Kris Bryant On Bat Flips And The Home Run Derby

Kris Bryant made an appearance on 670 The Score Tuesday with Dan Bernstein and Jason Goff and said he’s not into admiring his home runs:

“If it’s halfway up the video board, that’s it, that’s enough of a disgrace for the pitcher that you don’t need to add anything to it,” Bryant told Dan Bernstein and Jason Goff. “You crushed a home run, you felt good about it. He felt bad about it. And it’s good.”

Hitting the video board? Like this one a couple of weeks ago?

That one wasn’t quite halfway up, but you see Bryant’s point. Six home runs have hit the left-field video board since it was installed prior to the 2015 season. KB is responsible for four of those.

Which means he can hit baseballs a long way, and it might be fun to see him crush baseballs in the midsummer Home Run Derby. But KB’s not into that, either:

“I don’t really have any interest in it,” Bryant said. “I though it would be cool to do it once and have my dad pitch to me, but man, I’m slowly realizing, I’ve only been here two years, but it’s a long season and it’s important to kind of take advantage of any break you can get. The Home Run Derby now, with the format, it’s a workout. I felt like throwing up after the first one. I was like, ‘Man, I was swinging for five straight minutes’ — max effort too. It was tough, but it was fun to do it once.”

And really, that’s fine. There’s a pretty good chance that Bryant will make the National League All-Star team, either by election from fans or being selected by his peers, or by manager Joe Maddon.

Yes, that’s right. Joe Maddon manages the N.L. All-Stars this year, because the Cubs won the N.L. pennant last year. The only other Cubs manager since 1945 to manage the N.L. All-Stars was Dusty Baker, who was given the honor because he managed the N.L. champion Giants in 2002, then left to join the Cubs in 2003.

Having the manager of the All-Stars being the Cubs manager who led them to the World Series title is better, I’m sure you’ll agree.

Kris Bryant just gets cooler with every interview he gives. The Cubs are fortunate that he’s not only supremely talented, but a great person as well.