in Las Vegas to hang around for 2 hours on Monday night.

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Fall into the GAB

The ball is flying out of the yard today in Cincinnati's Great American Ballpark (GAB). Well, for the Reds anyway. Through 7 innings they've slugged 7 of them, with 3 of them by Joey Votto.

The Reds smacked 4 in the 2nd inning alone. Votto and Adam Dunn went back-to-back to start the inning. Edwin Encarnacion made an out, but Paul Bako then went deep. With 2 outs and a man on, Jerry Hairston Jr. made it a quartet with a 2-run shot off of a shell shocked Jon Lieber.

Brandon Phillips and Votto hit back-to-back shots to start the 5th. One inning later it was Votto again with a 2-run homer. And Votto made a little like Reggie Jackson. 3 home runs off of 3 different pitchers.

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All-Star Baseball

We absolutely loved All-Star Baseball. It was much better than Strat-o-matic in our opinion. We couldn't get enough.

"What are you still doing up?"

"It's the 12th inning"

"Go to bed already"

"We'll be done soon"

Oh how many times that snippet of conversation was repeated over the years. It's amazing we never suffered an elbow or finger injury from all the times we hit that spinner.

The All-Star game will also be returning to the Bronx this summer for the first time since 1977. And you better be ready to spend a small fortune if you want to take part.

MLB has set up a registration for the chance to buy tickets to the game, home run derby, and futures game. The registration period started yesterday and runs through June 15.

Home Run Derby tickets range from $100 (bleachers) to $650 for premium box seats. The Futures game can run you anywhere from will run $50 - $225, and the big game itself will cost you from $150 (bleachers) to $725 for the boxes. First born child need not be included. This of course does not include food, transportation, and merchandise.

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A-Rod Hits #499

Leading 3-1 in the 8th, the Yankees just got some insurance via an Alex Rodriguez long ball. Number 499 was a 2-run shot off of a tiring Gil Meche.

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Vlad the Impaler

The Home Run Derby was unique at first, now it is kind of boring. Kind of like what happened to the dunk contest in the NBA All-Star festivities. Last night, however, was quite entertaining even with the blowhard of all blowhards, Chris Berman, doing everything he could to ruin it. It appeared that the wind, sun, and the dimensions of the ball park were going to make for a very low scoring contest. But that all changed in the semi

Vlad Guerrero topped Alex Rios in the finals as both players started to wear down from taking so many hacks. Of course Vlad appeared to be tiring in the semi-finals, then went on a rampage that included smoking a ball 503 ft. How can you not like Vlad? He's quiet, easy going, and rakes like crazy.

Rios is a star on the rise and hopefully some more fans will take notice. You don't get a lot of notice playing north of the border.

The same can be said for Matt Holliday who proved that he doesn't have to hit at Coors Field to do damage. He had a phenomenal round in the semis, only to be topped by Vlad and Rios. Holliday didn't even know he was going to participate until yesterday morning as Miguel Cabrera had to withdraw with a shoulder injury.

Albert Pujols was the other semi-finalist, having advanced after a sudden death "swing off" with Justin Morneau.

As for the side show, Joe Morgan and Dusty Baker had fun in the booth, though Baker was encouraging Berman too much with laughter. The oddest thing of the night was Baseball Tonight's Karl Ravetch thanking Berman for letting them be a part of it. WTF!

Peter Gammons interviewed Barroids about all things home run and such. Barroid took the high road concerning Hank Aaron, but took an indirect swipe at Bud Selig for waffling on his decision on whether or not to show up at the ball park.

Barroid had a very long conversation too with A-Rod. Like to have been a fly on the wall for that one.

Kenny Mayne also tried to bring some insight by sitting in a kayak in McCovey Cove. Not only did he not get anywhere near a baseball, he really provided nothing.

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