When you hit a home run in baseball, it’s my understanding that you can’t just stand there admiring it in a *who’s awesome? I’m awesome *sort of way.
What’s the allowed time here to admire your work before setting off round the bases, and has anyone blatantly flouted this and just stood there to milk the applause?
I don’t know of any particularly blatant examples, but I understand that admiring your home run doesn’t usually go over well with the other team, particularly their pitchers. Since those guys control whether a 95 mph baseball is in the strike zone or directly at your head, there is some incentive not to piss them off unnecessarily.
This may get you there:
http://www.wezen-ball.com/site/tater-trot-tracker/
Baseball Prospectus has picked up this guy’s daily reports for some asinine reason. An overall reduction in the quality of articles is the main reason I’m no longer a paying subscriber.
What’s there to “admire”? The ball went over the fence–that’s all. It’s gone. How can you admire something which isn’t even there? Just stand there saying, “Yup, there’s a ball out there somewhere that I hit”? If you do that, it looks like you don’t understand what you’re doing. You look a little stupid.
Obviously, you admire the flight of the ball before it goes over the fence. There is indeed time to do this.
And that time is all of five seconds, maybe. Even then, often you don’t know it’s actually over the fence until the last second or so.
Most hitters say they can tell when they’ve hit a home run. One worth admiring is going to be of the “no-doubt about it” variety.
Anybody have clips of guys admiring a HR that didn’t actually go out? Surely someone’s made that bonehead play before.
To stand there gazing at your work is rather disrespectful to the pitcher in particular and to the other team in general. Depending on the circumstances, players may take a fairly long time to circle the bases - witness Joe Carter’s home run in 1993, which involves a lot more leaping for joy than actual running. It isn’t every day that you win the World Series for your team a second year in a row. (He made the game-winning catch in the final of the 1992 World Series, both times for the Toronto Blue Jays.)
Or there was this situation, where the runner tore her ACL when she turned after missing first base. If anyone from her team had come to assist her, it would have been ruled a two-run single. Instead, in a very noble gesture, the opposing team assisted her to make her circuit of the bases. I apologize for the glurginess of this website and of this video, but it is the only record of this that I have found, and I do admire the members of that team for their sheer class and sportsmanship.
I can’t find the clip showing it, but according to this account, David Ortiz did just that in the Sox/Yankees game May 17, 2010:
As for slowest ever home run trots, Kirk Gibson’s in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series has got to be right up there. I count about 28 seconds or so from the video. Considering his torn-up leg, that’s not too bad.
OT, but agreed, right down to no longer paying…
As to post-home-run antics, has anyone mentioned Bryce Harper’s ridiculousness from earlier this week? http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/dc-sports-bog/post/bryce-harpers-home-run-kiss/2011/06/07/AGJhK1KH_blog.html
And yeah, I’ve seen many hitters admire a home run and then belatedly bust it out of the box when they realize it’s not going out - Albert Pujols has certainly done it before.
From a website called “Real Clear Sports”:
I seem to recall Sammy Sosa doing this at least once, though I can’t find a cite.
I think Rickey Henderson did this once when he was a New York Met.
Actually, it was May 18.
You can see the clip here (i don’t think you need to be an MLB.TV subscriber), although the camera doesn’t stay on Ortiz long enough to show how long he spent admiring his shot. He did get thrown out at second, though.
Through the 1970’s, if you hit a home run, and did anything other than put your head down and take a decent-paced jog around the bases, somebody on your team was going to get drilled. The only question was whether the pitcher would take it out on the next batter, or wait until your next turn at bat.
Through the Eighties and Nineties, this standard relaxed to the point where you can do just about anything you want. There were a number of reasons:
First, the culture became more tolerant of showboating athletes in general. Second, so many guys were doing it that if you drilled somebody every time you’d double your ERA what with all the hit batsmen. Third, the hitters were a lot more ripped and 'roided up, and if they decided to charge the mound they could hurt you more than a skinny guy from the Sixties. Fourth, and most important, the league cracked down on drilling, with ejections, fines, and suspensions. And, suspensions can hurt when you’re making ten million a year.
Sammy Sosa was probably the worst, with his bunny hop, kisses blown to the camera, and slow-drag “jog” around the bases. But, a lot of guys are almost as bad. And yes, you could fill up a book with all the guys who stood there admiring their mighty fly balls that died on the warning track.
I don’t think that Joe Carter belongs here. He started running as soon as he made contact. His pace only slowed when it was clear the ball was out, and of course it ended the game.
Do you play or enjoy sports? It may be hard to explain the satisfaction of watching your work for a few seconds if, for example, you just aren’t into sports.
When I play golf and hit a good drive, it’s fun to watch it sail out there – not just to see where it lands, but to watch the flight of the ball, climbing up, and then gracefully falling out of the sky. I remember hitting some ground-rule doubles when I was in little league that were just beautiful frozen-rope shots to left-center field.
Of course, if you are a big sports guy and you don’t find any joy in watching your 310-yard drives or your 450 foot dingers, then I’d say you have no soul. 
Wasn’t there an early-20th-century game in which a batter hit an apparent walk-off shot, was mobbed by fans during his circuit, and didn’t make it home? The opposing team failed to appeal at the time, and the batter was brought back to the ballpark the following day to touch home in the presence of an umpire, who only then made the safe call and ended a circuit of several hours duration?
The undisputed record holder: after over 11 years, Robin Ventura still hasn’t touched home.
He’s not only not the record-holder, that day’s hit isn’t anywhere on the list. With no completed circuit, there is no home run.