“I’m really looking forward to watching it,” said Reds right fielder Jay Bruce, who could become the career leader in home runs at GABP by the end of the season.
Bruce has hit 117 home runs at GABP, including nine this year that put him on pace to pass Adam Dunn (126) for the career lead sometime in September.
Dunn not only has the most home runs in stadium history, he owns the longest one ever launched, a 535-foot shot off Jose Lima in 2004 that cleared the batter’s eye in center field and left the stadium.
It’s doubtful anyone will ever hit a ball out of the stadium to center field again with the construction of the riverboat deck above the batter’s eye a few years ago. But the boat will just make for another target when 10 of the game’s biggest sluggers arrive to take their hacks in the derby.
“I think it will be a cool place to have because there are things you can hit, whether it’s the riverboat or the power stacks or even see someone hit it out of the stadium to right field,” Bruce said. “It’s something I always watch, but this year it’s going to be even more fun to see.”
Reds third baseman Todd Frazier, whose 24 home runs this season rank tied in second in MLB, has triggered four of the 14 longest blasts in GABP history and is a virtual lock to be among the five players competing in the derby for the National League.
“It’s always in the back of my mind,” Frazier said. “It’s hard for it not to be because my buddies keep talking about it. They’re really excited. They’re more excited about it right now than I am, but by the time it rolls around, I’m going to be really excited, too. It’s going to be cool.”
Frazier, whose 485-foot shot off Colorado’s Jhoulys Chacin in May 2014 ranks as the sixth-longest in GABP history, competed in the derby for the first time last year and reached the finals before losing to Oakland’s Yoenis Cespedes.
“Hopefully I can get to the finals and make a better showing this year,” Frazier said.
While GABP leads all parks in home runs since opening, the numbers have been declining of late. There were 209 balls that left the yard in 2011, 199 in 2012, 184 in 2013 and 165 last year, when GABP ranked sixth among the 30 MLB stadiums.
This season there have been 89 home runs in 34 games at the park, including at least one in every contest. That sets a pace for 212, which would be the most 2008. The single-season record is 246, set in 2005.
And while the Home Run Derby will not count toward any of those numbers, or count toward much of anything aside from pride, it’s going to be a must-watch event for most of the players who call the park home.
“I think everyone in this clubhouse is excited to see it,” Frazier said. “It’s going to be a show.”
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