Home Run of the Day: Brandon Phillips, Cincinnati Reds (Trot Time: 26.31 seconds) [video]
For those who don’t know, every time the Brewers hit a home run at Miller Park, Bernie Brewer, the beloved mascot, slides down a yellow curved slide from his porch to the platform below (it used to be into a mug of beer, but, alas, that just isn’t happening anymore). The slide hangs a good 15 or 20 feet above the back row of the leftfield bleachers. It’s a pretty safe bet that the slide is out of the reach of most players.
But not Brandon Phillips, as he proved yesterday afternoon with a 450 foot grand slam that bounced directly off of the slide. If anyone had been sliding down it at the moment, they would have been drilled by the fly ball just as they were approaching the end. It was quite the shot (it also put the Reds ahead 9-2).
(Click “Read More” to continue reading.)
Slowest Trot: Carlos Lee, Houston Astros #1 – 26.62 seconds [video]
Brandon Phillips takes over 26 seconds to run out his grand-slam-for-the-ages and he still isn’t the slowest trot of the day? Nope. And, in fact, he was only the third slowest trot of the day. Both Miguel Cabrera and Carlos Lee topped him yesterday, with Cabrera taking 26.37 seconds to run his out and Carlos Lee taking 26.62 seconds on his first homer of the day. Lee’s second trot was a full 2.5 seconds slower, though, at 24.09 seconds. If we averaged his two trots…
Quickest Trot: Jason Repko, Minnesota Twins – 19.84 seconds [video]
As seems to be the case more often these days, there weren’t many sub-twenty second trots. San Francisco’s Andres Torres ran out his splash hit in 19.79 seconds, and Chicago’s Gordon Beckham trotted around the bases in 18.9 seconds. It was Minnesota’s Jason Repko, though, who took home the crown with an 18.59 second trot. He’s not Speed Racer, or anything, but it’s a pretty respectable time.
(Apparently the Mariners Live folks talked about tater trot times on their postgame show last night. Chone Figgins had hit a home run earlier in the game, clocking in at 20.9 seconds. I don’t know if that was the catalyst, or if it was just good timing. Either way, I hear they didn’t actually mention Wezen-Ball or the Tater Trot Tracker which is kind of a bummer…)
