For those of you who watched last night, you can probably say to yourself, "I'll never see a homerun derby that is more spectacular than this. For those who didn't watch, let me fill you in. All was going well until Josh Hamilton stepped up to the plate in round one, and hit 28 tape measure shots. I think his longest was either 513 or 518. To put that in perspective, Mickey Mantle hit a homer 565 ft., and 634 ft. I also read that he managed to hit over 700ft. in an exhibtion game. One blast looked like it might have actually gone out of the park. A feat that no one in the history of Yankee Stadium has ever managed to do. Mickey Mantle came the closed when during a regualr season game, he hit one that was 3 or 4 feet away from clearing the fences. Instead it hit the facade in right and probably bounced back into the stadium. I heard that Josh Gibson supposedly hit one of the park during an exhibition game in the '30's. However, the only confirmation of this event is the word of Satchel Paige, who claims that Josh Gibson did in fact hit one of the park. I for one believe it, with a player with as much power as Gibson, there's no doubt he had the potentional to hit it out. Back to last night, in round two Mourneau hit 9 homers to make his total 17, putting him past Lance Berkamn and Ryan Braun. In the final round, Mourneau hit 5. A fatigued Hamilton stepped up to the plate and only belted out 3 round trippers. Not enough to win, but coming in 2nd isn't always a bad thing. Many say Morneau's win will be forgotten quickly becuase of the show Hamilton put on. Hamilton made many new fans out of players and non-fans alike. At one point, the entire 55,000+ crowd were all cheering "Hamilton" "Hamilton". This was truly a sporting event for the record books, a good way to wrap up Yankee Stadium's long and rich history.
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