A Grip on Sports: Julio Rodriguez put on a show that pleased M’s fans in a great Home Run Derby tradition
A GRIP ON SPORTS • There is no way to avoid it, though we’re sure it’s just a made-for-TV event. Baseball’s Home Run Derby, however, is one of the sport’s most-exhilarating made-for-TV events. Especially considering the home-town All-Star did something amazing.
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• How do we know the Home Run Derby is TV’s baby? Easy. We watched it when we were a kid, back when TV was young and it was in black and white.
Back then, guys like Willie Mays and Hank Aaron and Mickey Mantle did it for the money, not the fame. Or adulation. Or at the All-Star Game.
Home run derby, lowercase version, began as a TV show. Filmed near Hollywood, of course. At the smaller version of Wrigley Field the chewing gum magnate built in L.A. A made-for-late-night-local TV product from the get-go.
Rediscovered by ESPN in the late 1980s. Download to YouTube and then uploaded by a new generation. Rediscovered. Revived. Alive. Live, on the Monday of All-Star Week, an uppercase event.
And now, after a few well-timed rule tweaks, it’s one of baseball’s most-popular events. Embraced by players and fans alike.
When Julio Rodriguez stepped into the T-Mobile batter’s box Monday night, his long-time buddy Frammy Pena ready to toss what is, basically, batting practice, the packed house held its breath.
Rodriguez had announced himself to the nation during last year’s event in Dodger Stadium (a handful of long Harmon Killebrew home runs from where the event was born more than three-quarters of a century ago), hitting a record 81 bombs in finishing second to Juan Soto.
This time Rodriguez knew what to expect, though the volume of noise the crowd made during his introduction had to be even beyond his wildest dreams. He settled in, told his buddy to get going and began hitting long fly balls that carried and carried. Over the wall. Into the bullpen, the Bro Pen in left center, the upper deck. When his first round was over, the total flashed. Forty-one. A record.
The place, not quiet as he hit, became a madhouse of noise, matching the show among the players surrounding Rodriguez on the field.
Greatness recognizing greatness.
If Mantle or Mays or Aaron had been on the field with Rodriguez, they may not have been jumping around – it wasn’t the etiquette of the game then – but they would have nodded his way, acknowledging his accomplishment. Only those who have done such things know how hard it is.
That Rodriguez didn’t go on to win the Derby – Vladimir Guerrero Jr, did, joining his father in the winner’s circle – was a disappointment to the crowd in person and at home, but it didn’t erase the impression of that few minutes earlier in the night. Nothing could do that.
Not even with the specter of what happened last year nagging at the back of the mind of most M’s fans. After his exceptional performance, Rodriguez missed a few games with a balky wrist. But it was, as Seattle Times columnist Larry Stone described it, “just a brief blip of concern” in the M’s march to the postseason.
Seattle manager Scott Servais, watching on the field, admitted he was still a bit apprehensive. But even he understands that made-for-TV events are more than that these days.
“I think you don’t want to take that away,’’ he told Stone before the event. “That’s what makes Julio Julio, right? He’s got a little bit of the star quality. He likes being out in front of the big crowd, the bright lights. I don’t ever want him to lose any of that. So you keep your fingers crossed that everything goes OK and he comes out of (it) healthy.”
He did. And everyone in T-Mobile and at home got the entertaining night they wanted.
Even if the final result wasn’t.
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WSU: The baseball draft continued Monday and a Cougar and a Gonzaga player were drafted in the late rounds. Washington State outfielder Jonah Advincula and GU pitcher Owen Wild went in the eighth and seventh rounds, respectively. … Elsewhere in the Pac-12 and the nation, the power structure of the conference shifted July 1, as Jon Wilner documents in the Mercury News. … Oregon State has ascended to the top of the conference. … Utah has been there for a while. … There is news on Arizona basketball nearly every day. … We’ve been keeping track of the soap opera that is happening with Bob Huggins and West Virginia. Little did we suspect another one, with Pat Fitzgerald and Northwestern, would take over the spotlight.
Gonzaga: Filip Petrusev is back at it with the 76ers, a franchise with a new leader and, maybe, holding a new opportunity for the former WCC player of the year. Theo Lawson talked with Petrusev in Las Vegas and has this story. … Theo also watched Andrew Nembhard’s final summer league game and wrote this story.
Preps: A basketball team made up of local high school players won a Southern California tournament over the weekend. That news leads off the S-R’s latest local briefs column.
Mariners: We linked the Home Run Derby news above but there was more coming from Seattle yesterday. And from Spokane, with Liam Bradford putting together this story about local All-Star participants. … The game is tonight. … Shohei Ohtani is a smart businessman, making sure a possible bidder, the Mariners, are aware he is interested in the place as a landing spot next year. … It isn’t cheap to attend the All-Star Game in person. … Corbin Carroll is happy to be home. … He’s part of an emerging group of stars. … The M’s have almost a half a season to get back into the race. … Their No. 1 draft pick is excited about the future. … Finally, the media’s questions were as weird at this event as at the Super Bowl.
Storm: Jewell Loyd’s injury isn’t serious and she should be back as Seattle plays back-to-back games.
Sonics: Another step toward the club’s return? Maybe.
Golf: The merger between LIV and the PGA Tour is now part of the U.S. Senate’s agenda. One can wonder if it’s the purview of the body but it is. Today. … Rose Zhang didn’t win the U.S. Open but did enjoyed the experience.
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• We are on the ocean. Well, near it. We may never leave. Until later …