Home Run Derby an extra-inning option? What a blast!
National League's Pete Alonso, of the New York Mets, tips his cap during the MLB Home Run Derby on Monday in Los Angeles. Credit: AP/Mark J. Terrill
LOS ANGELES — Love the Home Run Derby?
How about seeing one dozens of times, during the regular season, and having it decide games that count?
The concept is not as crazy you might think.
And the rule already is on the books, at least for Tuesday night’s All-Star Game at Dodger Stadium, as MLB and the Players Association made the quirky idea a reality in the new collective bargaining agreement settled last March. In the event that the Midsummer Classic is tied after nine innings, the outcome will be determined by sort of a mini-Derby, a swing-off, if you will.
Three players from each side will get three swings, for three rounds. The highest combined total is declared the winner. Game over.
Full disclosure. For once, on this very rare occasion, I found myself actually rooting for extra innings before Tuesday’s first pitch, just for the experience. After watching Juan Soto’s spectacular display to win Monday’s Derby -- spraying bombs to all corners of Chavez Ravine, the suspense of going head-to-head with Julio Rodriguez -- who didn’t have an appetite for more?
The Derby lapped the All-Star Game a number of years back, which is why sprinkling some of that muscle-ball magic into extra innings is actually an inspired development. On Tuesday, the NL’s designated Big Three were Pete Alonso, Ronald Acuna Jr. and Kyle Schwarber. For the AL, it was Rodriguez, Kyle Tucker and Ty France.
If you thought Alonso was burned out by Monday’s semi-final loss to Rodriguez, who ended his reign as two-time Derby champ, you’d be wrong. Alonso was hoping for the opportunity when I asked him about it Tuesday afternoon.
And not just for the All-Star Game either. Alonso was ready to embrace it for the regular season, too. He wasn’t concerned about it being gimmicky or cheapening the outcome?
“Absolutely not,” Alonso said. “I feel like maybe we do the man on second until the 13th inning. I know those are extremely rare. But instead of having to burn a bunch of arms and then worry about a guy’s health, instead of going to a 14th or 15th, maybe it’s just five swings. And whoever has the most at the end, that’s it.”
Is the idea really all that different from what the NHL does by relying on a shootout after a five-minute overtime? As much as Alonso loves the Derby, I asked him how it would be standing at the plate, in the 14th inning, with a chance to earn a real W for the Mets rather than a gold crossed-bat trophy and a spinning necklace.
“I think that’d be really cool, just like in hockey where you have the shootout,” Alonso said. “It’d be the same concept. Obviously with the playoffs, that would be different. It’s regular baseball. But I feel like it could be really fun and people would be super-amped up to see it.”
Remember how insane the initial suggestion of a ghost runner on second base seemed after the ninth inning? That was first implemented by MLB to help get through the 2020 pandemic, for health and safety reasons. But now it’s been (mostly) accepted as part of the game’s new normal going forward, with only purists objecting to a rule change that clearly has made baseball better.
The ghost runner -- or automatic runner, whichever is your preference -- has not only ended games in less exhaustive fashion for a sport that plays every day, but spurred more immediate action. It’s a win-win rule, and some prominent players don’t sound all that opposed to other potential upgrades, even those that start off appearing radical, like the Derby wrinkle.
“I’m not really worried that they’re going to drastically go in that direction without putting some thought into it,” Gerrit Cole said. “But they definitely should stay curious, right? We should try to be on the forefront of things.”
There are plenty of rule changes on tap, with the pitch clock almost certain to be implemented next season. That’s still under discussion, along with banning defensive shifts, restricting pickoff attempts and larger bases. As for a Derby-like resolution to regular-season games? I asked commissioner Rob Manfred about that possibility Tuesday morning and he’s not quite in the Alonso camp. Yet.
“I don’t see the Derby-type format as something that we would use beyond the All-Star Game,” Manfred said. “To tell you the truth, I think it’s something that could be exciting for the fans in a one-off event. I don’t see it as a regular-season undertaking.”
We used to say that about the DH in the National League. Or the unforgivable sin of placing a runner at second to start extra innings. But at the end of the day, this is the entertainment business, and let’s face it: few things are more entertaining than a Home Run Derby.
And the potential for a Derby showdown on any given night? You’ll be secretly rooting for extra innings, too.
David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.
