Fix The Home Run Derby?! It Never Needed Fixing

(Allen Kee/ESPN Images)
-Large bird noises- GONE!

The Home Run Derby is currently broken. There's no sense in how the 2014 competition sponsored by Gillette was set up this year. It started out very interesting as there would be seeding based on how well players did in the first round of no match-ups. It felt similar to the NBA's awful team dunk contest from February but less forced. Unlike previous seasons, this years field had ten batters instead of eight and four intolerable rounds instead of the typically quicker three. After the first round, three batters from each league advanced with one from each league automatically advancing to the third round with a bye that completely ruined their swings and resulted in third-round eliminations. The rest of the field played out in a tournament that was seemingly much longer than any previous home run derby. Maybe this was due to the hour-long rain delay or maybe it felt that long because it was really THAT long.

This is the first Home Run Derby that I found exhausting, the first one where the fans seemed out of it (likely because of the rain delay), the first one where ESPN did the worst possible job with my favorite night of the baseball season. People who are average baseball fans hate the pacing of games today with the Red Sox and Yankees getting the most national coverage and milking four hours out of a washed-up rivalry that reeks of terrible baseball this season (neither team would make the playoffs if the season ended today). Not every team has a Yasiel Puig. Not every team has a Carlos Gomez. It's a shame but, some teams just aren't that enthralling this year. With that said, the Home Run Derby is supposed to be part of ALL-STAR WEEKEND so the fans should expect ALL-STARS. Not just your run-of-the-mill Todd Fraziers, your .240 batting averaged Josh Donaldsons, your lefty who's aiming for a terribly high right-field porch Justin Morneaus. The Home Run Derby was fine with eight players and could have used the cutting out of a few aforementioned names.

Every national sport should be concerned with the pacing of their games. Here's how each of the big 3 sports (sorry hockey) looks at this pacing challenge and how their plans are working out.

NFL: "Less is more" Result: $$$$$$$
NBA: "Look at our big stars! We're fine as is" Result: A decent amount of upset fans but the sport is in good shape.
MLB: "Let's drag out everything as long as possible. I'm talking 162 regular-season games! 4 hour Home Run Derbies!" Result: People are bored. The worst possible thing for fans to be.

So, how does the next MLB commissioner solve this minor yet important (when looking at baseball's strong nostalgia/tradition connection) issue? Go back to the eight batter, three round tournament or even better yet, go back down to six batters. How does ESPN help get the viewers attention? This isn't as easy but they need to set up interviews during the derby like they did two years ago back in Kansas City, where Chris Berman actually held a very interesting interview with George Brett. This year, we were stuck listening to a less-"BACK" heavy Chris Berman and a completely emotionless John Kruk. It's time we split this team up and brought some fresh announcers to create a new Home Run Derby team. I'd take Neil Anderson (basically anyone with baseball knowledge could be inserted here) and Berman next year if I were ESPN but I'm sure they won't change the team and will instead let the event die like they have Sunday Night Baseball's ratings or the entire sport of hockey's relevancy to their channel.

 USA TODAY SPORTS/REUTERS
Don't let it fool you though, Yoenis Cespedes earned back-to-back trophies Monday night.