Quick Look: The Home Run Derby channel takes a historic look at an age-old tradition that happens every year at the MLB All-Star game. The channel contains historic footage from the original contest that was held at a crowd-free neutral park that favors neither an American or National league player, nor a left- or right-handed batter, and has equidistant fences in both left and right field.
The "rules" of the contest include a 9 inning game where batters (home run leaders in each division) go head to head where ground balls and any other hit balls that fail to leave the park are an out. Each batter stays at the plate until he reaches 3 outs. Batters do not need to swing at every pitch but an umpire will be calling strikes. Incentives include the winner getting $2,000.00; loser gets $1,000.00, 3 consecutive HRs nets a bonus of $500.00; 4HRs in a row gets an additional $500.00; each additional consecutive HR gets $1,000.00 each. (Remember this is 1960, when that was a lot of money).
This historic series premiered in 1960 and included contests between Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle, Hank Aaron vs Al Kaline, Hank Aaron vs Duke Snyder and Frank Robinson vs Dick Stuart. The channel has 26 episodes available with a run time of 24 minutes each.
Below is the first episode from this series staring Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle.
-- Information is current as of January 16, 2019
Roku Channel Store Description: Home Run Derby is a special competition held every year the day before the All-Star Game in which players compete to see who can hit the most home runs. Eight players compete in a three-round event, with each player getting 10 outs per round.
CHANNEL STORE CATEGORY: Sports
DEVELOPER: Tech VI
FEES: None
RELATED LINKS: None
