With one of the Detroit Tigers participating in tonight's Home Run Derby, we're posting an Open Thread. (The people would've demanded one, anyway!)
I don't know about you, but I might not have been watching the Derby very closely, if not for the participation of one Brandon Inge. Not that I don't like the event. I do. But it's a little too much Chris Berman for me.
(Back in 2002, I was trapped in a Charleston, SC hotel room by the airport when my flight back to Detroit was canceled, and the only thing to really watch was the Home Run Derby. And all I could hear, over and over, was Berman's "back, back, back... !" The Derby hasn't quite been the same for me ever since.)
Here are tonight's contestants:
American League: Brandon Inge, Carlos Pena, Joe Mauer, Nelson Cruz
National League: Albert Pujols, Ryan Howard, Prince Fielder, Adrian Gonzalez
At first glance, this looks like a bit of a mismatch. The NL lineup is pretty much the top-tier of slugging first basemen, the creme de la creme, if you will. But the AL lineup includes three of the league's top four home run leaders. And though Joe Mauer isn't typically considered a slugger, I'm sure he's more than capable of putting on a show in batting practice.
So who do you got? Predictions for a winner? Will Inge make it out of the first round of competition? How many homers do you think he might hit?