What A Night For Cal Raleigh - Advancing A Round Because Of A Few Inches, Home Run Robberies Against Your Opponent In The Finals, And Your Dad Being Your Home Run Derby Pitcher While Winning It All

Very cool night for baseball last night for everyone watching and involved. Cal Raleigh winning the home run derby with his dad pitching to him and his brother catching should go down as one of the cooler moments in the history of the home run derby. That has to be an all time sports dad moment for Todd Raleigh too, not many dads get to have a moment like last night. Seriously, what can be cooler than throwing your son glorified BP as thousands of people go nuts as he hits balls 450 feet into the night? We've seen some dads throw to their sons before in the derby and it never really worked out. Robinson Cano's dad threw some junk a few years back, and Adley Rutschman's dad put on a good show in 2023 but the duo fell short. But Cal and his dad were on the same wavelength the whole night, they were a pretty decent team. Of course they also had to get mom involved. 

How many pitches has Mr. Raleigh thrown to Cal over his lifetime? Has to be deep into the thousands right? I'd imagine many afternoons were spent on a diamond or in their backyard just hitting and hitting and hitting. It's really any parents dream, if you've got kids in sports you know how fun it is when they start to pick up the games and you get involved in their practices and games. You'll never forget the first time your kid asks you to play catch or go shoot hoops or play goalie for them. The Raleigh's got to live that out to the extreme tonight, watching your kid hit towering homer after towering homer off you can't be beat. 

Cal really did put on a show too, he had by far the most pressure on him strictly due to the season he's had so far. 38 homers at the break for a full-time catcher is just insane, he's as hot as can be right now. Leads baseball in homers, he has to win it right? He ended up squeaking by Brent Rooker inches, like literal inches.

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This was straight up dumb as shit. They announced it was tied because they had the exact same longest home run, 470 feet. Cool, do a swing-off with these guys. NOPE. MLB dialed it down to the like 29th decimal point and ruled that Cal Raleigh won because of less than like 1 inch. It's the derby, just have them swing for it! No need to break it down that far, and I can guarantee you it's not even right. Should have just let Raleigh hit vs Rooker, best of 3 pitches. But Raleigh advances because of  an inch and ends up winning the whole damn thing. So close to being eliminated but he's saved by a decimal. A typical MLB thing, the right answer was right in front of them and they had to nerd it up. Leave the math out of baseball, let the boys with bats handle it.

We also saw something we've never seen before, one of the kids in the outfield straight up robbed Junior Caminero of a home run in the final. They counted the homer and it was all good, but how about this kid going Denzel Clarke and skying over the wall. It's every kids dream to rob a home run, but no one actually thinks they'll do one in the derby. Very funny moment, all of twitter freaked out on this kid and rightfully so. You can't go up and rob a homer in the derby, you just can't. Keep the feet on the ground and let the balls fly. I'll also say that there were way less kids out there, which is super smart because these guys were hitting the ball so god damn hard. Oneil Cruz could have really hurt someone, really thought we'd see that. So not only did Cal have some awesome moments with his dad and brother, he had the defense working for him too. 

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First catcher to ever win the derby, he pulled the Adley card and switch hit too, but winning it after switch hitting is top tier stuff. Just a super cool story all around for him, having some solid seasons previously and then exploding onto the scene, setting records and now winning the derby with family. Buy a lottery ticket or something Cal, what a run for Big Dumper. We may be watching the most universally loved baseball player on an all time heater right now, I don't know anyone who dislikes him. Seems like even his rival's fans like him. Pretty cool that he called his shot too, look at the throwback video. 

Despite the awful camera angels, people getting dizzy from the split screen, not being able to see where the homers land and multiple other issues, I think this was a really fun derby. Sure we all miss the 10 outs a round thing, but they usually get good finishes and fun derbies. The last few years we've had some cool moments, tonight had a ton of them. Something primal about watching your favorite players hit balls 500+ feet and as hard as they can. Just feels right, it's hard to beat a home run derby, other sports try and try but can't get it right. MLB does. The dunk contest wishes it could still have this relevance and the NFL just has guys play dodgeball and shit. MLB didn't have a great production for folks at home (Besides the stat cast on Espn2) but the event on the field was really something else. James Wood and Oneil Cruz sending balls into Orbit, the crowd booing Jazz Chisholm because he stinks, a fun coming out party for Junior Caminero, Byron Buxton going crazy at the end of his first round, lot of fun baseball moments from that derby. 

PS. How does ESPN not bring Berman back for this? I mean that's a layup. One night a year, let the big guy hit us with some "BACK, BACK, BACK, BACK, GONE!!!!!" or "THAT ONE WAS HIT TO ALPHARETTA!". Just bring us Berman to give the announcers some juice.