How far will Buck Showalter go to defend his players?
Well, when he joined Carton & Roberts on Monday, Buck was asked by Craig Carton if the All-Star break was truly a few days off from the grind, or if he told his wife and family he absolutely had to watch the game and all the festivities – and Buck’s answer seemingly threw some shade at the Home Run Derby, and the laxity of the contest that may have cost Pete Alonso a three-peat.
“If our guys are participating like Pete, I’ve gotta stay and watch it. One, I want to make sure no one gets hurt…but we have to fix the home run hitting contest. Come on,” Buck said.
When Craig mentioned how the counting of home runs was seemingly inaccurate the entire night, Buck doubled down on the procedure.
“They’re not supposed to throw a pitch until the umpire points, and they’re playing rapid fire. Karl Ravech was talking like he couldn’t even call it,” Buck said. “The way I’d do it is 20 pitches from a machine from 60 feet with real baseballs, so to speak, and let everyone have a level playing field.”
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And then, he tripled down on the chaos.
“I like Pete’s chances when it’s not rapid fire and at the complete mercy of pitchers, and how fast they work and how well they throw,” Showalter said. “There’s three balls in the air at one time: one being thrown and two in flight, not knowing if it’ll clear the fence.”
Buck also said four days off for the All-Star break was maybe too much when it comes to the bullpen, saying “the biggest trouble managers have” is getting their relief corps back on track after everyone has a few days off (barring any All-Star participation, of course) – and then he had one more back-handed dig at the festivities.
“It’s great for the fans, and the All-Star Game has always been fun” he said. “I watched bits and pieces of the game, and as much of the home run contest as I could stand.”
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