I don’t know who needs to hear this so I’ll just address everyone at the same time.
I think it’s sooooooo weird to hear grown men complaining about the HR derby like a bunch of fucking cry babies.
Yesterday MLB hosted the derby for the 2025 all star festivities and all people do is whine and bitch.
- Format change
- Bad coverage
- Bad announcing
- No Chris Berman
- No Ken Griffey Junior
- IT WASN’T LIKE THIS WHEN I WAS A KID
No shit.
You’re 30 something years old. Your childhood ended literally two decades ago. And believe it or not some things have changed since then.
For example, Chris Berman is SEVENTY.
But before even going down that path, can I just reframe with you guys for a second? Can we refocus?
The Home Run Derby is for children. It is for 14 year old boys having a pizza party in the basement. It’s for kids who play baseball that are off school for the summer. That’s who they make the HR derby for as evidenced by the fact there’s a hundred kids running around the field. The players bring their kids. The kids are everywhere. It’s kids kids kids. We got a 15 year old little brother catching for Cal Raleigh last night. It’s for them.
I feel like we’re getting into Disney Adult territory when I hear grown men complain about the rule changes and how hard it is to follow the format.
You know who isn’t struggling with rule changes?
Kids.
They’ll adapt immediately and not ask one question about the pitch clock or ball limit or anything. They just absorb it and move on and love it because they’re kids.
That’s the audience MLB is reaching with All Star events.
Hearing a grown man complain about it because it doesn’t fit his agenda just outs that grown man as a complete loser to me. Oh are you mad at Rob Manfred again? Did he ruin your Monday night?
Get a fucking life. Seriously. If you were complaining about the Derby then you’re probably doing it alone in a dark room.
That said, ESPN can improve the camera angels but they also had a sick broadcast on ESPN 2 with shot tracer. If you spent 5 seconds looking, you’d have found a much better product.
But even addressing that to the guys I’m talking about is kind of a mute point. I don’t care about the cameramen and the split screen for purposes of this conversation. What I’m talking about is the outrage. I’m talking about the sincere negativity rooted in that’s not how I grew up on it.
Nobody gives a fuck.
Thank you.