MLB 2019 Home Run Derby

Last night's MLB Home Run Derby held in Cleveland was spectacular, maybe the best ever. In the first round 20-year old Vladimir Guerrero Jr. broke the record for one round with 29 homers. In the second round Guerrero Jr. broke the record again. Joc Pederson tied him. Guerrero and Pederson then did three tiebreaker rounds before Guerrero Jr. finally won 40-39. In the final round Guerrero faced Pete Alonso. Alonso won 23-22. Both are rookies.  The results and each player's regular season home run and their years in the league follow. Oddly, the 2nd place finisher had way more home runs for the night than the first place finisher -- 91-57. Alonso's prize, $1 million, was more than than his regular season salary of $555,000. 

First round
Joc Pederson (21 homers) def. Alex Bregman (16)
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (29) def. Matt Chapman (13)
Ronald Acuna Jr. (25)  def. Josh Bell (18)
Pete Alonso (14) def. Carlos Santana (13)

Semifinals
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (40) def. Joc Pederson (39) on three tiebreakers
Pete Alonso (20) def. Ronald Acuna Jr. (19)

Finals
Pete Alonso (23) def. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (22)

2019 Regular Season
Joc Pederson (20) 6th yr
Alex Bregman (23) 4th yr
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (8) rookie
Matt Chapman (21)  4th yr
Ronald Acuna Jr. (21) 2nd yr
Josh Bell (27) 4th yr
Pete Alonso (30)  rookie
Carlos Santana (19) 10th yr

Neither the AL home-run leader, Mike Trout, nor NL home run leader, Christian Yelich, was in the Derby. Yelich opted out due to recovering from an injury. Mike Trout has always opted out. Anyway, if only the top 4 home-run leaders in each league were always selected and Trout opted in, he would compete nearly every year. It's pretty clear that whoever selects the participants likes to choose young, rising stars.

I am puzzled why Guerrero Jr. was even picked. He had the least number of home runs -- only 8 -- in the regular season of the eight players who participated. Second least is 19. He did not make the All-Star game roster, and he was 6th in voting for AL 3rd baseman! Was it because his father was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2018? Why, for example, wasn't Gleyber Torres, a 2nd year player with 19 home runs picked? Guerrero Jr. performed spectacularly, but I for one would not have predicted that when selections were made.

LeBron, Trump, Altruism

President Trump, with a mouth like a loose cannon, has triggered another backlash by trying to insult LeBron James. Trump tweeted: “Lebron James was just interviewed by the dumbest man on television, Don Lemon. He made Lebron look smart, which isn’t easy to do. I like Mike!”

I don’t know how smart Don Lemon is. It was the first time I heard of him. Anyway, Trump implied LeBron is quite dumb, too. The Mike who Trump mentions is presumably Michael Jordan. Trump’s wife Melania and Michael Jordan both defended LeBron after her husband's remark, both on the grounds of LeBron’s charitable contributions. LeBron contributing to his hometown of Akron, Ohio for a new public elementary school was a big factor in being interviewed by Lemon.

Dan Rather called Trump's remark "racist" (link). How so when Trump said he likes Mike, likely Michael Jordan?

How intelligent is LeBron? He is surely no dummy. He had a 3.2 GPA (out of 4?) in high school, a Catholic high school that recently was designated a STEM school, the only Catholic high school in Ohio to earn this designation (link). LeBron has plenty of basketball smarts and street smarts, too. Examples of the former are (1) passing the basketball to a teammate positioning it and spinning it the way his teammate likes it, and (2) some of his defensive plays such as his blocking Andre Iguodala’s layup in game 7 of the 2016 NBA Finals (link).  For sure Donald Trump did not show that level of anticipation before his business bankruptcies! Regarding street smarts are LeBron’s choosing his agent, his business advisers, and the business decisions they have made.

Trump’s saying he likes Mike likely refers to the numerous ongoing debates about who is the all-time greatest basketball player. Many say Jordan and many say LeBron. Several stats can be used to support either side. Regardless, even if a person likes one better than the other, it is undeniable that the difference is extremely small. Assuming a scale 0-10 with 10 best, if one gets 10, the other deserves 9.9.

Moving on to LeBron’s charity donations illuminates widely-held ideas and feelings about altruism. Both Melania Trump and Michael Jordan defend LeBron for his donations while saying nothing about LeBron’s virtues and productivity that made the donations possible. (Edit: Ohio governor John Kasich did likewise.) It’s akin to praising the icing on a cake with no recognition of, or taking for granted, the rest of the cake. Such is the praise that exalts altruism as virtuous without recognizing the virtue of the production, or taking production for granted, without which the giving would be impossible. Such is the moral praise of Mother Teresa, whose giving was made possible by the donations of others. Such is the moral praise of Bernie Sanders and his ilk, whose giving via government relies on the coercive extraction of the income and assets of other people.

“My views on charity are very simple. I do not consider it a major virtue and, above all, I do not consider it a moral duty. There is nothing wrong in helping other people, if and when they are worthy of the help and you can afford to help them. I regard charity as a marginal issue. What I am fighting is the idea that charity is a moral duty and a primary virtue.” – Ayn Rand, Playboy interview

By saying “marginal” I assume she meant relative to the other virtues.

Sports contests

I was very disappointed that the Cleveland Indians lost 3 games to the New York Yankees, and thus the series, after winning the first 2 games. The Indians had the best W-L record in the American League during the regular season, thanks in part to 22 consecutive wins, an all-time record, during late August to mid-September. Hopes were high for Indians fans.

The thrill of victory… and the agony of defeat - Jim McKay/ABC Sports.

Now it's Cubs vs. Dodgers and Astros vs. Yankees to see who plays in the World Series. Go, Astros!

I finished in first place in my CBS Sports Fantasy Baseball League this year.  I was in the middle of the pack until almost mid-season, suddenly jumped to first, and fell back to 7th in early September. I was fortunate to have Paul Goldschmidt, Carlos Correa, Willson Contreras, Corey Kluber, and Kenley Jensen all season (minus short stints on the disabled list). I grabbed Ryan Zimmerman as a Free Agent early in the season. Zimmerman had a career best year after disappointing ones in 2014-16. I also grabbed Trevor Bauer as a Free Agent for about the last 6 weeks of the season. During those 6 weeks he W5-L1 with an ERA of 3.19.

Sports contests

I entered the Post Newspapers NCAA basketball tourney bracket challenge again this year. I finished at the 68th percentile among over 134,000 entries. That's not great but it was better than all but one of the 13 "experts" at CBSSports.com. I did better than Barack Obama on every round through the Final Four, but he beat me overall.  I had two of the Final Four correct versus his one. He picked one of the final two teams and the champion -- North Carolina. Correct picks in later rounds count more.

Surprising teams were South Carolina, a #11 seed that made it to the Final Four, and Xavier, another  #11 seed that made it to the Elite Eight.

I'm playing Fantasy Baseball again this year. It's a long season.

Cleveland Celebrates

The Cleveland Cavaliers NBA Champs victory celebration parade is happening today in downtown Cleveland.  It’s pandemonium in the metro area. An estimated more than a million people are amassed downtown. The public transportation system is swamped. The outermost station of one commuter train line is at the airport. The airport parking lots are full due to people parking there to merely try to catch a train to get downtown. There are long lines of people waiting to board at every train station in the area, and many bus stops.

My wife and I went to the train station one stop from the airport towards downtown. The scene was much like described above. It might have been a good idea if we had attempted it about three hours earlier. We will experience it from home via television.  The local CBS station is providing live coverage, probably most of the day. 

Sports contests

I entered the Post Newspapers NCAA basketball tourney bracket challenge again this year. In 2013-15 I did pretty well, making the top 25 among Strongsville entries each time, which got my name in the Strongsville Post. This year I did so again, and I finished at the 76th percentile locally and 77th nationally. The wider groups include a bunch of local newspapers. There were 923 local entries and over 141,000 national entries. I don't know how many for Strongsville. My decent rank was supported by picking 2 of the final 4 teams, one being North Carolina which lost in the finals. I picked champion Villanova to make it only to the Sweet 16. My worst pick was Michigan State. I picked them to make the Final Four; they lost in the first round.

I'm playing Fantasy Baseball again this year. I was lucky in drafting rookie Colorado shortstop Trevor Story, who is one of the big stories so far this very young season. He hit 4 home runs in his first 3 major league games. Of course, there are 159 games to go.