Teenage Dee Gordon Was Kicked Out of Home Run Derby For Trying to Rob Homers

Dee Gordon will start the 2015 MLB All-Star game at the Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati, Ohio next week. It is Gordon’s second straight All-Star game and he is just the 4th Marlin voted into the game by the fans. He also joins a list of 13 father-son duos to become All-Stars. His father, Tom Gordon, was a three-time All-Star in his 21-year career as a pitcher. Dee Gordon joined his father at a couple of those games. He even got thrown out of a Home Run Derby as a teenager. Via the Miami Herald:

"“In 2004, I was kicked off the field for trying to rob Home Run Derby homers,” said Gordon, who said one of his favorite All-Star moments was meeting Muhammad Ali in 2004. “The ’06 [game], I had just graduated from high school and I thought I was a cool kid. So I didn’t want to go on the field. But ’04 was the most fun.”"

Now that would have been a fun controversy. Or at least an amusing thing to watch as Gordon continually crashed into the wall while Barry Bonds, Lance Berkman and Miguel Tejada (the ’04 winner) hit balls into the upper decks. It would be interesting to go back and view the tape of that Derby and see if he ever came close to any of the homers. Or if this really happened.