Shocker: Bryce Harper claims Home Run Derby balls were juiced, MLB immediately denies it

Bryce Harper told Jon Heyman of the New York Post this week that the baseballs used in the Home Run Derby at Citizens Bank Park were juiced and for whatever reason, the MLB immediately denied it by claiming the balls were no different than the ones used in the regular season.

Honestly, I just thought we were on the same page that balls would be juiced in the Home Run Derby and that was just part of the show. Bryce Harper pointing it out doesn’t even seem like a big deal and Major League Baseball denying it actually makes them look worse.

Either way, this is the same back-and-forth that happens every single year after the Derby when someone points out that the balls are flying farther than they do in actual games and the league puts out a statement saying everything is normal and nothing to see here while everyone who has ever watched a Home Run Derby knows that the balls are absolutely cooked.

Regular-season baseballs don’t travel 490 feet off the bat of Willson Contreras or 491 feet off Junior Caminero without some help from whatever Rawlings is doing to the leather, right?

I mean, maybe I’m wrong but probably not.

Bryce Harper:

“They’re juiced,” Harper said. “Everybody knows it. They do it every year.”

The balls fly farther in the Derby because the balls are supposed to fly farther in the Derby because the entire point of the event is watching the best power hitters in baseball launch baseballs to distances that make the crowd gasp and the broadcast team scramble for superlatives, and you don’t produce 490-foot home runs on a consistent basis using the same dead baseballs that have been suppressing offensive numbers across the league for the last several seasons.

MLB denying it is also part of the annual tradition because the league can’t publicly admit that they doctor the baseballs for a nationally televised event without opening themselves up to questions about what else they’re doing to the baseballs during the regular season, which is a conversation that MLB has been desperately trying to avoid for years as pitchers and hitters across the sport have complained about inconsistent ball composition affecting performance in ways that the league refuses to acknowledge.

So Bryce Harper says they’re juiced, MLB says they’re not, everyone who watches baseball knows Harper is right, and we all move on until next year’s Derby when someone else says the same thing and the league issues the same denial and the cycle repeats itself because the Home Run Derby juiced-ball dance is as much a part of All-Star week tradition as the game itself at this point.

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