One night after Carlos Gomez gave us his blistering 16-second trot, David Ortiz tried to top him in the only way he knows how. It was glorious.
Let’s get to the trots!
Home Run of the Day: Gio Gonzalez, Washington Nationals – 18.71 seconds [video]
The Nationals pitcher registered the third home run of his career last night, with this shot to left-center bouncing off of the top of the fence and back into play. Gonzalez’s path around the bases was interesting to watch.
As the ball left the bat, he seemed to think it was a routine flyball and started with a slow trot. Once the ball hit the fence, though, he went all out, racing around second at top speed. He almost hit the brakes going into third, however, and was only prevented from going into a full stop (and invalidating his trot time) by the third base coach. Still unsure about where the ball was, however, Gonzalez ran those final 90 feet at full sprint. The confusion on the bases prevented the pitcher from having a time anywhere near that of Gomez the other night, but it was still a lot of fun to watch.
Slowest Trot: David Ortiz, Boston Red Sox – 29.64 seconds [video]
I said yesterday that, with Carlos Gomez’s 16.18 second trot, there’s a very good chance that we’ve already seen the quickest tater trot of 2014. Well, only one day later, there’s already a pretty good chance that we’ve now seen the slowest tater trot of 2014 as well. And the trot belongs to who else but David Ortiz?!
Honestly, I expect there to be one or two slower trots than this before the year is out (with Papi himself likely the one responsible for those slow trots), but Wednesday’s stroll is going to be atop the leaderboard for a very long time.
Quickest Trot: Gio Gonzalez, Washington Nationals – 18.71 seconds [video]
Gonzalez’s teammate Ian Desmond had the second quickest trot of the night, coming in behind the slugging pitcher in 19.16 seconds. Giancarlo Stanton, Dexter Fowler, and Ian Kinsler joined those two with the night’s sub-twenty second trots.
All of Today's Trots David Ortiz........29.64 Chris Johnson......22.7 Anthony Rizzo......25.19 Adam Dunn..........21.31 Ryan Howard........23.82 Mike Zunino........21.1 Corey Hart.........23.76 Mike Aviles........20.65 Alberto Callaspo...23.71 Matt Dominguez.....20.62 Jose Bautista #1...23.2 Ian Kinsler........19.9* Justin Smoak.......23.16* Dexter Fowler......19.83 Jose Bautista #2...23.08 Giancarlo Stanton..19.31 Mike Napoli........23.05 Ian Desmond........19.16 Nelson Cruz........22.9 Gio Gonzalez.......18.71
Click here for the ongoing 2014 Tater Trot Tracker Leaderboard. You can also follow @TaterTrotTrkr on Twitter for more up-to-the-minute trot times.
