I think the speed of the competition helped curb a little bit of the Berman factor. The next pitch is being thrown (and usually swung at) right after the last one lands. There were a number of times when he tried to over-Berman a call and the subsequent hit would force him to cut himself off. Plus, given it was a good competition with drama all along the way, I think it helped avoid the announcers from looking for filler.

Agree, I wouldn't add any time to what they did this time. I thought it was perfect. It was enough time to allow for multiple ebbs and flows where a guy would get in a rhythm and hit several, fall out of rhythm, then find it again - numerous times within one turn. That's another area where I thought it was better than the old 10 out approach. It allowed for those streaks without penalizing a guy too much for a cold spell, as long as he could find a hot one at some point.

I enjoyed it again. I think the new format is great, but what's with the bonus time? Why not just give them 2 TOs? It's just weird to see time running out and everyone getting excited when you know it's not the end. They each got 30 sec of bonus time.

And how bout Pujols embracing Joc's brother Champ? That was awesome and as much as I hate Pujols for what's done against the Astros through the years that was special. Class act

And then there was Berman's hair? WTF was that? Some of these tweets are gold

That haircut is almost as bad as him announcing the derby.

A) He makes Cruk look like Fabio

B) Is he really wearing a short sleeved shirt with his suit?

What a chode

The new format worked really well. And even, for those who feel it was a bit rushed...they tweaked the format to speed up the pace even more due to severe weather that was projected to blast Cincy later last night, so they wanted to get the Derby done and people on their way home before that.

They reduced overall time from 5 minutes to 4 minutes for the semi's/finals.

They reduced the bonus time from1 minute to 30 seconds for 2 HR's over over 420 feet.

Next season, with 5 minute rounds and 1 minute bonus rounds, I think you'll see the pace find a really good spot of being quick, but not rushed.

Also, not that it matters cause it's an exhibition of home run hitting, but the rules stated that you couldn't throw a pitch until the ball landed on the previous swing...Frazier's brother was breaking the rule virtually every time he hit one high in the air. It got so blatant in the 1st 2 rounds that ESPN even had to mention it going into the championship. Kind of odd and funny, but I noticed it from his first round on. They weren't waiting. He would throw it when the ball was on it's way down. There were some HR's he hit in succession that he was blasting before the other landed. Made for some fun drama, but they were definitely breaking the rules.

How long until some kid gets drilled because he didn't see the next ball coming?

Kid loses and eye. Kid's parent sues the millionaire at the plate. All kids get banned from the field for safety reasons.

Everyone loses...except the attorneys of course.

Winning.

New format was entertaining.I like it