MLB History: Selecting Greatest Home Run Derby Participants

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With the talk of pitchers joining, what would be the ultimate MLB Home Run Derby competition field?

Madison Bumgarner started the discussion of having a pitcher participate in the annual Home Run Derby, and it’s taken the topic of the Home Run Derby to points that most people don’t even give time to the derby, outside of the one night per year that most fans tune in to watch baseballs fly.

Many don’t realize this, but the modern Home Run Derby was inspired by a publicity stunt that was televised as a series of competitions among the best players of the late 1950s and early 1960s. I may be one of the few that owns all three DVDs of these great competitions, and I love the interviews between rounds with all-time greats like Aaron, Mays, Mantle and others.

Today’s Home Run Derby actually started in 1985. It wasn’t televised until 1993, and that was only on a delayed basis. The first live telecast of the derby was in 1998, which means that the high school kids just drafted last weekend have only known a televised Home Run Derby, but it’s a very recent phenomenon in the game.

I thought it’d be fun to put together an all-time Home Run Derby competition field, seeding them 8th through 1st (modern derbies have eight participants). I only chose to have players who actually participated in either iteration of the Derby, not players who predated the 1960 version or players who came between that version and the 1985 version.

We’ll go in reverse order, starting with the 8th seed…

Next: 8th and 7th Seeds

8th Seed: Prince Fielder

Prince could argue that he’s entirely too low, as he owns the overall most home runs hit in the modern Derby. He’s benefited, however, from rule changes that give him more rounds to do just that.

Interestingly, Prince’s father Cecil Fielder competed twice in the Derby in 1991 and 1993, though he never made a viable run to win either time.

Prince has participated in six Home Run Derby competitions, winning two of them, in 2009 and 2012.

Prince has a great leveraged swing to drive the ball a ton, which allows him to do well in these competitions.

7. Harmon Killebrew

“Killer” was one of the all-time great home run hitters, finishing his career with 573 home runs. He led the league in home runs six times in his career, but what’s remarkable about the TV show is that Killebrew looks so fresh-faced. The reason was, well, he was!

Killebrew was coming off of his 1959 season when the show was filmed, which was his first full season in the major leagues, where he hit 42 home runs to lead the American League. He then stepped into a competition that involved Hall of Famers like Mantle, Mays, Aaron, Ernie Banks, Al Kaline, Duke Snider and more!

Yet Killebrew at 24 years old defeated an established slugger like Mantle in his first appearance on the show. He ended up going 2-2 total on the show, defeating Mantle and Rocky Calavito, but losing to Ken Boyer and Mays.

Next: 6th and 5th Seeds

6. Yoenis Cespedes

I’m not sure there’s an active player more perfectly suited for the derby than Cespedes. He’s a tremendously powerful hitter for certain. He’s also prone to intense streaks, which is when he can drive balls all over the field with incredible strength.

So far, Cespedes is 2-for-2 in Home Run Derbys. He has participated in two, the 2013 and 2014 derbies, and he’s won both of them, defeating Bryce Harper in 2013 and Jose Bautista in 2014.

After his huge display of power after being traded to the Mets last year at the trade deadline, he will almost certainly be invited back again this season, making him one of a very select group of players who has participated in the Home Run Derby as a member of both a National and American League team.

5. Mark McGwire

He’s perhaps fallen out of favor for his performance on a national level due to the steroid allegations from his playing career. That’s perhaps why a guy who was a 12-time All-Star, led the league in home runs four times and famously broke Roger Maris‘ single-season home run record in a famous home run race in 1998 has yet to garner 25 percent in a single season of the 10 years he was on the BBWAA Hall of Fame ballot.

McGwire hit 583 home runs in his career, including seasons of 70, 65, 58, 52, and 49 in his career. He was a well-regarded power hitter, which made him a prime candidate for the derby and he definitely was a big performer when he participated.

McGwire participated in the Home Run Derby in 1987, 1990, 1992, 1996, 1997, 1998 and 1999, and he won in 1992. He actually hit the most home runs in 1999 and the fact that he didn’t win led to a change in the format of how they play the derby, attempting to enable the hitter with the most home runs to at least have a better chance to make the finals. The rules have since been changed again to a match play system.

Next: 4th and 3rd Seeds

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4. Willie Mays

When you ask those who lived through the era of seeing him on television or had the pleasure of watching him in person, Mays is the guy who constantly gets mentioned as having just something extra off the bat. My grandfather once told me that “Mantle could murder a ball, Aaron flicked it over the fence, but Mays scared it so badly that it ran over the fence in fear.”

Indeed, Mays hit 660 home runs, a feat that even in the “steroid era” was a number only two players have passed since his era (technically Aaron retired after him, but they shared the era). Interestingly, it’s very possible that Mays gave up some of his best power hitting youth to the military in 1952 and 1953.

It was assumed that when the Home Run Derby show was created, the ultimate goal was to pit Mays against Mantle. Lo and behold, that was the first matchup, and Mantle narrowly defeated Mays, 9-8. Mays would go on to a 3-2 record on the show in his five appearances, the second-most on the show.

3. Mickey Mantle

Mantle was the premier hitter in the media in the era, and he was about to embark on a two-year run of power hitting that included a league-leading season in 1960 and then the big home run chase of 1961 with teammate Roger Maris. He was assumed to be the major draw of the show, and many figured he would easily be the best hitter there.

He did have the second-most victories on the show, finishing with a 4-1 record in his five appearances on the show. Mantle batted right-handed in the competition, though he did have tremendous power from both sides of the plate in his career.

Mantle hit 536 home runs in his career, but many who saw him play say he’s the most incredible home run hitter they ever saw. His injury his rookie year really affected the rest of his career, causing him constant pain, and he never once played every game of a season.

Next: Top Two Seeds

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2. Ken Griffey, Jr.

Griffey has arguably the prettiest swing that has ever graced a major league batter’s box. He will be going into the Hall of Fame this summer, and he’s about the most entertaining home run hitter in the last 30 years.

Griffey finished his career with 630 home runs, and without injuries that plagued him after his trade to Cincinnati from Seattle in 2000, it’s possible that he could have made a run at 800 home runs. Griffey at 29 years old had 398 home runs and had led the league in home runs four times. Heck, in 1994, if it hadn’t been for the strike, Griffey had a real shot at challenging Maris’ record.

However, if there was any way that Griffey made his mark, it wasn’t the 13 All-Star games or MVP award. It was the Home Run Derby. The derby seemed to be made for Griffey.

Overall, Griffey was in the derby in 1990, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1997, 1998, 1999 and 2000 and won in 1994, 1998 and 1999. His backward hat, beautiful swing and his easy power was something that was absolutely remarkable to watch.

1. Hank Aaron

I’m going to likely get a lot of flack here, and I’ll gladly take it, but it would take a remarkable player to move beyond Griffey. Henry Aaron was that player.

The original TV show was a great production. It was hokey, yet the raw commentary along the way was one of those things that you just couldn’t script as players would offer random one-liners along the way that the announcer tried to keep moving through.

When announcer/host Mark Scott passed away suddenly and tragically in 1960 from a heart attack, the show was canceled and a second season was never completed. Mantle made the comment in an interview later that had he been forced to face Aaron, he wouldn’t have signed on for a second season.

Aaron wasn’t a guy who leveraged his swing in-game, but his wrists were so fast and so powerful that he could easily drive out balls, even when he wasn’t trying to leverage his swing for a homer, as evidenced by the fact that he knocked 755 balls out of the ballpark. His swing in the Home Run Derby, though, included leverage into those powerful wrists, which made him nearly untouchable.

If it hadn’t been for the rule of having a player continue going if he won, and the show’s schedule of filming frequently 3-4 episodes in a single day, Aaron may have kept going. He stated in one interview that he simply got tired in the one game he did lose in his entire run on the show to Wally Post. Overall, Aaron went 6-1 on the show.

Next: 2016 Draft Winners and Losers

So who would be on your list? Who would you have to have in your Home Run Derby competition?

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