The 2009 Major League Baseball Home Run Derby (known through sponsorship as the State Farm Home Run Derby) was a

home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team. A home run i ...

hitting contest in

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

(MLB) between four batters each from the

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team ...

and

American League The American League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the American League (AL), is one of two leagues that make up Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada. It developed from the Western League, a minor league ...

. The derby was held on July 13, 2009, at

Busch Stadium Busch Stadium (also referred to informally as "New Busch Stadium" or "Busch Stadium III") is a baseball stadium located in St. Louis, Missouri. The stadium serves as the home of the St. Louis Cardinals, the city's Major League Baseball (M ...

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

, the host location of the

2009 MLB All-Star Game The 2009 Major League Baseball All-Star Game was the 80th midseason exhibition between the all-stars of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL), the two leagues comprising Major League Baseball. The game was held on July 14, 2009 ...

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). Th ...

(United States),

Rogers Sportsnet Sportsnet is a Canadian English-language sports specialty channel owned by Rogers Sports & Media. It was established in 1998 as CTV Sportsnet, a joint venture between CTV, Liberty Media, and Rogers Media. CTV parent Bell Globemedia then was r ...

(Canada), and

ESPN America ESPN America was a British-based European sports network, focusing on professional and collegiate sports of the United States and Canada. Originally launched on 5 December 2002 as NASN (the ''North American Sports Network''), ESPN America broadca ...

(Europe) telecast the event, while ESPN Radio broadcast on radio. The winner of the event was

Prince Fielder Prince Semien Fielder (born May 9, 1984) is an American former professional baseball first baseman and designated hitter, who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Milwaukee Brewers, Detroit Tigers, and Texas Rangers. He was selected in ...

of the Milwaukee Brewers.

Participants

Rules

Each participant is thrown pitches by a pitcher of his choice. The hitter has the option of not swinging at a pitch. If he swings at a pitch and misses or hits the pitch anywhere but in home run territory, it is considered an out. Each player hits until he receives 10 outs in each round. In the first two rounds, home run totals carried over for those rounds. Should there be a tie after either of the first two rounds, a "Swing-Off" takes place. In a Swing-Off, each tied player gets 5 swings to get as many home runs as possible. Home runs hit during a first round Swing-Off does not count towards the player's total going into the second round. All eight players participated in the first round; the four highest totals from round one will move to the semi-finals. The top two totals will face off in the finals, with the scores deleted from the first two rounds.

Charitable Initiatives

Gold Ball

When a player reaches nine outs in each round, the "Gold Ball" was brought into play. For each Gold Ball hit for a home run, State Farm agreed to donate

US $ The United States dollar ( symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the officia ...

17,000 (one dollar for each of their agents) for each home run hit to the

Boys and Girls Clubs of America Boys & Girls Clubs of America (BGCA) is a national organization of local chapters which provide voluntary after-school programs for young people. The organization, which holds a congressional charter under Title 36 of the United States Code, h ...

. This marks the fifth Home Run Derby for the Gold Ball rule. Each non-Gold Ball homer was worth $5,000. Overall, $527,000 was raised.

Stand Up 2 Cancer

MasterCard International would have donated $1 million to the

Stand Up to Cancer Stand Up to Cancer (SU2C) is a charitable program of the Entertainment Industry Foundation (EIF). SU2C aims to raise significant funds for translational cancer research through online and televised efforts. Central to the program is a telethon tha ...

initiative if a player had hit a home run off one of three designated banners in the stadium, which nobody did. Previously, sponsors like MasterCard and Chevrolet had given away 500 airline tickets and automobiles had home run balls hit designated banners. The banners remained in place for the All-Star Game.

Results

Notes:
Advanced after winning swing off. Pujols 2, Peña 1, Mauer 0.

References

External links

{{Home Run Derby champions Major League Baseball Home Run Derby Major League Baseball Home Run Derby, 2009