Maybe the Home Run Derby doesn’t have to be limited to All-Star weekend.
The Milwaukee Brewers had Prince Fielder, Ryan Braun and several other former players competing in an alumni home run derby that followed a game with the Miami Marlins last month. The promotion helped draw a sellout crowd of 41,944 fans, with nearly all of them sticking around to watch the postgame event.
Other clubs noticed, too.
“I thought it was a great idea and applaud them,” Arizona Diamondbacks president and CEO Derrick Hall said. “I believe all of us will be considering something similar.”
Brewers manager Pat Murphy is among those already has been conjuring up ways to expand on this idea.
“I think it just opens the door,” Murphy said. “Can you imagine the Brewers versus the Cubs home run derby — their three legends versus legends of ours. You know what I mean? Can you imagine that happening around the league?”
The Brewers’ home run derby occurred 11 days after Seattle’s Cal Raleigh won Major League Baseball’s Home Run Derby and 10 days after the All-Star Game was decided on a swing-off. With the game tied 6-6 after nine innings, three batters from each league took three swings and Philadelphia’s Kyle Schwarber homered three times to give the NL a 4-3 victory.
Brewers president of business operations Rick Schlesinger said a half-dozen MLB teams reached out after their alumni home run derby to get information on how well it had worked.
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Milwaukee’s promotion was part of a 25th-anniversary celebration of American Family Field. Keon Broxton, who played for the Brewers from 2016-18, won the event and recreated Fielder’s most famous home-run celebration by standing tall at home while the teammates surrounding him fell back like a collection of bowling pins.
“It was awesome,” Broxton said afterward.
Milwaukee wasn’t the first team to do this kind of promotion. The Houston Astros staged their own alumni home run derby events in 2018 and 2019. The Atlanta Braves had an alumni softball home run derby last year.
The format represents a different way to welcome back former players rather than having the traditional Old Timers’ Day games from yesteryear. The New York Yankees are holding their first Old Timers’ Day game since 2019 on Aug. 9, and the New York Mets are having an alumni game Sept. 13.
But the Brewers’ event last weekend generated plenty of national attention, particularly when highlights aired showing how the stands stayed packed throughout the event.
“The guys that were all here, we all said we’d be back for anything like that, whether it’s something like what Murph suggested or even keeping it in house and playing a couple-inning game … maybe guys from 2005-10 against guys from 2010-15,” said Casey McGehee, who played for the Brewers from 2009-11 and participated in the home run derby. “I think there’s a lot of opportunity for some really cool stuff to come from it.”
Marlins manager Clayton McCullough said he didn’t get a chance to watch the alumni derby that followed his team’s game in Milwaukee, but he liked Murphy’s idea about branching it out.
“A big part of the beauty of our sport is how you remember those who played before, the history of our game and had success for your organization or those who made impacts throughout the league,” McCullough said. “So anytime we get a chance to celebrate those who did meaningful things, I’m all for it.”
The trick in putting together an alumni home-run derby is finding the right participants. They must be old enough to have finished playing but remain young enough to still manage to hit batting-practice pitches out of a major league stadium.
The Brewers didn’t put up makeshift fences in the outfield for this event to make home runs easier, and the former players’ swings weren’t leaving the ballpark as often as when they were in the big leagues.
McGehee believes future home run derby promotions could feature more power than what the ex-Brewers showcased last weekend. McGehee said he tried working on his swing before last week’s event, but family obligations got in the way.
If he gets another invitation, McGehee expects to be more prepared.
“I think knowing what we know now, the product would probably even get better because we saw how cool that was,” McGehee said. “I think people would be carving out pretty significant parts of their days to get themselves ready to roll.”
Reporting by The Associated Press.
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