Shaq vs. Albert: Homerun Derby Continued...

I caught Albert's first (fake) homerun ball.

I guess they wanted to film some B-Roll before the real deal went down. We didn't know. Shaq and Pujols both came out to great fanfare. Shaq had a round, then Albert was up. First ball off the bat came two rows behind me.

Bounce.

Bounce.

Snag.

There it was, under the bleachers behind me. It was my years of Spoons playing finally realized. I have very fast hands.

But then after Albert had done the deed. 11 times. They announced that those didn't count and they were going to re-do the entrance, the fanfare and the whole first round.

So, like I said I caught a homerun from José Alberto, but it didn't count.

Who cares.

Here's the promo from ABC about the show:



That was a fun experience last night. Free. Saw two genuine sport superstars. Was literally in Homerun ally, with balls right over my head at least 22 times. Shack took off his shoes and batting gloves and handed them out to people right next to me. Albert, Shaq and AJ Pujols all, as they say in Field of Dreams, "had a catch," about 20 yards away from us.

By the way this is probably no surprise, but AJ Pujols is incredible. Better arm, hand eye coordination and composure in front of cameras than any ~seven year old I have ever seen. Trust me, I worked for 6 years at a little league concession stand, and I've seen a lot of seven year olds playing ball. This kid is awesome.

The whole event was set up so that Shaq had a fighting chance. So while Albert had to hit over the regulation fence, Shaq only had to hit over a fence about 100 to 150 yards out. Round 1 Pujols had the standard 10 outs, while Shaq had 15, Round two was a 7 to 10 out matchup and the final round was a 3 to 5 out split.

I won't tell you who won or how many homeruns were hit, you'll have to watch Shaq Vs. on ABC in mid August for that, but I will say that this could be a really fun show to watch. Other contestants include Serena Williams, Ben Roethlisberger, Michael Phelps and more.

Hint. Hint: The show might prove that not all amazing athletes can be good at every sport.