On a Distant Beach

My darling daughter spent part of her Sunday on a beach along the Adriatic Sea.  Some people have all the luck.  But half a world away isn’t too far for baseball news.

 

I made sure Michele texted Clare that Eloy Jimenez hit a 471-foot homerun to dead center field in Kansas City, part of a 5-2 Sox win by Reynaldo Lopez, of all people.  The weird thing about Jimenez is the ball doesn’t really explode off his bat, a point Sox announcer Steve Stone alluded to by comparing Jimenez’s homerun to the one hit by the Royals’ Jorge Soler, which “only” went 445 feet.  Soler swings like a power hitter, Stone noted, putting every last ounce of strength into his swing.

 

Not so with Jimenez.  The ball doesn’t explode or jump off his bat, it floats; with Jimenez the swing looks exactly the same, whether he hits a can of corn or a 471-foot blast.  The only player I remember hitting like that was Ron Kittle, whose seeming dinks ending up as roof shots at Comiskey Park.  So, is this deceptive power a good thing?  I haven’t a clue.

There was also baseball news from the Adriatic by way of the Caribbean.  Towards evening, we got a text from Clare that said, “My God, they shot Big Papi.”  Yes, some clown in the Dominican Republic shot David Ortiz.  A good thing Clare’s now in Venice.  No one would do anything like that there.  I hope.