When the Tater Trot Tracker is Away

August 05, 2010: Felix Pie  for the Baltimore Orioles climbs the wall in a futile attempt to catch Torii Hunter's three-run home run in the top of the 8th inning during a game against the visiting Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim at Oriole Park at Camden Yards in Baltimore, Maryland. The Orioles beat the Angels 5 - 4 completing the three-game sweep.

I know this is a week late, but, hey, I had 146 home runs to watch…

While I was at the SABR 40 conference in Atlanta last weekend, I was unable to do the Tater Trot Tracker for home runs hit those days. With the crappy internet situation at the hotel, it just wasn’t going to happen. I finally got through the list of 146 home runs tonight and I just wanted to take a moment to highlight a few of the home runs.

 

  • Chris Denorfia (15.19 seconds, video) and Rickie Weeks (15.68 seconds, video) each hit inside-the-park home runs after the defense made some questionable plays on the balls.
  • Alex Rodriguez hit his 600th career home run in the meantime. His trot came in at a respectable 25.57 seconds [video].
  • Pedro Alvarez hit a very celebrated walkoff home run for the Pirates on Saturday. His trot came in at 24.04 seconds [video].
  • The fastest non-inside-the-park home run came from Andrew McCutchen on August 4, when he went through his trot to the tune of 17.79 seconds [video]. There were six other 18-second trots, but none other in the 17-second range.
  • The slowest trots of those five days (August 3 through August 7) belonged to – who else – David Ortiz. With a 27.4 second trot [video] on August 6 and a 27.43 second trot [video] on August 4, Papi was the only trotter to reach the 27-second range. There were five other trotters in the 26-second range (Torii Hunter and Adam Dunn both twice each).
There are still about 140 other home runs I could talk about here, but I think this should cover them well enough. I’ll try not to disappear from the Tater Trot Tracker beat for five days at a time again. It’s hard on all of us.

 

About Larry Granillo

Larry Granillo has been writing Wezen Ball since 2008 and has dealt with such touchy topics as Charlie Brown's baseball stats and Ferris Bueller's day off. In 2010, he got the bright idea to time every home run trot in baseball; he has been missing ever since.

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