Coors Home Run Derby could produce records

Table of Content

• Longest home run in Home Run Derby
• Sunday, July 11
• Longest homer for every 2022 MLB Home Run Derby participant
• Ronald Acuña Jr.: 481 feet
• Who won the Home Run Derby in 2021? Full results, HR totals, highlights from MLB dinger contest
• Adam Dunn, Cincinnati Reds first baseman – 535 feet, Great American Ballpark

The goal of the Home Run Derby is to hit the most homers, but this year’s group of contestants has a track record of posting incredible distances on their long balls, too. Statcast, which was created in 2015, gives us a precise measurement of just how far those homers would travel. In the early years of the Home Run Derby, 4-10 players from both the AL and NL were selected to participate. Each player was given 2 "innings" to hit as many home runs as possible before reaching 5 outs.

He matched Guerrero with eight more homers in the first tiebreaker, then tied the Blue Jays rookie with one blast in the first three-swing swing-off. Pederson homered on the first swing of the final tiebreaker, but couldn't keep the epic showdown going. Coming into the clash at Coors Field, everyone expected to see Ohtani, the No. 1 seed, carry the night.

Longest home run in Home Run Derby

But even at a time when New York Yankees star Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Judge are launching bombs, they do fall short of the longest HR in MLB history. During actual games, none of Mancini’s 102 career homers have traveled further than 459 feet, per Statcast. • Alonso walloped 15,659 feet worth of homers in his first round alone.

Shohei Ohtani, defending champion Pete Alonso, Trevor Story, Trey Mancini, Salvador Pérez, Matt Olson, Juan Soto and Joey Gallo will compete for this year’s title. Baseball fans everywhere know the difference between Coors Field and regular stadiums, as the ball travels farther in the thinner air due to the altitude. For tonight’s HR Derby, there appears to be no humidor to keep the baseballs regulated which means the ball will absolutely rocket out of the park. Expect there to be records of all kinds set tonight for the HR derby, especially for distance.

Sunday, July 11

For 2010, the non-Gold Ball homer was reduced to $3,000 per home run and a total of $453,000 was collected. Since 2014 any homer hit off a T-Mobile Ball resulted in a $10,000 donation to charity by T-Mobile and MLB, to Team Rubicon. In his quest to become the first switch-hitter to win a Home Run Derby outright, Ramírez batted righty at Dodger Stadium -- even though he's hit a lot more home runs as a lefty in his MLB career. He finally found his groove late in the round, reaching 15 home runs despite having only four when he called his timeout. J-Ram didn't hit any 440-footers, but he added two more home runs in his extra 30 seconds to take his first-round total to 17. There was enormous anticipation for Ohtani's Derby performance, and while Soto defeated him in multiple swing-off rounds, the two-way phenom still put on a spectacular show.

The forecast for Monday in Denver calls for 10 mph winds traveling east-northeast. For Coors Field, that would mean the wind would be blowing out toward right field. “If you look at exit velocities around baseball, they pretty much top out at about 120 mph,” Nathan said.

Longest homer for every 2022 MLB Home Run Derby participant

Notably, Ken Griffey Jr. initially quietly declined to take part in 1998, partly due to ESPN scheduling the Mariners in their late Sunday game the night before. After a discussion with ESPN's Joe Morgan and another with Hall of Famer Frank Robinson, Griffey changed his mind, and then won the Derby at Coors Field. On July 11, 1988, the day before the Major League Baseball All-Star Game from Cincinnati, TBS televised the annual All-Star Gala from the Cincinnati Zoo. Larry King hosted the broadcast with Craig Sager and Pete Van Wieren handling interviews.

Not surprisingly, the longest home run on record -- though it was hit long before the Statcast era and measured by a city engineer -- also came in Colorado. Somewhat surprising is that it was Meyer’s blast in a Minor League game back in June of 1987 at Mile High Stadium, measured at 582 feet away from home plate. The Home Run Derby presents a wealth of betting props, picking a winner, and something that is definitely a fun betting market to follow.

Weather concerns in 2015 led to a reduction in time from five minutes per round to four minutes. The clock was not stopped in the final minute, and one minute of bonus time was granted only for hitting two home runs of at least 425 feet (129.5 m). It’s been a turbulent career for Minnesota Twins slugger Miguel Sanó. An All-Star selection in 2017, Minnesota’s 6-foot-4 masher is more than capable of hitting one of the longest home runs ever. In August against the Boston Red Sox, Sanó uncorked a 495-foot cannon deep into the night at Fenway Park. We can only imagine how far the ball would have traveled if this moment happened at Coors Field.

New York Yankees outfielder Giancarlo Stanton lined a ball off the bat at 122.2 mph this season, but it went directly into the second baseman’s glove and was turned into a double play. Here are the longest home runs in the Home Run Derby, during the StatCast era, away from Coors Field. Sammy Sosa still holds the longest estimated homer distance at any Derby with his 524-foot blast at the 2002 edition at Milwaukee’s American Family Field.

With the second-most homers in any round by a rookie in Derby history. Swinging a black bat with his nickname "J-Rod" plastered all over it in Mariners green, Rodríguez crushed a 463-foot shot to left-center at Dodger Stadium for the first home run of the Derby. J-Rod heated up fast in his first Home Run Derby, crushing 14 home runs before calling timeout just over halfway through his round -- then adding 11 more to take his total to 25 before bonus time. Seven more home runs in bonus time earned Rodríguez a standing ovation from the Dodger Stadium crowd. The man to beat in the competition, Alonso started his quest for a three-peat against an intradivision rival in Acuña, who hit 19 home runs. Alonso was vibing early, bobbing his head to the music that filled Dodger Stadium.

Alonso broke Guerrero's first-round record in 2021 with 35 homers on his way to his second straight Derby Title . Making a return to the stadium he used to call home, Seager had a tough act to follow after Rodríguez crushed 32 home runs to lead off the Derby. With his dad, Jeffrey, throwing to him, Seager earned bonus time early with two of his first four homers going more than 440 feet. Seager got into a groove once he came back, blasting 10 more homers to run his total to 20 before bonus time. Three of his homers left the bat at 117 mph, tying Alonso for the hardest-hit homers across this year’s tournament.

For the first time in Derby history, Shohei Ohtani became both the first pitcher and the first Japanese player to participate in 2021. In 2000, the field reverted to the current four-player-per-league format. The only exception was 2005, when Major League Baseball changed the selection criteria so that eight players represented their home countries instead of their respective leagues. The change was believed to be in promotion of the inaugural World Baseball Classic, played in March 2006.

Before there was advanced tracking technology, the methodology was different and perhaps less precise and more open to subjectivity. That’s been the question on everyone’s mind since the Home Run Derby debuted at the Metrodome in 1985. But there’s also the sheer, jaw-dropping spectacle of a baseball that seems to shake off the constraints of gravity and disappears into orbit. Below, we’ll look at some of the longest home runs hit in MLB history, both documented and rumored. Let’s dive into the best moonshots in MLB history and the longest home run ever. • Alonso is the fourth player to win multiple Home Run Derby titles, joining Ken Griffey Jr. , Yoenis Céspedes and Prince Fielder .