The Home Run Derby

Today was one of those days where things worked out well for the fans but not so much for ESPN. Yes, it was the Home Run Derby tonight (no, not that one) and I was expecting a cynical post tonight. ESPN puts Chris Berman on these games, which is, of course, annoying. The problem is, we could really have NBA Jam do all the commentary and have it more insightful than Berman. Boom shakalaka!
As ESPN does, they picked their favorite competitor, in this case, Josh Hamilton. They talked about him even when he wasn’t batting, commenting on his wonderful story. Even after Hamilton got his second place finish, instead of going to interview the winner, Justin Morneau, Erin Andrews spent some quality time with Hamilton. Then, instead of being a blubbering quote machine, he spent the entire interview praising Jesus and thanking God for delivering him to such as wonderful position in life. Silly ESPN. To come from the depths from whence Hamilton came, there had to have been some sort of spiritual turn around. Frankly with what he has gone through and the resounding success he’s been met with since cleaning up his life, the gentleman was bound to be grateful. In the secular media, Hamilton’s legitimate faith was pretty much the best way to derail his popularity. Nevertheless, his visage is the one on the ESPN.com home page.
In the final round, the ESPN golden boy was trumped by taciturn Canadian Justin Morneau. They didn’t have a lot to say about Morneau, except that nobody expected the Twins to be where they were this season. As much as Hamilton, Morneau seemed overwhelmed by the fact that he was there as well. Really, it was two likeable guys that were likeable because of who they were and not because of the way they were portrayed in the media. Perhaps they were likeable because they couldn’t be portrayed in the media.
I actually enjoyed this derby.