Home Run of the Day: Alex Rios, Chicago White Sox (Trot Time: 21.31 seconds) [video]

For the second day in a row, the Home Run of the Day belongs to a member of the Chicago White Sox. In this case, though, the home run is notable not for winning a game, but instead for breaking up an 8th inning no-hitter being tossed by Toronto's Ricky Romero. The two-run shot by Alex Rios immediately followed AJ Pierzynski's "hit by pitch". Some might say the show AJ put on shook Romero up, but I don't buy it completely. Sometimes you just make a mistake at the wrong time. It was Chicago's only hit of the night and though it didn't keep them from losing, it was no less meaningful.

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After Sunday's rampage of homers, the 27 home runs hit on Monday seem like a tame amount. The biggest days belonged to two players many assumed were dead for the season: Scott Rolen and Andruw Jones hit two apiece. Who knows how many they'll hit the rest of the way, but, for one day, they were great.

Home Run of the Day: Mark Teahen, Chicago White Sox (Trot Time: 19.87 seconds) [video]
Nice hit by Teahen to tie the game up in the top of the 9th inning for the visiting White Sox. They would go on to win it in the 11th. It's a shame, then, that all I can think about when I watch that highlight of it (notice the "video" link - sweet, huh?) is just how terrible Hawk Harrelson's home run call is. And it's even worse when you watch three highlights in a row with him calling it. I understand that it's his thing, and that White Sox fans have some kind of relationship with the guy, but, for someone who never really had to listen to him before, it can be excruciating. I wonder what President Obama thinks of the guy, being a White Sox fan and all...

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Sorry for the late timing of this post. Work and all that...

Yesterday was a huge day for home runs. Not only were there 42 home runs hit across the majors (nearly 3 a game!), but some of them were absolute bombs. Pablo Sandoval nearly hit one into McCovey Cove, Matt Holliday crushed a ninth-inning, game-tying home run off the Miller Park scoreboard, and Josh Willingham socked a pretty memorable grand slam in Citi Field that, due to umpire's review, cause Adam Dunn to bowl over the catcher. Not often you see that kind of play at the plate on a home run.

Home Run of the Day: Casey McGehee, Milwaukee Brewers (Trot Time: 25.66* seconds) [video]
With all of those home runs - not to mention the two hit by Albert Pujols - the one I have to go with as the home run of the day is Casey McGehee's walk-off home run with one-out in the bottom of the ninth after Trevor Hoffman had blown a three-run lead in the top half of the inning. The ball shot off his bat into the left-field stands and the place went nuts. It was great thing to experience. (*The plate wasn't in view when Casey reached home, so the time is approximate. The swarm of teammates around home plate helped obscure his feet from the camera.)

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Home Run of the Day: Jason Varitek, Boston Red Sox (Trot Time: 20.75 seconds)
I had a tough time deciding which home run to put here. Ryan Howard's blast off Brandon Lyon was huge, bouncing high up on the wall (above the arches) in left-centerfield in Houston and had every right to be here. But I'm going with Varitek because, not only was it his second homer of the game, but it was caught - on the fly, from what I can tell - by a ten-year old kid wearing a Red Sox jersey. And it's not like he was in a sea of red, he wasn't; he was the only person wearing any Sox gear in that section. That's got to be pretty exciting for that kid.

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The first Friday night of the season found me at Miller Park to watch the Brewers beat the Cardinals. And all was going well until Trevor Hoffman threw what should have been the final strike of the game to pinch-hitting Nick Stavinoha...

 

Home Run of the Day: Nick Stavinoha, St. Louis Cardinals (Trot Time: 19.25* seconds)
Maybe I'm biased because I was on my feet cheering loudly for Hoffman to get that final out and, when the ball just kept carrying, it absolutely destroyed the crowd, but Stavinoha's two-run, go-ahead homer with two outs in the ninth inning seems like it has to be the home run of the day. I can't say the exact time of his trot because the cameras cut away before he touched the plate, but this is a fair approximation.

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I'm toying around with changing the name for this feature to something a little more colorful. My main thought is "The Tater Trot Tracker" and few folks on Twitter seem to like it. I've also heard a few other names that could be fun. If you have any other suggestions, or just want to weigh oin on "The Tater Trot Tracker", let me know in the comments.

Home Run of the Day: Jonny Gomes, Cincinnati Reds (Trot Time: 19.92 seconds)
Let me tell you, people get excited when they hit walkoff home runs. Gomes' home run in the bottom of the ninth in a tie game off of Jason Motte lasered out of the ballpark, and he could not have been happier. Rounding first, Gomes did a little hip waggle with his fingers pointing down like guns. He hopped the last few steps before home plate, and leaped onto home plate (where he barely touched the base) into a mob of his teammates. Good times. If it wasn't for his few hops right before reaching the plate, he probably would've been our quickest trot of the day. And, with the way Marlon Byrd ran the bases, that says something.

But what does it say for MLB.tv that, in a game where 2 of the 3 runs were scored on home runs including a walkoff blast, there were no highlights in its game capsule? Oh, and should we expect any kind of retaliation from the Cardinals for the show of exuberence? I'm betting "no"...

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Well, I've already discovered one thing about doing this that could be annoying (on only the third day, no less): for some reason, MLB does not always include all home runs in a certain games "Highlights" in the video archives. For some games, it even chooses to say "No Highlights" even when there was at least one home run in the game. For these, I have to either go to the team highlight pages (example) that Hit Tracker Online points you too - and where you have to watch commercials before your clips - or go and fish through the entire game for one particular at-bat (the "jump to inning" feature helps here, but not perfectly). That can be annoying.

Home Run of the Day: Ryan Howard, Phi (Trot Time: 25.18 seconds)
An absolute bomb off of Washington's Jason Marquis. A thing of beauty, and an obvious piece of evidence for why Philly loves Howard so much.

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