The Awesome History Of Phillies In The Home Run Derby

The Home Run Derby is easily my favorite all-star game-related competition in any sport, and nothing really comes close. I snooze heavily on the NBA dunk contest and 3-point contest, especially in recent years. The NFL just recently started doing competitions for their pro bowl week after fans essentially got on their hands and knees begging for something to make the pro bowl even remotely interesting (doesn’t do it for me). The NHL might have it figured it out, and even still I don’t care enough to watch.

 

But the Home Run Derby is something special. It has been appointment viewing for me since the summer of 2008, when I was just 10 years old. My cousin and I watched as our favorite player Chase Utley went up against Dan Uggla, Evan Longoria, Josh Hamilton, and Justin Morneau in the old Yankee Stadium, which was about the size of the fields at Williamsport. I was hooked.

 

Maybe it’s because a sweet swing from a major leaguer as they effortlessly hit a baseball to the moon is therapeutic. Maybe it’s because the MLB has no issue getting their stars to participate in awesome event. Or, maybe it’s because home runs are, simply, objectively fucking cool.

 

With Kyle Schwarber not only participating in the Derby tonight, but being the #1 seed and one of the odds-on favorites to win the whole thing, I’m pumped for tonight. Hopefully he will add to the impressive resume the Phils already have from Derby’s past. Even when a Phillie wasn’t winning the whole thing, they still found a way to impress.

 

The First Phil In The Derby – 2004

 

Jim Thome, who had just come to Philly on a big free agent deal the year before, entered the all-star break in ’04 leading the league in taters with 28. He also hit his 400th career homer a month before the derby against the Reds with his family in the stands.

 

 

The Phils first Derby showing was less than impressive, however, as Thome would hit just four ding-dongs and would be eliminated in the first round. What people didn’t know at the time is Thome would hit just 21 more homers in red pinstripes on that contract. He was traded ahead of the 2006 season because the Phils had a young slugger starting to come into his own while filling in for an injured Thome in 2005. That youngster may or may not be mentioned later on.

 

Thome would come back for one more stint with the Phils in the first half of the 2012 season, before being traded to Baltimore mid-season. His final memory with the Phillies was this super cool walk-off homer against Tampa Bay. That swing is awesome.

 

 

The Phirst Phillies Derby Champ – 2005

 

Bobby Abreu entered the 2005 Derby in the middle-of-the-pack in terms of the other contestants. Abreu headed into the all-star break with 18 dongshots, a long cry from the league-leaders. He would leave the Derby having put on the best performance in Home Run Derby history (at the time), and set records still unmatched by any Phillie today.

 

Abreu would absolutely smash a whopping 24 homers in the first round – remember, this was back when there was no timer, every swing that didn’t result in a home run was an out and they only had 10 outs per round. Abreu easily advanced to the final round where he demolished Pudge Rodriguez 11-5. In total, Abreu hit a then-record 41 round-trippers, 21 more than the second place finishers that year. The textbook definition of pure domination.

 

 

Abreu would finish the 2005 season with just six more home runs, and would be traded at the deadline the next season. Abreu hit 195 homers as a member of the Fightin’ Phils, but was traded to clear the way for some core youngsters that would eventually help the Phils win it all two years later.

 

Ryan Howard Becomes A Derby Regular – 2006, 2007, 2009

 

Remember that young slugger that forced the Phils hand in trading Jim Thome? I’m sure you all know of Ryan Howard, he needs no introduction. In 2006, the year of Howard’s first Derby appearance, he was in the midst of one of the greatest power seasons of all-time. He led the majors in homers at the break with 28, and would finish the year with an astonishing 58 tater tots on his way to the NL MVP award.

 

It’s not often that a player hits more home runs in the second half of the season than the first half. Partly because of the fact that there’s less games after the all-star break, but also because guys bodies tend to slow down as the season wears on.

 

Anywho, Howard had the baseball world in the palm of his hand that night. Howard wouldn’t break any records like Abreu did the year before, but he had everyone in awe because of the sheer distance he was hitting some baseballs. In the final round, he did the best thing he could have possibly done in the eyes of Phillies fans: he took down a Met, David Wright, in walk-off fashion.

 

 

He did it with that effortless, sweet stroke that had Phils fans in a chokehold for half-a-decade. I’m certainly biased, but Howard’s no-doubt home run swing is my favorite swing of all-time. It makes me feel a sense of nostalgia and a childhood giddiness I’ve long yearned for since becoming an adult and suffering through years of Cesar Hernandez and Maikel Franco.

 

Howard would attempt to defend his title in 2007, but wouldn’t make it out of the first round. He would participate again in 2009, in his hometown of St. Louis. There, he would smash 15 homers in the first two rounds, but would narrowly miss advancing to the final round by just one mashed tater.

 

Howard would spend his entire major-league career with the Phillies hitting 382 home runs while being the powerful cog in a World-Series-winning-lineup. He is undoubtedly a Philadelphia sports legend.

 

Speaking of Philly Legends… – 2008

 

For baseball historians, this is widely regarded as one of the best Home Run Derby’s in baseball history. Chase Utley had almost nothing to do with it other than the fact that he was just there. Despite leading the majors in homers at the break with 25, Utley would manage to send just five balls over the wall that night. While Josh Hamilton was sending every baseball he saw into the stratosphere, Chase Utley decided he had better things to do.

 

Even still, in a way that only Utley could, his presence at that Derby is remembered in Philly Twitter lore. In a span of five seconds, everything Philly loved about Utley was announced to the world. While being introduced, the city of New York greeted Utley with a chorus of boo’s, something he was accustomed to in that atrocity of a city. His response is so beautifully representative of who Chase Utley was as a Phillie that it brings a tear to my eye.

 

 

“Boo? Fuck you!” is the epitome of Chase Utley. He’s so unintentionally hilarious. His natural hatred for the city of New York is something Philly fans dream of when they think of the perfect Philly athlete. There’s nothing better than an athlete on your team hating your biggest rival as much as you do.

 

No question about it, Utley hated that city, and hated the Mets and Yankees just as much. He would prove it too, by being the absolute best and most annoying version of himself whenever he played either team. I still maintain he should have gotten votes for 2009 World Series MVP against the Yankees. Damn, I miss watching him play baseball.

 

Rhys Hoskins Has Underrated Performance In Front Of Future Phils – 2018

 

Rhys Hoskins entered the 2018 Home Run Derby as an up-and-coming power bat in the majors. After his historic 2017 season saw him hit the most home runs ever in a player’s first 35 games, the nation needed to see Hoskins for themselves. Despite being the lowest-seeded player in the Derby, Hoskins found himself in the second round against some dude named Kyle Schwarber.

 

Hoskins represented not only himself well that night, but also the future of the Phillies. Schwarber’s absurd power would eventually knock out Hoskins in dramatic fashion, but I can almost guarantee that Schwarber took notice of Hoskins’ performance.

 

 

In the first year of the new tournament style matchup, Hoskins was the first player to ever hit 20 home runs in a semi-final round of the Derby. His 37 total homers are still the second most of any Phillie in the Derby, right behind Abreu’s 2005 performance that saw him hit 41 en route to a title.

 

Hoskins’ impact in that Derby would go further than just that night in that ballpark. This was because some long-haired hometown hero was watching those two battle it out before he would claim the Derby title later that night. That same guy would be a free agent at season’s end, and this Derby was essentially his national goodbye to the city of Washington D.C. He has later said that he was impressed with Hoskins’ showing that night, and I’m willing to bet it had an impact on his decision in the 2019 offseason.

 

That guy was none other than Bryce Harper. If you had told me back in July of 2018 that the Phillies would eventually have the three biggest stars from that Home Run Derby batting first, second, and third in their regular lineup, I would have shit myself.

 

My Prediction For Tonight

 

Kyle Schwarber wins this puppy Ryan Howard style: walk-off fashion, against a Met that I’d really like to see get punched in the face, with Chase Utley handing out the trophy and spitting in the direction of Pete Alonso. Gimme gimme gimme.

By Matt Szczypiorski | July 18, 2022
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