Vladimir Guerrero Jr. won the 2023 Home Run Derby competition, beating Tampa Bay Rays’ Randy Arozarena in the finals.

I will always watch MLB All-Star weekend events. I have been my entire life and it’s just something that I consider a part of the MLB season. However, if I’m being totally honest with you, there’s a lot of things wrong with current the Home Run Derby format and broadcast.

The fact that it’s timed instead of the original “outs” format makes everything seem rushed and creates a chaotic viewing experience.

On top of that, the broadcast’s split screen that just shows the batter hitting the baseball and then a camera that spends the majority of time zoomed it at the warning track makes you feel like you’re not even watching a home run derby to begin with.

Then of course, during the final round, one of the line drives struck by Vladimir Guerrero Jr hit one of the kids in the outfield directly in the head with a baseball.

When the top trending moment from last night was Vladimir Guerrero Jr crushing a baseball straight into a kids face on a line drive to left field, Major League Baseball might was to reconsider a few things, right?

Vladimir Guerrero Jr Hits Kid in the Head During Home Run Derby

Kids are allowed to be on the field to chase baseballs during the Home Run Derby. That’s somewhat of a tradition during the Midsummer Classic. However, there has to be a better way to ensure their safety.

The MLB probably dreads this type of situation. You can’t have things like this happen where some kid gets crushed in the head by a baseball that was reportedly traveling at 115.8 MPH. 

I understand that it’s already somewhat insane to even have kids out on the warning track and in the outfield while a Major League Baseball player is swinging as hard and as fast as possible to hit as many home runs as they can in a now timed event.

This clip in particular immediately went viral across social media and the result was the kid laying lifeless in the field and quick camera cut back to the Derby. 

I mean Jesus Christ. That was dark. 

Let’s all just hope the kid was okay. At the time I was writing this, there were no updates or really anyone even talking about it outside of those cracking jokes on social media.

Hopefully, this kid walked out of the hospital looking like Scotty Smalls from The Sandlot and has a good story to tell. 

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