Last year, Major League Baseball introduced new measurements to keep track of different components of baseball that had been previously tough to record. They include spin rate, home run distance, and batted ball speed, to name a few. One component of the game it also measures more accurately than before is home run trot speed.
Yesterday, Billy Hamilton set the record for the fastest home run trot in statcast history, which probably shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone.
Hamilton’s run around the bases took only 16.2 seconds, the quickest for an over-the-wall homer in statcast’s history. After the game, Hamilton talked about his longball with MLB.com.
“I didn’t know it was a home run. If you don’t know it’s a home run, you can’t expect it to be home run when you don’t hit home runs. My motto is, ‘If that ball falls, I’m trying to get an inside the park home run,'” said Hamilton. “I’m going full speed all the time. If it falls at the wall, I won’t be standing on first base. I’ll be on second or third where somebody has a chance to drive me in.”
Hamilton didn’t realize the ball went out until he was rounding third. On top of all of this, Hamilton’s record broke his own previous record which he set year at 16.5 seconds.
For comparison, According to the independently run Tater Trot Tracker, the slowest home run trot of 2015 was Victory Martinez at 33.08 seconds. That means Hamilton could’ve run around the bases twice before Martinez touched home.
Hamilton was so fast, he could’ve ran around the bags almost three times before Cuban Slugger Alfredo Despaigne touched home.
[MLB]
