Elephant Rumblings: MLB announces Home Run Derby X — a world-wide derby tournament

MLB news roundup

Happy Thursday, Athletics Nation!

We are a week away from Opening Day, the A’s beat the Reds yesterday, and the world of baseball is moving along full swing. As a way to draw more people into that world, yesterday MLB unveiled the brand new event Home Run Derby X.

Not part of the regular season or even played in MLB parks, Home Run Derby X is an amped up version of the derby played right before the All-Star Game. As detailed by Joon Lee in ESPN, there will be four competing teams, representing the Dodgers, Yankees, Red Sox, and Cubs. Each team will consist of a former MLB player, a rookie from their respective team’s development system, a softball or women’s baseball star, and wild card content creator. Of note, former A’s Nick Swisher, Jonny Gomes, and Geovany Soto will be participating on the Yankees, Red Sox, and Cubs teams respectively.

The tournament will be played in some non-traditional places for baseball and on a non-traditional field. Derbies are set to take place in London, Seoul, and Mexico City throughout 2022. Each location will feature a field with much thinner dimensions than those in the majors, with the left and right field boundaries each stretching out only 45 degrees from home plate, and outfield walls reaching between 260 to 320 feet from home.

There are plenty more quirks to the field outside of the dimensions. Both the batter’s box and the pitcher’s mound will be on raised platforms above the rest of the field. Batters will have two raised targets in the infield, and another pair to aim at past the center field fence. Lastly and potentially most notably, there is a defensive component of HRDX, with non-batting teams attempting to catch the balls that don’t make it over the fence to contribute to their team’s score.

It’s an interesting concept that should prove to be worth checking out if only for novelty’s sake. I do applaud MLB for including softball and women’s baseball players into the mix, as they’re a component of the game globally that doesn’t usually get as much attention from the league. HRDX seems to definitely play into MLB’s plan to get new eyes (especially the coveted ones of the TikTok crowd) on the sport: fans of content creators, international attendees who don’t have a local pro team, and those who just see the inevitable social media explosion these events tend to create. While it isn’t capital-B baseball, it should be a fun spin on the game that may get fresh fans to pay attention to the sport as a whole.

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MLB News & Interest

• Clair: Introducing Home Run Derby X
• Lee: MLB announces Home Run Derby X global tour featuring former players
• MLB: MLB launches Home Run Derby X
• Ghiroli: As we rightfully laud the next generation of women in baseball, let’s remember those who paved the way ($)
• AP: Rachel Balkovec improving after being struck by batted ball, nearing return to New York Yankees’ Class A team
• Rosenthal: Rob Manfred meeting with MLB players in effort to improve relationship post lockout ($)
• ESPN: Do the Los Angeles Dodgers (or any 2022 MLB team) have the best lineup ever? Here’s what it would take
• Rosenthal: How Mark McGwire helped Mariners’ Jarred Kelenic, Christian Yelich looking to rebound, plus Braves, PitchCom and more ($)
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• Apple: Apple and Major League Baseball announce first 12 weeks of “Friday Night Baseball” doubleheader schedule beginning April 8 (April 22 game vs Rangers only A’s broadcast scheduled)
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