David Ortiz is one of the slowest. Bryce Harper is the fastest.
Know what baseball stat I’m talking about?
Time taken to get to the bigs? Nope.
Time taken in between pitches? Nope.
Time taken to reach first base after a walk? Nope.
I’m talking about this baseball stat — the time it takes a player to go around the bases after hitting a home run!
Just another reason why baseball is so great. So many stats. Every little thing about the game gets dissected. Sometimes the numbers tell the story behind the story. Sometimes the numbers are meaningless. Most likely, you will consider time spent rounding the bases on a home run, the latter. But I argue that even this trite stat tells a story.
According this fun website called tatertrottracker.com, Sox slugger Dave Ortiz owns 4 of the top 10 slowest home run trots this year. The 19-year-old Washington Nats phenom Bryce Harper owns the fastest trot time.
The folks at tatertrottracker should know. They have timed every MLB home run trot since the 2010 season. The average time is 22.02 seconds.
Think about this. Big Papi takes 28.79 seconds to go around the bases after a dinger. Bryce Harper does it in 16.35 seconds. That’s more than a 12 second difference in trotting 360 feet! One Mississippi…Two Mississippi…Three Mississippi…
Ortiz is a veteran. Harper is a rookie. David has made millions in salary. Bryce wants to make millions in salary. The Red Sox are in last place. The Nationals are in first place.
Isn’t it possible that the tater-trot time tells a story behind the story? The story of one team with veterans still looking for snitches and the other team with kids looking for a taste of October baseball? I’m just thinking out loud here.
By the way, the slowest home run trot ever (since 2010) belongs to Luke Scott of Tampa Bay, 35.76 seconds. The slowest so far this year, Matt Joyce of Tampa Bay, 29.38. They say both were injured while rounding the bases. I say yet another excuse from the Rays. A story for another day.
And when it comes to Big Papi, his marathon trots are nothing new. In 2010, he owned 7 of the top 10 slowest times.
For the record, I wanted to see how long it would take me to do a home run trot. So the other day, I pretended to hit one out of Mansfield Stadium and timed the trot.
The calendar turned from June to July! (rimshot please!)
ITEMS FROM THE DUFFEL BAG:
– Watching the Stony Brook baseball team play in the College World Series takes me back to UMaine’s last CWS appearance in 1986. Longtime baseball fans will remember that home run by Arizona’s Dave Shermet and the 8-7 loss to the eventual champion Wildcats. It is fun to remember that Auburn, Maine’s own Billy Reynolds was named all-tourney catcher. Other all-tournament players included Robin Ventura and Luis Alicea.
– By the way, about a month after that ’86 CWS the Oakland A’s signed one of the UMaine infielders. His name was Mike Bordick.
– Maybe it’s just me, but watching both Miami Heat and OKC Thunder arenas filled with fans wearing the same T-shirts is silly. Notice you don’t see that at Boston Garden.
– Happy 25th birthday to WFAN radio in NY. The nation’s first all-sports station.
– If I had a vote, I would vote Messalonskee’s Sam Dexter for Mr.Baseball.
– 13. The number of guys to play in the outfield for the Red Sox so far this year. Can any other team match that number?
– A year ago you remember the scene in Boston for the B’s duck boat parade with hundreds of thousands lining the streets — the LA Kings parade was six block long last week.
– For years there has been talk of Boston University bolting America East Conference. To the CAA, OK. To the A-10, all right. But to the Patriot League?
You got to be kidding me.
