Cal Ripken Jr .: MLB Should Complete The Home Run Derby With A Skill Challenge



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Cal Ripken Jr. returns a bottle to the FanFest. (Joy Asico / AP Images)

Orioles legend Cal Ripken Jr. has some thoughts on how to spice up the All-Star baseball game and they include MLB borrowing a page from the NBA and the NHL.

"said Ripken, who played in 19 Midsummer Clbadics during his Hall of Fame career. "I know I've been involved in a few of them very early, when we had the relay relay contest, and I think they had the fastest around bases." … It's interesting to know who is fastest in the first division, or who is fastest in a division. "

Speaking to MLB's FanFest on Tuesday as he was gearing up for an entirely different kind of skill competition – a challenge pitched by Snapple Cliff Floyd – Ripken recalled that he had participated in relay relay contest and that he had seen defending baseball player Blue Jays Damaso Garcia at Candlestick Park in San Francisco before the 1984 All-Star Game.

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The Baseball Star Contest did not receive much attention from the media at that time, but The Post's Richard Justice documented the show the day before the star match Angel Stadium:

"At today's training session, the NL Stars won the qualifying competition for the receiver's throw accuracy, by relaunching the accuracy of the relay and the home run derby. Tony Pena of the Cardinals and Benito Santiago of the Padres won the pitch of the receiver against Athletics Terry Steinbach and Mickey Tettleton of the Orioles. The relay throw competition was tied after the first two races, but a tripling in the playoffs was won by the NL trio of Andre Dawson, Ryne Sandberg and Mike Scioscia. They beat Mike Greenwell, Julio Franco and Tettleton. "

Not mentioned in the judge's dispatch: Cincinnati Reds' short-stopper Barry Larkin ripped a ligament in the right elbow during relay relay competition, causing him to miss two months. "I heard a sound in the distance as if a shot had been fired," Larkin told Cincinnati Enquirer in 2015. "I was as if something was happening here. realized that it was my elbow. "

Skills competition was interrupted

" Now the question is still, are you going to hurt yourself by doing something like that, but I think if you've thought about some skills, I think fans would be interested, "said Ripken.

Velo Derby @ the game of the stars next year? @MLB

– Jordan Hicks (@ Jhicks007) July 17, 2018

Grant Brisbee, of SB Nation, proposed some ideas for an all-star skill challenge if the concept were to be revived, the best being the launcher's Home Run Derby. What would it be like to see Madison Bumgarner and Max Scherzer swing for the fences?

The Home Run Derby (hitter) is the scope of the baseball skills competition at the All-Star Game, and Ripken knows the competition well. In 1985, he competed in the first modern derby and finished with a home race at the Metrodome in Minneapolis. Six years later, he won the Home Run Derby at SkyDome Toronto with 12 dingers, a record at the time.

"I was just trying to take it regularly [batting practice] because I was knocking pretty well at the time," Ripken Tuesday said of his approach to Toronto. "I did not want to ruin my swing, the balls continued to fly quite easily, so you can get a throw."

When Ripken competed in the Home Run Derby, the batters had 10 "outs" to hit as many shots circuit that they could. Any ball that did not clear the fence was considered an outing. The Home Run Derby format has evolved over the years to include multiple rounds, a timer and a reward for beating particularly long runs.

"It's even more exciting when you put a clock on it," Ripken said. "It's more action-oriented. I think the clock is a very good addition, and bonus balls and things like that. It's fun to watch and I'm sad to have missed the night [Monday]. "

(Ripken was at another promotional event on Monday and Bryce Harper won the Home Run Derby via an alert on his phone, so he could not He comments on the allegations, mostly from Cubs supporters, that Harper and his father cheated to beat Kyle Schwarber on the final round.)

Ripken, who lost his first floyd challenge to Floyd, also weighed in at scrutiny at which are facing Harper and future Orioles third baseman Manny Machado, given uncertainties about their future.Baltimore was to reach an agreement to send Machado to the Dodgers on Wednesday, while Harper is expected to become a free agent after the season. 19659019] "Sometimes, the inc Uncertainty of what will happen at the end of your time may be in day-to-day and deprive you of your concentration, or make you try harder, "said Ripken. "[The Orioles] fired my father in 1988 and I was also a free agent at the end of the year.They just badumed I would not sign, so they took all kinds of commercial offers It was the most troubling time of my life. "

Ripken signed a $ 6 million contract over three years at the end of July this season, which gave him some peace of mind. "I know it bothered me not to know where I was going to go."

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