Uphill climb as Chapman out early
CLEVELAND — The situation is never ideal when an athlete begins a competition aware that he needs to set a record merely to advance.
Which is exactly what A’s third baseman Matt Chapman faced in Monday night’s Home Run Derby at Progressive Field.
Chapman watched as Vladimir Guerrero Jr. opened their round with 29 home runs, a record for any round of the Derby. Guerrero’s first of many rocket shots hit at the bottom of the leftfield scoreboard, 476 feet into the night.
Advancing meant breaking Guerrero’s mark, and Chapman didn’t have it in him — though his first swing resulted in a home run that went 477 feet, one foot farther than Guerrero’s longest.
With his father, Jim, pitching, Chapman could not get untracked. His home runs did go
a long way, averaging a firstroundbest 432.1 feet, with the hardesthit leaving the field at 111 mph. There just weren’t enough of them.
“It’s probably the biggest uphill battle I’ve ever had to fight,” Chapman said. “I wish they would have told me. Guys set me up.”
For the record, he was joking — though he did surmise that maybe Christian Yelich knew something when he withdrew because of back problem to give Chapman his spot ... against Guerrero.
“They set me up,” Chapman said. “‘Hey, by the way, you’re going to be in the Home Run Derby, but you’re going to come up to the plate and you’ve got to hit 30 bombs.’ ”
Guerrero went on to a recordsetting night, hitting 91 home runs and twice hitting 29 in the fourminute round. But in the final round, he was outdone by one by the Mets’ Pete Alonso, 2322. It almost seemed anticlimactic to see Guerrero finish second. While the Toronto rookie was setting records, Alonso was winning his rounds 2019 over Atlanta’s Ronald Acuña Jr. and 1413 over Cleveland’s Carlos Santana.
“It doesn’t matter how many you hit, you just have to have one more than the guy you’re facing,” said Alonso, who donated $100,000 of his milliondollar winnings to help wounded veterans.
Alonso finished with 57 home runs. Guerrero smashed 91 to easily shatter the record of 61, set by Giancarlo Stanton in 2016. Guerrero even won a dramatic second round over Joc Pederson, with 40 home runs in that session that included three swingoffs. Alonso won the trophy; Guerrero, the youngest Derby participant ever, won the night.
Chapman was buoyant as he left the stadium, calling it a crazy day that “was so much fun.”
“It’s probably the biggest uphill battle I’ve ever had to fight.” Matt Chapman, A’s third baseman, on trying (and failing) to set a record to advance in the Home Run Derby
Chapman learned he’d be taking part in the Derby on Sunday. He pondered the invitation briefly, then said yes and invited his father to pitch to him.
“I never thought I’d be here in a million years,” Chapman said during the day, before the event. “But we always joked if I were here, he’d throw to me. I asked him and he said he’s ready to go.”
Jim Chapman spent the day with Matt, standing by the cage during batting practice and joining his son in the clubhouse before the event. Jim even talked briefly about the first time he threw a pitch to his son. That happened when the family moved into a new home in Foothill Ranch in Orange County in 2000, when Matt was 7.
“It was in our living room,” Jim Chapman said. “We had no furniture at the time. We were living in a new house. Threw him an underhand with a Wiffle ball, and he absolutely crushed it. It went into the next room. (Matt’s mom) and I just went, ‘Whoa.’
“That’s when we knew that he had very good handeye coordination.”
Matt left the stadium with zero regrets or bad feelings. Merely being in the Derby was special, he said, and to experience it with his dad …
“Just unbelievable,” he said. “You can’t put a price on it.”