Let Derby Light

Well, that was fun. I watched the Home Run Derby while moving more boxes of junk around our living room. I told my housemates I was rooting for David Wright and Ryan Howard (as stated in my last post), and sure enough, those two made it to the finals, and Ryan Howard won! It was really fun to watch, and I liked that all of the players seemed to be having a blast, no pun intended. Wright would sometimes be like "Ack!" after making a bad swing, but he'd have a huge grin on his face while saying it. And at one point David Ortiz, having been eliminated, came out and towelled off David Wright's head and offered him some Gatorade. Howard and Wright were both really laid-back about it all, both saying stuff like "Hey, we came up through the minors together pretty much, I'd be just as happy if he won it as if I did. NATIONAL LEAGUE REPRESENT, YO!"

I'm not sure what possessed me, but after watching guys swing for the fences for an hour or two, I decided I wanted to go to the batting cages, so I called up a friend, and off we went. I was trying to hit the ball hard, but wasn't really succeeding; I'd drive a few back to the poles or the netting, but not many.

So my friend watches me ground the ball back to the pitching machine again, and he yells, "LIFT YOUR BACK ELBOW UP!"

I'm like, "What?"

"Your swing. You're dropping your elbow. Lift your elbow up and support your arm."

Immediately, I started pounding the ball deep on pretty much every pitch. It was awesome. Who knew? Of course, now my left arm is killing me; I may have been overextending it -- but still, that was pretty cool. It's amazing what a little leverage will do for you; and now I suddenly understand what people meant when they said players might change their swings too much for something like the Home Run Derby.