Long Ball (as in Time It Takes for HR Derby)

Random thoughts (well, what we think of as thinking around here) while wondering what year it will be when baseball’s home-run derby will run so long that the start of the All-Star Game has to be delayed:

Two of our favorite people are April Rose and Ernie Banks.

* Speaking of the home-run derby, if Major League Baseball wants to make it a compelling contest, why not have the big-league pitchers who have yielded the most homers that season participate, too?

* Still speaking of the HR derby, after all these years ESPN still hasn’t figured out the event will take more time than the network has calculated? Really? Or is the idea to have people tune in for what they figure will be a couple of hours or so, only to have it drag on and somehow retain viewers?

* Yes, still speaking of the derby (which your humble correspondent did not watch — except for a seconds here and there), even though one of the great things about baseball is the absence of a time limit, there should be one for the derby. Shortly before the advertised end of the event, the position player with the fewest homers on the American League and National League teams hit. First one to homer wins.

* And furthermore: Any word whether the Cubs and/or White Sox were scouting the Home Run Derby for pitching help?

* Oh, and the celebrity softball game? They ought to make the former big-league players bat the opposite way they did during their careers (with the exception of switch-hitters).

* Speaking of the celebrity softball game, if they’re going to have someone from “The Guy Code” participate, it should have been April Rose.

* Speaking of April Rose, you may have noticed the photo of her and Cubs legend Ernie Banks from a music-video shoot they were part of Monday. No idea what the music video will be for, but there is a strong likelihood some folks will watch it with the sound off if they don’t particularly like the music.

Here is where to go for a daily dose of non-gratuitous video (thanks to the efforts of the editorial and video departments at ElliottHarris.com):

Advertising opportunities are available on ElliottHarris.com. For information and rates, contact sales@ElliottHarris.com.