Since there is enough going on with the Derby tonight to include Twins and former Twins, figured I might as well put up a chat to see whoever ISN’T in Minneapolis a chance to socialize. Given that tonight’s weather is not exactly Minnesota Summer even though a lot of the out-of-state visitors probably think this is what the frozen north is always like in the summer. That being said, the ball is NOT going to carry tonight like it could otherwise.. low humidity and lower than normal summer temps mean that this is going to be a REAL challenge to get that ball out of the park – not to mention that the wind is blowing in (most of the time) so it’s going to have THAT added difficulty as well.
Here’s tonight’s bracket of competitors:
It was lovely to have Dozier in the derby and to get such a great crowd response since he would never have gotten that loud a cheer in any other park so it made for a great time for him. And it was equally heart-warming to have Morneau back in Target Field. I’m sure the ovation he received was a great reminder of his time here and provided some alternative joy since both he and Dozier didn’t advance past the first round. He did get a “swing off” with Todd Frazier who ended up putting on a temporary show and got further than even he expected.
The benefit of being a Minnesota fan meant that I had other things that made last night interesting but especially after the rain delay, it was a bit of a snoozer of an event. For me, literally, since I fell asleep before it was finished. That being said, I will qualify that with the fact that I’m not a huge Derby fan to begin with so it doesn’t take much for me to lose interest if there isn’t a great baseball story being written. The wunderkind, Puig, came up with a big fat 0 which was a pretty big disappointment to a lot of people expecting a big show from him but even so, I think all should be glad that he shows pur season games. The “last minute” assignment of Cano, the Elder, as his pitcher probably didn’t help all that much given that their batting practice time was cut so short by the rain.
Giancarlo Stanton put on a seriously impressive show hitting a couple that challenged even the distance Jim Thome put out while in Target Field. He hit one so far up into the the third deck that it really made me wonder what would have happened if the weather had been the much more regular hot and humid MN summer day.
But when it came down to the final, it was only YoYo who basically stood alone and captured the Derby title for the second year in a row.