See Ball, Hit ball

Batter cam is coming to the 2021 Home Run Derby, welcome to the future

We’re less than a week away from the 2021 Home Run Derby and it’s shaping up to be an all-timer. We have both a pitcher and catcher, in Shohei Ohtani and Salvador Perez, competing. We have the reigning champ from 2019, Pete Alonso, back to defend like many of his peers (cough Aaron Judge cough) have been too afraid to do. Trey Mancini is in it, and that dude just beat cancer. Then you add in the fact that all this is going down in the paper-thin air of Coors Field, you have a recipe for the greatest fireworks display since, um, last weekend.

If that isn’t enough, however, there is now word that the MLB will be outfitting participants with the first-ever helmet cams in Home Run Derby history. If you want to know what it feels like to be a power-hitting Greek god, this is your chance.

The short and skinny of it: In partnership with T-Mobile, the MLB will be attaching cameras to both the batters’ hats/helmets and the catchers' masks. If the previous experiments we’ve seen with Catcher Cam are any indication, this will likely be a much-need hit of NOS for the Home Run Derby broadcast, which is always extremely fun at first but quickly devolves into monotony.

The 5G cameras will produce HD picture quality (not six bajillion K like we’re all used to) and should interface nicely with your vaccine shots (just kidding, you conspiracy weirdos). If this all sounds cool you, you can put yourself in the batter’s box on Monday, July 12th at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN.