The All-Star Game’s Home-Run Derby typically degenerates into a dull, repetitive and contrived contest described by TV windbags who often are trying to make something out of nothing — or, generously, very much out of very little.

Last night was different. In part, that was because hometown boy “Jason” Morneau won the thing and in part because of the incredible performance in the first round by Josh Hamilton, whose story of redemption combined with his self-acknowledged 24/7 struggle to remain sober is almost as stirring as a 500-foot home run (and certainly more meaningful). Here’s a link to Albert Chen’s fine story about Hamilton that was in Sports Illustrated last month.

My understanding is that the State Farm guy who presented the oversized check to Morneau afterward is a regular reader of this blog, and is a big fan of our frequent commenter Jason — therefore making his stumble understandable.

Morneau’s victory was a metaphor for the Twins’ season so far.

How so?

Simple: It’s not how many home runs you hit, it’s when you hit ‘em.

Similarly, I’ll take Joe Mauer’s .322 and five homers over Jhonny Peralta’s .261 and 16 or Adam Dunn’s .228 and 26.

Sure, I’d like to have both — a three-run homer makes life easier for all connected with it — but sheer power isn’t the be all of baseball as much as when you get your big hits. That Morneau can stroke a double into the left-center gap makes for a complete package with the upper deck shots to right.

And, that being said, you can be sure I’ll be at the Dome early this weekend to watch Hamilton take batting practice.

other people are here too

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 15th, 2008 at 9:02 am and is filed under Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.