| 06 May 2010
Home Run of the Day: Eric Patterson, Oakland Athletics (Trot Time: 18.17 seconds) [video]
There were certainly bigger home runs hit yesterday - both Carlos Lee and Orlando Cabrera hit walkoff shots to win their ballgames - but it's the look of Patterson's golf shot that I like so much. They tried to highlight how cool it looked on MLB Network's Quick Pitch this morning, but I think that gets in the way. Just watch the clip and try to figure out for yourself just how low he had to drop to connect on that pitch. It's beautiful.
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Slowest Trot: Orlando Cabrera, Cincinnati Reds - 28.9 seconds [video]
I watched this video at least three times to get an accurate time. Not only was it difficult to tell exactly when he touched home plate in that huge mob of his teammates (or even if he actually did - I assume his teammates didn't start touching him until after he actually touched the plate), but I also wanted to make sure that such a slow trot was accurately counted. Wouldn't want our leaderboards polluted with bad data.
Quickest Trot: Eric Patterson, Oakland Athletics - 18.17 seconds [video]
We already talked about Patterson's Tiger Woods impersonation above. Besides Patterson, the next fastest trots belonged to Ian Desmond (19.36 secs), David Wright (19.29 secs), and Tommy Manzella (19.75 secs). The home run by Houston's Manzella was the first of his career. At some point, I think you'll see a post from me about how different players have ran out their first career home runs.
