Billy Hamilton's Home Run Trot Was MLB's Fastest

Reds outfielder Billy Hamilton is blindingly fast, and seemingly the only way to keep him from using his speed is to keep him off the bases. One way to do that, I guess, is to serve up a home run. But last night not even that could cool down the afterburners.

Hamilton’s homer in the Reds’ eventual 5-3 loss to the Cubs just barely cleared the wall in left, so Hamilton had to hustle out of the box. “My motto is,” he explained, “‘If that ball falls, I’m trying to get an inside the park home run.’” Except he knew the ball was gone before he reached second base, and still circled the bases in an absurd 16.2 seconds.

That 16.2 seconds makes Hamilton’s trot the fastest since at least 2014, when MLB started tracking this stuff with Statcast. Incredibly, that’s not even three seconds slower than Dee Gordon’s inside-the-parker from last season, the fastest Major League home run on record.

But Hamilton’s trot may not be the fastest ever. Larry Granillo’s Tater Trot Tracker, which measured these pre-Statcast, has Adam Rosales as the unofficial all-time record holder at 15.47 seconds on this 2010 dinger. So Billy, give a little effort next time, why don’t you?