Robinson Cano outslugged Adrian Gonzalez to win the All-Star Home Run Derby on Monday, transporting the old Yankees-Red Sox rivalry to the other side of the country.
Batting last and being pitched to by his father Jose, Cano defeated Gonzalez 12-11 in the finals on Monday after they each hit 20 home runs through two rounds.
In front of a crowd of 44,820 on the night before the All-Star game, Major League Baseball said Cano set a final-round record.
Photo: Reuters
Gonzalez and Cano were the most impressive hitters throughout and they eliminated defending champion David Ortiz of the Red Sox and Milwaukee’s Prince Fielder (nine apiece) in the second round. St Louis’ Matt Holliday (five), Toronto’s Jose Bautista (four), Milwaukee’s Rickie Weeks (three) and the Dodgers’ Matt Kemp (two) didn’t get past the opening round.
Weeks was booed by fans, upset he was picked for the derby over Arizona’s Justin Upton. Chants for Upton resumed when he made nine straight outs.
Fielder, who chose his derby teammates, wound up in a tiebreaker to advance from the first round and went 5 for 5, including a 455 foot drive off the ballpark’s back wall. He had the longest drive of the night at 474 feet and also hit a ball onto the pool deck area in right field.
The pool area was the focus of much of the day’s action, for better or worse.
Days after a fan died at a Texas Rangers game while attempting to catch a ball, the danger was highlighted again when a fan standing on a table above the pool fell trying to catch a homer. He was grabbed by his brother before going all the way over, where he could have fallen about 6m and was dangling by his feet when he was pulled back up.
“I stepped up on the table, I missed the ball by two or three feet and went over,” the fan Keith Carmickle said. “We caught three balls and I told the guys I was going to go for the cycle. Dude, they were really holding onto me.”
Carmickle’s brother grabbed his arms and Aaron Nelson held his legs.
“He wasn’t going down, I was holding on,” Nelson said.
Gonzalez hit a ball that wound up in the swimming pool, along with Mike Moon, a 26-year-old fan who caught the ball before falling into the water, where he was surrounded by bikini-clad women.
“I saw the ball, I didn’t want to spill my beer and I didn’t spill my beer,” he said. “I leaned forward, caught the ball, then fell like that [leaning backward]. It was pretty cool.”
Taiwan’s men’s table tennis team won bronze on Saturday at this year’s International Table Tennis Federation World Team Table Tennis Championships in London, matching the country’s best-ever finish at the regular tournament. Consisting of Lin Yun-ju, Taiwan’s top-ranked player at world No. 7, Feng Yi-hsin, Kuo Guan-hong, Hong Jing-kai and Hsu Hsien-chia, the team won bronze after losing 0-3 to Japan in the semifinals. In the opening match, 24-year-old Lin played the first game against world No. 3 Tomokazu Harimoto 11-5, but ultimately lost the next three closely contested games 9-11, 10-12 and 10-12. Feng then faced world No. 8 Sora Matsushima in
Taiwanese fire dancer Yang Li-wei advanced to the final of Britain’s Got Talent this weekend after receiving a Golden Buzzer during her live semi-final performance. Yang, a member of Taiwan’s Coming True Fire Group, awed judges and audiences with a high-intensity fire performance featuring flaming umbrellas, fire swallowing and spinning metal structures balanced with her legs. Judge Simon Cowell praised Yang as a star, while guest judge KSI reacted with amazement before pressing the Golden Buzzer, sending her to the finals. The dance group wrote on social media that the Golden Buzzer was “the highest honor” on the talent show, adding: “Twenty-three years
Memphis Grizzlies forward Brandon Clarke, 29, has died, the NBA team said in a statement on Tuesday, while the family of Jason Collins, the first openly gay man to play in a major US pro sports league, announced the former Grizzlies and Brooklyn Nets player had died after a battle with brain cancer. “We are heartbroken by the tragic loss of Brandon Clarke,” the Grizzlies said in a statement posted on social media. “Brandon was an outstanding teammate and an even better person whose impact on the organization and the greater Memphis community will not be forgotten.” The statement did not provide
As Super Rugby fast approaches its playoff season it finds itself racing toward a reckoning with many issues that threaten the southern hemisphere tournament. A group of stakeholders met in the New Zealand city of Christchurch late last month to address problems that are making the future of the 31-year-old competition increasingly tenuous. The discussion was made more urgent by the decision by the owners of Moana Pasifika to fold the Auckland-based club for financial reasons. That followed the closure of the Melbourne Rebels at the end of the 2024 season, likewise because of financial difficulties. Problems addressed included player retention as more
RSS