For five-and-a-half years (with a few breaks here and there), the Tater Trot Tracker has been recording major leaguers’ times around the bases to the tune of 20,000 trots. When the tracker first began at the start of the 2010 season, David Ortiz was 34-years-old and sitting on 317 career home runs. But now, as we reach the finish line on 2015, that number has changed just a bit.
Tonight, the 39-year-old Boston designated hitter became the 27th member of the 500 home run club with his blast off of Tampa Bay’s Matt Moore in the 5th inning. It was the second home run of the game for Big Papi, making him only the third player to reach 500 home runs with his second blast of the game.
So how did Ortiz’s tater trot look? The blast itself was a no-doubter, landing beyond the tunnels in Tropicana Field’s rightfield bleachers. Papi didn’t slow down, though, even knowing that he had just reached the prestigious milestone. Relatively speaking, of course.
Reaching second base in roughly 15 seconds would be one of the slowest trots of the year for most players, but it’s nothing out of the ordinary for our favorite trotter. Add in the weight of history involved with this trot and it looks pretty good. In fact, I was half expecting to see a 32-second trot or more when Papi joined the club.
Instead, the trot ended at 29.38 seconds, marking only Papi’s 23rd slowest trot since the Tater Trot Tracker began. But while it may not have been an historically slow trot, it was a very Ortiz-esque trot. I mean, who else could take 29-seconds on the bases and have us talking about how unexpectedly quick it was?
Here’s to many more 29-second trots, Papi!
Click here for the ongoing 2015 Tater Trot Tracker Leaderboard. (Warning, it’s a little behind this season.)
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