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In yesterday's post, I almost made a comment about the heat wave affecting so much of the country and how it didn't seem to be causing any more home runs. Boy, I should learn to keep my mental mouth shut. On Wednesday, when it seems the heat got worse for so many people, there were 42 home runs hit across the league. In three of the four early games—Braves at Yankees, Mariners at Diamondbacks, and Blue Jays at Brewers—there were a combined 22 home runs. The Marlins and Red Sox add six more in Boston.

Not that I should complain too much. This was an exciting day for home runs, no matter the final tally. Let's get to those trots!

Home Run of the Day: John Buck, Miami Marlins36.32 N/A seconds [video]
In 2010, Baltimore's Luke Scott hit a wall-scraping home run. As he rounded first base, unsure of how hard he still needed to run, Scott pulled a hamstring and was forced to finish his home run trot in pain. The resulting trot was the slowest ever recorded by the Tater Trot Tracker at 35.76 seconds.

On Wednesday, a similar thing happened to Marlins catcher John Buck. The home run was a blast to leftfield, towering over the Green Monster and out of the stadium. As Buck tried to get out of the box, though, something happened. He immediately grabbed his hamstring, taking very ginger steps. Six steps later, Buck stopped completely and bent down, either grabbing his leg or trying to stretch out the muscle.

Buck did pull himself up to trot slowly around the bases. His final time, from ball-to-bat to foot-to-plate was 36.62 seconds, almost a full second slower than Scott's time. However, the policy at the Tater Trot Tracker has always been to disqualify any trots where the player completely stops his trot. The policy is why the slowest trot time belongs to Scott and not someone who had his home run ruled a double before having it reversed. It's the only fair way to track these times. Therefore, John Buck may have the slowest trot time I've seen, but the slowest official trot time still belongs to Luke Scott.

Slowest Trot: David Ortiz, Boston Red Sox – 28.34 seconds [video]
And then there's Big Papi, whose fourth inning grand slam finds itself on the top ten list for slowest trots of the year. Of course, on a night like Wednesday's, it's going to be quickly forgotten. It helps that Papi actually looked to be moving fast during his trot. Looks can be deceiving, however.

There were three 26-second trots behind Ortiz, with Kendrys Morales, Jose Molina, and Ryan Braun all taking their sweet time. Braun had a slightly more elaborate celebration with third base coach Ed Sedar than he normally does, which might explain the uncharacteristic trot time.

Quickest Trot: Ryan Roberts, Arizona Diamondbacks – 15.93 seconds [video]
All of that and there was an inside-the-park home run too! It's the slowest inside-the-park time of the year so far, but it was good enough. As with all inside-the-parkers, Roberts was the beneficiary of some shoddy play in the outfield. The way Seattle centerfielder Michael Saunders watched the ball helplessly bounce away made it look even worse than normal, however. Ichiro came flying in from rightfield to make the play seem respectable, but it was Roberts' all the way. The next quickest trot belonged to Jason Heyward, who came home in 18.25 seconds on his second home run of the day.

 

All of Today's Trots

David Ortiz...........28.34  Edwin Encarnacion...21.53
Kendrys Morales.......26.64  Gordon Beckham......21.51*
Jose Molina...........26.32  Carlos Gomez........21.33
Ryan Braun............26.25  Michael Martinez....21.27
Alex Rodriguez........24.69  Chris Nelson........21.16
Wilson Betemit........24.51  Jason Heyward #1....21.04
Justin Upton..........23.92  Jason Kubel.........21
Miguel Montero........23.49  Martin Maldonado....20.67
David Ross............23.11  Kyle Seager.........20.6*
Franklin Gutierrez....22.82* Mike Aviles.........20.43
Alberto Callaspo......22.82  Freddie Freeman.....20.36
Logan Morrison........22.5   John McDonald.......20.21
Josh Willingham.......22.4   Aaron Hill..........19.99
Wilin Rosario.........22.37  Martin Prado........19.42
Will Middlebrooks.....22.15  Michael Cuddyer.....19.42
Robinson Cano.........22.11  Johnny Damon........19.38
Mark Trumbo...........22.02  Derek Jeter.........19.28
Jarrod Saltalamacchia.21.64  Brandon Moss........18.88
Corey Hart............21.61  Jason Heyward #2....18.25
Asdrubal Cabrera......21.57  Ryan Roberts........15.93
Eric Chavez...........21.54* John Buck...........N/A (36.32)

Click here for the ongoing 2012 Tater Trot Tracker Leaderboard. You can also follow @TaterTrotTrkr on Twitter for more up-to-the-minute trot times.

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alexknapik
6/21
If Buck had not stopped, his time would have been faster than Scott's, no? More to support your wise decision...