Major League Baseball's Thrilling, Exhilarating, Very Fun Home Run Chase
By Martin Rogers
FOX Sports Columnist
An undeniable cool factor is breezing through the most historic of American sports, driven by power of performance, sure, but even more so by the force of personality.
And baseball is loving it.
There are five guys sitting at the top Major League Baseball’s home run leaderboard who are also providing the heartbeat to its season. They bring all the hype you need, but the short-version descriptors don’t even tell half the story.
There is a two-way superstar embodying historic uniqueness, a five-tool shortstop who’s got an underdog sports city dreaming of a title, a slugger defying logic with an incredible burst of productivity, a son of a great who could turn out even greater and a guy so fun to watch that recording artists are writing songs about him.
Yet what Shohei Ohtani, Fernando Tatis Jr., Kyle Schwarber, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Ronald Acuña Jr. are doing is bigger than the numbers they are putting up, bigger than the neat little tale each man has, bigger than the longest of the dingers they continue to send crashing toward the bleachers at a frenetic pace.
"This is how you grow the game," FOX Sports MLB Analyst Ben Verlander told me. "These players are incredibly exciting and they are changing how baseball is watched and portrayed.
"If at the beginning of the year you drew up what the top-five home run leaders would look like, having these guys would be a dream come true. Everyone wants them to do well because they are stars. People are turning on the TV not to watch the Los Angeles Angels, because they stink, but to watch Ohtani, because he’s the most incredible player on the planet."
Baseball’s ferocious five are delivering compelling reasons to watch their team on any given night, or perhaps every given night.
For that’s how frequently it seems one or several of them are doing something spectacular enough to induce FOMO, which is what every major sport needs to satisfy its broad fan base.
Combined, they’re making what could be the sleepiest part of the regular season anything but dull and they’re doing it with swagger.
Heading into Thursday’s games, Ohtani was at the head of the home run pack with 28 and is the pacesetter for the group of young guns that are shining so brightly. What he is doing as both an elite pitcher and an outrageously good hitter is something not seen since the days of Babe Ruth, nearly a century ago.
"He is a joy," Angels manager Joe Maddon told reporters. "He's what baseball needs both as a player and as an example. He's all about the moment. He's prepared. He's ingratiating. There's so many different things about him to really like. I enjoy watching him enjoy playing baseball."
In San Diego, Tatis (26 HRs) is the figurehead of the Padres’ ongoing revival, having turned the National League West into a thrilling three-way race with the San Francisco Giants and Los Angeles Dodgers. Thanks, in no small part, to Tatis’ nonstop energy and ability to deliver highlight-reel sparkle every game.
Schwarber’s surge up the charts has come on the back of a historic June that was simply breathtaking. There he was, the Washington Nationals' leadoff hitter, thwacking 16 HRs in 18 games to take his tally to 25, a streak matched only in yesteryear by Barry Bonds and Sammy Sosa.
And just when Schwarber started to get real attention for his feat, the long-time Cub and first-year National didn’t wilt, sending the very first pitch he saw Tuesday soaring out of Nationals Park against the Tampa Bay Rays.
"This group is doing ridiculous things and making them look normal," Verlander added. "That’s why I’ve got to set an alarm for the first pitch of all these Nationals games, because there is good chance the first pitch might be a home run."
Guerrero Jr. (26 homers) and Acuña Jr. (22) are marginally more under the radar. The Toronto Blue Jays are playing their home games in Buffalo but are on a current hot streak, and Guerrero, son of the Hall of Famer with the same name, is seen as being Ohtani’s main contender for the American League MVP award.
As for Acuña Jr., there is some puzzlement about how, with him playing better than ever, the Atlanta Braves have dipped so far below the form that took them to the brink of reaching the World Series last season. But the team’s struggles didn’t prevent indie folk recording artist Faye Webster from penning a song about him — "A Dream With A Baseball Player" — and putting it in prime position on her recently released album.
"(It's a) song about Ronald Acuña Jr., obviously," Webster said. "Off tour I spent so much of my time watching baseball that I thought I wanted to be a baseball player. But I’m not, so I guess the next best thing was having a crush on one."
Ok, then … moving on.
Is anyone else spotting a low-key yet intriguing shift going on here?
Wins and losses always matter but superstar-driven fan power, something most associated with the NBA for a long time, is spreading in baseball and MLB is leaning into it.
No one is bigger than the game, but some players are strong, cool and relevant enough to lift the sport on their shoulders and that’s what’s happening right now.
When it happens, it is enough to break through all the history and all the competitive fandom. Quite simply, if you love baseball, you want these players to shine — and they are rewarding that faith.
All of which was perfectly summed up in the cauldron of Yankee Stadium this week, when Ohtani hit his second home run of the game on Tuesday night.
Right there in the Bronx, the loyal locals had just seen their beloved team on the receiving end of a blast, something that would normally elicit either silence or boos.
Instead, they cheered. And baseball cheers along with them.
Martin Rogers is a columnist for FOX Sports and the author of the FOX Sports Insider Newsletter. You can subscribe to the newsletter here.