Tater Trot Tracker: May 29
Home Run of the Day: Kendry Morales, Los Angeles Angels (Trot Time: 22.32 seconds) [video]
Since there's no way for me to cheat Roy Halladay's perfect game into the Home Run of the Day slot, we've got to give the honor to Anaheim's Kendry Morales, whose tenth-inning walkoff grand slam will be remembered for much different reasons than he'd have liked. After running hard around the bases (the 22.32 second trot is faster-than-average for both a walkoff and a grandslam), Morales did the big leap-onto-homeplate-in-the-middle-of-my-teammates thing that everyone seems to love to do (except, you know, when Prince Fielder does it). Except, this time, Morales didn't land cleanly on the plate. He landed in such a way that he twisted the ankle and broke his leg.
I've watched a lot of walkoff home runs this year (26 to be exact) and they almost always end in the same jump/celebration. Some jumps are higher than others (Jerry Hairston's walkoff from last week was particularly big), but it does always feel like they're taking just a little bit of a risk doing it. I can't imagine this doesn't have at least a little bit of an effect on player's celebrations over the next couple of weeks. Things will be back to normal - for better or worse - by the All-Star break, though.
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Slowest Trot: Russell Branyan, Cleveland Indians - 25.77 seconds [video]
Russell Branyan hits big home runs and takes his time running the bases. That may be all the guy does. At least they're fun to watch. The next two slowest trots of the day both belong to Cincinnati's Ramon Hernandez, whose two home run trots were timed at 24.82 and 25.11 seconds.
Quickest Trot: Orlando Hudson, Minnesota Twins - 17.63 seconds [video]
Some of these fast ballplayers really need to start listening to me. After blazing around the bases on his sixth-inning home run, Hudson slowed down so much on his last few steps that he spent more than a full second to go those last ten feet or so. If he had just ran through the base at full stride like I've advocated many times before, he very possibly could have challenged Adam Rosales for the third fastest trot of the day. As it is, his trot isn't even in the top ten. Next time, Orlando, run through the base! It's so much more fun to watch.
