Screencapture via MLB.com
The Carolina League Home Run Derby was the place to be last night. While Tanner Roark was getting his tits lit in Miami, Haley Toyota Field in Salem, Virginia was getting a little bit less lit. Eloy Jimenez, a 20-year-old outfield prospect for the Chicago Cubs who was representing the Myrtle Beach Pelicans, destroyed a lamp in the outfield light tower, like Roy Hobbs did in The Natural.It's missing the dramatic music and the total destruction of the tower, but it's no less impressive because, you know, it's not a movie.Elsewhere at the Derby, we had of a Baseball Name for the Ages reveal itself in the form of Derby runner up Sicnarf Loopstok, a name not even George Lucas could dream up.
While Eloy and Sicnarf won our hearts, Jake Gatewood of the Carolina Mudcats, an affiliate of the Milwaukee Brewers, won the hardware. Sicnarf hit 44 home runs total, but 30 of them were in the first two rounds. He "only" hit 14 in the final. Gatewood outlasted him by one, mashing 15 taters to take home the title.