Jul 14th 2008 9:30AM by Pat Lackey (author feed)

The Home Run Derby has, in recent years, become a massive parody of itself. What used to be a short, fun diversion the night before the All-Star Game has devolved into a three-hour orgy of excess. There’s three rounds now, which ensures that by the end of the night the finalists will be too tired to lift their arms over their heads, let alone hit home runs. There’s a million commercial breaks and the thing never seems to end at a reasonable hour.

Still, the Derby is the only baseball on tomorrow night. The only Derby I haven’t watched all of in recent memory was the one in Pittsburgh, during which I attempted to sneak a giant banner with an internet-based phrase poking fun at a certain overblown ESPN personality that loves the Derby onto the cameras. My friends and I failed, went to the bar, and yep, watched the Derby. So instead of saying that the Derby is played out and boring, let’s embrace the fact that we’re going to watch it anyways. A full preview of what I’m expecting from each participant and what you might see during the broadcast is after the jump.Continue Reading