Rave reviews of the reworked MLB Home Run Derby on Monday continued to pour in yesterday from across the sport on both management and labor sides. MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said, “The clock made a big difference.” MLBPA Exec Dir Tony Clark added, “We had a dramatic increases in home runs in dramatically less time. I thought it was extraordinary. The performances of the guys, and the adjustments they made with the system in place created a very good event" (Eric Fisher, Staff Writer). Manfred said the league "did a lot of work ... on the format," which included both the timed rounds and a bracket set-up, but that "only takes you so far." He said, "The players got to perform, and Todd Frazier (Monday night was) just absolutely unbelievable.” Manfred noted the weather-abbreviated four-minute rounds actually worked better than the originally planned five minutes, saying, “We were fortunate in the cutback between five and four because of the strain it put on the players." He added, "We're trying to get the event to the right length and keep the excitement, energy high for the whole event, and it worked pretty well” ("Mike & Mike," ESPN Radio, 7/14). More Manfred: "We worked hard on trying to make the format a little better, and we thought it worked real well. ... It felt as good as a real game” ("Baseball Tonight," ESPN, 7/14).
TICK TOCK GOES THE CLOCK: ESPN's Tim Kurkjian said the Home Run Derby "has been saved" by the head-to-head competition and the clock. He said, "The greatest beauty in baseball is there is no clock, but the clock saved the Home Run Derby because it was a race against time. It was tremendous. By far, the best Home Run Derby I've ever seen, and I've seen every one of them” ("SportsCenter: At the All-Star Game,” ESPN, 7/14). ESPN's Marcellus Wiley noted there was "high drama" during the event, as during the Frazier-Prince Fielder matchup, he was "sitting there glued to the TV, like, ‘Prince Fielder has 13, ain’t no way you’re going to catch him, Todd.’" Wiley: "I'm like, ‘Yo, I can’t believe it, we are glued to the tube watching baseball.’” But ESPN's Max Kellerman said, "Baseball has always been about no clock. ... By adding the element of the clock, that makes things better? Really, what people are saying is, ‘We are not so crazy about baseball as you now have it.’" Kellerman: "Maybe we are witnessing the beginnings of the evolution of baseball" (“SportsNation,” ESPN2, 7/14). ESPN’s Keith Olbermann asked about adding the clock, “Isn’t this a fundamental effort to turn at least part of baseball ... into something that is not baseball?” Grantland's Jonah Keri said, “It’s All-Star week, and you have to treat All-Star week with a grain of salt" (“Olbermann,” ESPN2, 7/14). SNY's Marc Malusis said the derby "had a little more juice to it" than in past years. But the N.Y. Daily News' Pat Leonard said, "What this told me is we should be timing baseball games now as well.” Meanwhile, the N.Y. Daily News' Andy Martino said the only way to fix the derby is to “cancel it for the rest of time." Martino: “It is so boring” ("Daily News Live," SNY, 7/14).
THE TIMES THEY ARE A CHANGIN': THE HOCKEY NEWS' Jared Clinton wrote much like how MLB changed up the format for the season’s Derby, the NHL’s Skills Competition "is more than due for a change." The events over the past few seasons "have become stale and the fanfare, for the most part, seems to have faded to the point where the Skills Competition seems more tedious than enjoyable." Clinton listed a "few ideas" for changes to the format: Get goaltenders involved in the Skills Challenge relay; Scrap Breakaway Challenge, add style points to Shootout; Pit up-and-comers against veterans; Hardest Shot Bracket; Bring back the 3-on-3 scrimmage (THEHOCKEYNEWS.com, 7/14).
