Isotopes call on heavy hitters Manny Ramirez, Andrea Howard for Home Run Derby X
May 23—Jared Mang knows the game.
The former UNM baseball star and Los Alamos Hilltoppers legend is well versed on the stars of his sport and what the likes of Manny Ramirez, Nick Swisher, Ian Desmond and Jonny Gomes might do to a baseball in the thin Albuquerque air when they come to Isotopes Park to take part in MLB's Home Run Derby X event on Aug. 23.
But he's also a fiancé, engaged to New Mexico softball legend Andrea Howard, and she made a name for herself hitting homers for the 2012 Little League World Series champion Eastdale Little League, the 2017 La Cueva High School state championship team, becoming the all-time home run leader at UNM and in the Mountain West conference and becoming an Olympian with Team Italy in 2021.
So when the Journal learned Thursday that Howard had been selected to join those former MLB legends in the co-ed, team-oriented home run competition later this summer and asked Mang how Howard will fare, he pretty much hit it out of the park.
"Completely unbiased of course, but I think she will have a chance to be competitive," said Mang, who is also serving as Howard's batting practice coach the next couple months as she prepares to crush long balls thrown overhand as opposed to the underhanded, fastpitch variety.
"It'll be hard to match up with some of those legends from a power standpoint, but I absolutely think she will hold her own."
Smart man, Jared. Smart man.
And why not?
After all, Howard is the active leader in home runs hit in the state of New Mexico of all the participants in the Aug. 23 HRDX event.
"I'm excited to get a chance to meet these legends," Howard said on Thursday. "I've been working on it (hitting the overhand pitches). It's a weird switch. ... I have some time to adjust to baseball BP (batting practice), so I think it's doable."
As for those baseball legends who will now get to try to hang with the New Mexico softball legend, the headliner of course is Ramirez.
And while he is probably best known for his two-day stint with the Isotopes in 2009 (four plate appearances, 0-for-3 and a walk while on an injury rehab stint with the Triple-A team that was then affiliated with the Los Angeles Dodgers), he also had some success in the majors, hitting 555 home runs with the Cleveland Indians, World Series champion Boston Red Sox, the Dodgers and even the Chicago White Sox.
The Isotopes and MLB on Thursday held a news conference announcing more details of the upcoming, four-city tour of their still fairly new HRDX event that is a 3-on-3 baseball competition pitting four teams at four events across the country. The news of the event coming to Albuquerque first broke on Tuesday.
Each team has one former Major Leaguer, one women's baseball or softball star and one "local" connection (Howard checking two boxes).
The full participant list has not yet been released, though Alex Hugo, a roving scout for the Oakland A's and member of the USA Women's Baseball team, and two-time participant in HRDX, was also at Thursday's press conference and will be back in August.
"This event for me is my favorite event," Hugo said. "I tell everybody, this is the most fun I've had with the least amount of pressure, even though the crowd's insane."
While there are a few added scoring wrinkles, the nuts and bolts of the HRDX competition on four teams compete in a bracket style competition with each game taking about 30 minutes (three games total per city. Homers get you points and the three-person team a hitter is going against can stand in the outfield and get points for catching balls. As many as 150 homers get hit at each event.
More information on the competition — in general or the one coming to Albuquerque — can be found on the Isotopes web site.
