Held at the five year old PNC Park, the Home Run Derby along with the All-Star Game were held in Pittsburgh for the first time since 1994. Featuring the biggest hitters in baseballs, eight contestants try to hit as many home runs as they can in each round. There are four from National and four from American, and after the first two rounds the points are totalled and the two best from each league play a third round, and then the winners of each league from that go head-to-head for the final round.
The Allegheny River flows 461 feet from home plate, so it was fun to see a couple homers get knocked into it and see a frenzy of kayakers trying to get the ball. The back drop of the city is also always spectacular and having a packed stadium made tha atmosphere that much better.
All Home Run Derbies have a fairly extensive pre-game show with singers, performers and promotions, so if you have the chance to get to a Home Run Derby it's fine to get there very early because there will be activities going on. Or you could find the ESPN booth and see if you can't meet a Sports Center news anchor. The pre-game performance for Pittsburgh was whatever band sings "Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy."
Though every derby is obviously different every time due to locations, if there is derby coming to your city, it's a lot of fun! Tickets may be expensive, but it's certainly not something you see every day. Just plain fun!