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The 6 Best MLB Moments from Monday

Bombs. Dingers. Dongs. Homers. A Trophy and a Spinning Necklace.

Matt Goodwin
Best MLB Moments 7/13/2021

What a night:

 

 

Pete Alonso has been paid $1.17 million by the New York Metropolitans for his Major League service. He has now made $2 million in the Home Run Derby (@FoolishBB). I think that means that, as of this moment, he is a professional home run exhibitionist with a part-time gig as the Mets’ first-basemen.

If you weren’t watching, don’t have cable, a phone, or friends, Pete Alonso went back-to-back to win last night’s MLB Home Run Derby with a display of dinger proficiency that many of us simply were not ready for or prepared to handle. In my free FanDuel lineup of three participants, I didn’t choose him at all (this says more about me playing baseball DFS of any kind than it says about Alonso being good at hitting bombs).

Here are the receipts:

 

 

The best part, besides him taking a hit-by-pitch during the final round, is the spinny chain that comes to the winner in addition to the trophy:

 

 

The reality is that Pete absolutely earned the win. The whole event was mega-entertaining, with each participant doing his part. There were so many amazing moments, and I will certainly miss some of your favorites (so call them out @TheCorkedMatt), but I catalog a handful of my favorites below.

Let’s get this party started (yeah, I’m sorry for that).

 

The Pre-Derby Social Media

 

There was a lot of Twitter support from teams and teammates; that is as it should be. There were too many to capture them all here, but here are a few moments from before The Show:

 

 

Bold Predictions

 

Everybody likes to think that they have the ability to tell the future. We can’t. We know. Here were some the predictions from MLBers:

 

 

Trey Mancini, Feel-Good Story

 

By now we all know that Trey Mancini fought his way back from a cancer diagnosis. Just playing again is a win. Competing in the Derby is a win. Making it out of the first round was a huge win. Did he win? Nope. But who cares. Here are some moments:

 

 

Way to go, Trey!

 

Family Connections

 

Baseball, at its core, has always been about the love of the game being passed from one generation to the next. What better place for that than the Home Run Derby?

 

 

Even kids who have direct access to the game get hyped for meeting the game’s best players:

 

 

Epic First-Round Battle

 

In the worst seeding in the history of sports, Shohei Ohtani (1) and Juan Soto (8) went at it in the first round. Soto emerged victorious, knocking out one of the favorites to win every award MLB has, including Derby Champ. It did result in the best battle of the evening, though, as the players tied, leading to an “overtime” period. They tied that too.

It went to a swing-off: three swings to hit as many home runs as possible. Soto went 3/3 while Ohtani hit a grounder in his first swing. It was awesome:

 

 

Despite a phone call from Mike Trout in the middle of it:

 

 

Juan Soto still won the round.

 

 

As a bonus, Soto did this too:

 

 

Despite the fight, all is well that ends well:

 

 

Bonus Alonso

 

 

This footage came in late, throwing some doubt on the performance:

 

 

Haha, that was a joke. Hope you didn’t fall for it:

 

 

Of course, the absolute BEST moment of the night was this:

 

 

Enjoy the All-Star Game, y’all!

 

Photo by Icon Sportswire | Adapted by Justin Paradis (@JustParaDesigns of Twitter)

Matt Goodwin

Husband. Dad. Teacher. Writer. Podcaster. Baseball Fan. Quippy. Makes up words. FSWA. IBWAA.

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