There were doughnuts, more clever “Judge” puns and, of course, lots of moonshots sailing all over in the Home Run Derby.
We had our Buster Douglas moment, we had our Homer Simpson moment, but mostly we had a whole bunch of Aaron Judge moments. The season has been full of Aaron Judge moments!
Here are eight things you might have missed about the 2017 Home Run Derby:
1. Aaron Judge destroyed baseballs! The first rookie to win the Home Run Derby did so in impressive fashion, including a Titanic first-round win over Justin Bour followed by a crushing win over Miguel Sano in the final in which he hit the clinching home run with 1: 53 remaining on the clock. Talk about a mic drop. The winning blast was merely 458 feet to the opposite field, landing in the second deck.
Could Aaron Judge hit 1000 home runs in a day?
— Sam Miller (@SamMillerBB) July 11,2017
In the final matchup of the first round, hometown favorite Bour got the crowd in a frenzy with seven home runs in seven swings at one point. His 22 home runs were the fourth-highest total for a round in Home Run Derby history — until Judge followed with 23, hitting his final two in bonus time to eliminate Bour.
2. Please pass the doughnuts. Protein shakes? Chicken and vegetables? Who needs healthy eating when you can have home runs powered by doughnuts. In the middle of his round, Bour took his timeout and teammate Giancarlo Stanton rushed on to the field with a towel and a doughnut that he stuffed into Bour’s face.
