Bohm the 2nd to throw his hat into the Derby ring
Phillies slugger, 1st National Leaguer to confirm, joins Baltimore¡¯s Gunnar Henderson
Todd Zolecki
@ToddZoleckiATLANTA -- Alec Bohm is going to squeeze everything he can from his first All-Star experience.
He learned Wednesday that he will be the National League¡¯s starting third baseman in the July 16 All-Star Game presented by Mastercard at Globe Life Field in Arlington. On Friday, Bohm announced that he will participate in the T-Mobile Home Run Derby on the eve of the Midsummer Classic.
¡°Every year, I feel like as a kid growing up, that¡¯s kind of the cool thing to watch,¡± Bohm said ahead of the Phillies' Friday night game at Truist Park.
Bohm is not a traditional home run hitter. He hit a career-high 20 homers last season. He has 11 this season. But Bohm thought about the opportunity and said he told himself: ¡°I don¡¯t know if I¡¯ll ever get another chance to do it again.¡±
Asked why he thinks he could take a run at the crown, Bohm said, ¡°Because he¡¯s not throwing 97 [mph] with sink.¡±
¡°I¡¯m just going to see how many I can hit over the left-field fence. Obviously, I don¡¯t have a lot of home runs. In the game, I¡¯m not trying to hit home runs," Bohm said. "I¡¯m just trying to hit the ball on the middle of the barrel. Hit it, and whatever happens after that happens. Hopefully, the swing is good enough to hit the ball in the air, get in the gap and do some damage.
"In a [batting practice] scenario, I feel comfortable with -- I¡¯m not going to say it¡¯s a different swing, but it¡¯s probably not the game swing. As far as [the Derby] messing up my swing, I don¡¯t really have a worry with that. It¡¯s just taking a three-minute round of batting practice instead of trying to get my swing loose for the game. Just trying to homer.¡±
Bohm is planning to have Scott Wingo throw to him. Wingo was Bohm¡¯s coach in the 2016 Coastal Plain League, when Bohm was a freshman in college. Wingo threw to Bohm when he won the league¡¯s Home Run Derby that summer. (Wingo was also Phillies utility player Whit Merrifield¡¯s roommate and teammate at South Carolina.)
¡°I texted him and asked him how busy he was the next couple weeks, and he said, 'Not very busy,'¡± Bohm said. ¡°He was excited for sure.¡±
Bohm is going to get Wingo to Philly next week to prepare.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. won the Derby in 2023. He took home $1 million. Bohm can¡¯t remember what he won in 2016.
¡°I think I got a bat," he said. "Like a trophy bat or something like that."