The home run derby is getting some much-needed tweaks this year, with the inclusion of a bracket and timed rounds. The hope is these changes will breathe some life into baseball’s showcase event, which has sadly become a boring slog over the last few years.
But it wasn’t always a sad, boring slog! No, the home run derby has produced some incredibly exciting moments in its history and served as a platform for some of the game’s best sluggers to put on a show. Here’s a look back at five of the best performances and moments in derby history:
2008: Josh Hamilton goes crazy
If there ever was a case study for why the home run derby needed a format change, 2008 would be it. Josh Hamilton, in his first year with the Rangers and in the midst of being universally embraced by the public over his battle with addiction, went crazy in the first round and hit a record 28 home runs. With only two outs remaining Hamilton reeled off 13 straight homers, including a few that traveled over 500 feet. It thrilled the crowd at Yankee Stadium and became the defining moment of the derby, and arguably the greatest moment of Hamilton’s career. He should have saved some of his energy: he lost in the final round to Justin Morneau, even though Hamilton out-homered him 35-22. It was absurd that Hamilton lost after the show he put on but no one remembers that fact, anyway. All they remember was Josh Hamilton owning the night.
1999: Mark McGwire is super-human
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jbNZQPVtVw
Ah, simpler times. When we all kind of suspected these gigantic sluggers were probably on something illegal but didn’t really care because of the show they’d put on. A year after breaking baseball’s single-season home run record, McGwire went to the derby and turned Fenway Park into a little league field. He hit a then-record 13 homers in the first round, and they traveled an estimated 5,692 feet combined. McGwire hit one that cleared the Green Monster, the street, and a parking garage before hitting a billboard above the train tracks. It was an amazing display, and if there ever was an argument for letting guys take steroids again it would be the McGwire footage from this derby. Oh, and he somehow ended up losing to Ken Griffey Jr.
1996: McGwire vs. Bonds
Long before both of them were tainted by steroids, Mark McGwire and Barry Bonds faced off in what might be the ultimate home run derby duel ever. Both of them were in their primes, and it showed. In the second round, McGwire hit nine homers; Bonds followed with ten. McGwire only managed to hit two in the final round, but then Bonds knocked out three straight, flipped his bat, and won the derby. It was probably the most evenly matched final in derby history, as Bonds bested McGwire’s final total 17-15. And it contained some of the derby’s greatest moments, like the aforementioned bat flip and McGwire reaching the 600 level of Veterans Stadium.
1993: Griffey hits the warehouse
When Camden Yards opened, everybody wanted to know who would be the first left-handed slugger to hit the warehouse behind right field on the fly. No one had done it until the home run derby rolled around, and Ken Griffey Jr. took up the challenge. Griffey destroyed a ball that traveled out of the ballpark, crossed the street, and clanged off the old warehouse much to the delight of the fans standing outside. Landmark shots don’t always happen in the derby – no one hit a ball into McCovey Cove in 2007, for instance – but Griffey delivered, giving baseball’s premiere showcase event one of its first true iconic moments.
2005: Bobby Abreu!
Bobby Abreu never hit more than 31 homers in a year over the course of his career, yet somehow managed to club 41 (!!) in the ’05 derby in Detroit’s spacious Comerica Park. And they weren’t cheap ones, either: Abreu hit a few monster shots, including one that traveled over 500 feet. For all of Hamilton’s heroics in New York, it’s easy to forget that Abreu actually hit more total home runs in ’05 than Hamilton did. Don’t try to explain it, you can’t. Just enjoy the fact that Bobby Abreu hit more home runs in a single derby than anyone else in baseball history.
