8 Days til Opening Day Contest: Guess how many HR

If you read this blog regularly during the baseball season, you often only read about my glove work and snagging. That’s only part of what I love about baseball. I also love hitting. Ever since I was little I loved hitting, I would often go to an empty field and hit off of a tee or throw balls up and hit them just to practice my swing and try to hit balls over fences. Hitting home runs is something I’ve always enjoyed.

Today was a rather nice day in the Pittsburgh area, so Amy, Olivia and I headed to a park.

I brought along my bat and 17 baseballs to practice my home run swing and try and hit some deep flies. I did ok in the first round until I tweaked my back because my front foot slid while I was swinging, thanks to a ridiculously wet infield.

I was still able to swing ok with just a little discomfort, so I decided to continue with my hitting.

The field that I hit at is a large space where three little league fields converge. I moved to the right field corner of this field to hit with the intent of hitting the balls over the backstop and dugout opposite me on the third baseline:

This was the view that I was looking at:

I stationed Amy ( who was holding our daughter Olivia) on the hill up above the dugout. I made sure that she was about 400 feet away or so and out of the range of getting drilled with a baseball. I then asked her to film me hitting my 17 baseballs.

This is the view from the fence that I was trying to hit it over. I stood at the base of the right field score board.

I measured the distance to be 275 feet from where I was standing to the backstop.

The contest is this: Guess, by posting a comment, how many baseballs (0-17) I hit over the fence on the fly for home runs.

Let’s give you some biographical info so that you can make your best educated guess.
Height: 6’4″
Weight: 240 pounds
Bench press max: 285 pounds (I’ve been working on this all winter)
Bat Length: 33 inches
Bat Weight: 30 ounces
*Bat is BBCor standard.
If you need to see my swing, you can watch a video in this blog entry.

So, how many of the 17 balls ended up being home runs? Post your guess!

Contest overview:
-One guess per person
-There can be more than one winner.
-Guesses should be a number between 0-17.
-At the end of the contest, I will post a youtube video for you to watch the results – it’s under 5 minutes long.
-The winners will be contacted by me via email, so make sure the email you use when leaving a comment is current.
-If you won and you don’t get an email, check your spam folder.

So what will you win?

You’ll get an unopened pack of vintage baseball cards from 1985-1995, AND a Dave Matthews Band DVD. The DVD is not a copy, its an actual pressed DVD! Why? Because I love Dave Matthews Band too, not just baseball.

Leave a comment to enter!

Good luck and thanks for reading!

Here’s the video:  Remember, whoever guessed it dead on wins, if not, the next closest guess wins:
Count ‘em up!  (You may want to make it full screen, I’m like a spec off in the distance)

I realize now it’s a little tough to tell.  I hit 12 out of 17 for homers.  Connor picked 13, Casey Ward 11, so you both win!  Check your email.