The White Sox revealed an Alumni Home Run Derby for July twelfth, instantly sparking nostalgia and debate about which former players deserve another moment on center stage.
Aug 17, 2011; Chicago, IL, USA; Chicago White Sox right fielder Carlos Quentin during the first inning against the Cleveland Indians at US Cellular Field. Mandatory Credit: Jerry Lai-Imagn Images | Jerry Lai-Imagn Images
Legends like Frank Thomas and Paul Konerko feel inevitable, but the event also invites recognition of power hitters history quietly pushed aside.
Joe Borchard represents unrealized promise rather than success, yet his raw power still echoes through White Sox lore.
His 504-foot home run in 2004 remains the longest ever recorded at Rate Field, a feat that demands acknowledgement decades later.
Borchard never became an everyday player, but a derby rewards singular power, not consistency or career WAR totals.
Carlos Quentin belongs in a different category, one defined by brilliance interrupted rather than failure.
Acquired from Arizona, Quentin exploded in 2008 with thirty-six home runs and legitimate MVP momentum before injury struck suddenly.
He followed that season with multiple twenty-homer campaigns, anchoring the lineup when healthy despite constant physical setbacks.
Quentin’s White Sox tenure was shorter than his talent suggested, making an alumni stage the right place to honor it.
Then there’s Adam Dunn, perhaps the most polarizing slugger in franchise history.
His disastrous 2011 season overshadows everything else for many fans, unfairly flattening his legacy.
Over the next two seasons, Dunn launched ninety-five home runs, including a forty-one-homer resurgence in 2012.
Few hitters in baseball history possessed his kind of effortless power.
A home run derby ignores batting average and celebrates exactly what Dunn did best.
This event isn’t about perfection or championships.
It’s about memory.
About moments that still live in the park’s walls.
If the White Sox want the derby to feel complete, these names belong.
Because power, even fleeting, deserves its encore.
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