Back, Back, Back, Gone

With Alex Rodriguez declining to participate in this years Home Run Derby, the fans at Yankee Stadium had no hometown star to cheer for. However, after a couple of deep Josh Hamilton dingers, the fans wasted no time getting behind Josh Hamilton and his feel good story. Before this year the only thing Josh Hamilton was really known for was his multiple trips to rehab for drug and alcohol addiction and almost busting out of professional baseball altogether despite being the first overall pick by Tampa Bay Devil Rays in 1999.

Josh Hamilton didn’t just hit a couple of huge home runs last night, he hit 28 of them in the first round of the derby, breaking the previous record held by current Yankee Bobby Abreu'. I watch the Home Run Derby every year and every year I’m slightly disappointed and pretty bored; however, this year was different. Home runs are always exciting to watch but when Josh Hamilton was dropping bombs in to the upper deck of Yankee Stadium, the place seemed electric.

Unfortunately, despite his first round performance, Josh Hamilton ended up losing out to Justin Morneau 5-3 in the finals after their count from the first two rounds had been reset. It wasn’t the ending that everyone wanted to see, including Morneau himself, but it was still one hell of a Home Run Derby with a record being broken.

Stay Fa(v)r(e) Away

It’s finally official, Brett Favre wants to come out of retirement and play professional football. However, he’s run in to a bit of a problem as the Green Bay Packers aren’t willing to bend over backwards for the 38 year old quarterback anymore. The Packers are ready to move forward and finally let Favre’s understudy for years, Aaron Rodgers, take the reins of the team and would only take Favre back if he was alright with being Rodgers backup. To no ones surprise that idea did not fly with Favre who then demanded to be released from his contract so that he could be traded.

I understand Brett Favre is one of the best quarterback’s ever, but I am so happy that the Packers have taken the stance they face in regards to him returning. This was the second or third year in a row that Favre kept the Packers and their fans on edge at the end of the season before announcing that he was going to retire and then a couple months later he just wants to walk in and have the starting role handed to him and have Rodgers wait in his shadow for at least another season.

I understand and support the Packers not letting Favre come back. First of all they need to move on. Rodgers is going to be a good quarterback and he will probably throw exponentially less interceptions than ‘Brett the Gunslinger’ which definitely isn’t a bad thing. Furthermore a lot of people forgot about Favre’s 06-07 season, which was a mess, because of his team’s success last year and I’m willing to bet his numbers would be more 06-07 than 07-08 if he came back this year. As much I’ve enjoyed the Packers freezing Favre out of the league by not making him available for trade, I think if he really wants back in the league then Green Bay should trade him for some pieces they may be missing. It would be so weird seeing Favre in a jersey that wasn’t a Packers jersey. Remember how you felt the first time you saw Joe Montana in a Chiefs jersey?