March 8, 2013

Tater Trot Tracker

Hanley & the World Baseball Classic

by Larry Granillo

If you weren't watching any of the World Baseball Classic over the last 24 hours, you missed some intense and exciting games. Italy beating Mexico on a ninth-inning comeback and Japan beating Chinese Taipei in extra-innings after tying it up on their last strike are great examples of how this tournament can be so fun (especially if you love sacrifice bunts!), but the other two games were just as eventful. The battle between Venezuela and the Dominican Republic was especially rowdy, with the crowd in Puerto Rico's Hiram Bithorn Stadium cheering loudly all night, even through a 50-minute rain delay in the first inning.

There was also this massive bomb from the Dodgers' Hanley Ramirez off Rockies pitcher Jhoulys Chacin in the fifth inning.

The video highlight doesn't show the whole trot, but my official estimate puts it at 31.06 seconds. The camera angle was poor, though, so it could be anywhere in the 30-31 second range.

This is not the first 30-second trot from Ramirez. Last July, after going homerless for nearly an entire month, he celebrated his shot into Miami's Clevelander Club with a 30.3 second trot. Ramirez was joined in the half-minute club two months later by Bobby Abreu, whose 31.56 second trot is still the longest trot recorded since the start of the 2010 season.

Ramirez's trot slides ahead of Cuba's Alfredo Despaigne for the longest trot of the World Baseball Classic, though not by much. On Wednesday, in a game against Japan, Despaigne launched a ball into the eighth row over the 19-foot wall in left-center field. His trot was a Big Papi-esque 28.47 seconds.

Other World Baseball Classic trots are being tracked on Twitter at @TaterTrotTrkr, as my DVR and internet highlights allow. Follow along there!

Drew Butera, fuoricampo (4º inn.). La durata della sua corsa era di 21.04 secondi. #wbc

— Tater Trot Tracker (@TaterTrotTrkr) March 8, 2013