Despite the fact that Lance Berkman leads the National League in home runs, he was sitting in front of the dugout watching teammates Yadier Molina pitch to Matt Holliday in a disappointing showing in Monday night’s Home Run Derby which quite frankly I found boring.
Prince Fielder of the Brewers assembled his NL roster and chose teammate Rickie Weeks who finished with three in the first round and Matt Kemp who had 22 homers in the season (one behind Berkman), was eliminated with just two homers in the opening round. No way should Holliday have been in the Derby either. I would have like to have seen Berkman and if he would have declined, there were other hitters more worthy of an appearance.
I would like to see the Derby participants be selected by fans just as the starters for the game are picked. The player would still have the right to decline the appearance if selected by fans, but I’m sure there would have been other hitters more intersting to watch that Holliday and Weeks.
Holliday had Yadier Molina pitching to him and managed just five first round homers, but yet found himself in a swing off with Fielder and Big Papi of Boston. With just five swings, Holliday was eliminated from the second round with two homers while Big Papi advanced with four out of five and Fielder five out of five.