The jazz on Monday night in Atlanta was a bit out of tune.
However, despite hitting only three homers and getting eliminated in the first round, Jazz Chisholm Jr. was still pleased with his performance in the 2025 Home Run Derby.
"Nah yeah, what do you mean, 'Was it fun?' I had a lot of fun, I enjoyed every second of it," Chisholm said after the event.
More importantly, the Yankees All-Star didn't ruin his swing trying to overexert himself and crush home runs.
"I told them, next year, I said if I got more than 20 homers by the half next year, I'll do it again and actually try to hit homers every swing instead of — trying to keep my swing," Chisholm said.
"It's not that I wasn't trying to hit homers, I was trying to keep my swing and hit homers. Instead of just trying to hit everything in the air, I was trying to keep my line drive swing and hit homers. But, you know, it gets better."
He added that during his timeout break teammate Aaron Judge even joked with him about not "messing up" his swing during the derby.
The infielder said prior to the competition that his "70 percent" mentality would help him win the All-Star event, but that wasn't the case as he finished with the lowest amount of home runs hit. Chisholm did admit that some swings "got up" to more than 70 percent effort and made it clear he enjoyed participating in the special event.
"I had a lot of fun. I enjoyed every second of it," Chisholm said. "You can't ask for a better feeling. I'm still an All-Star. I still hit in the Home Run Derby. Who could ask for a better experience than that?"
He also mentioned that he didn't even practice with his stepfather, Geronsands, who threw to him.
"For me at least, it was like after my first four or five swings, six swings, seven, around there, when I realized, I was like, 'You know what, if they ain't getting out and I'm not really back-spinning the ball right now, it's alright.' I'm having fun, my stepdad's out there throwing to me, I'm enjoying every second of it.
"We didn't practice for this. He hasn't thrown to me once in the last six months. At the end of the day, we was just having fun and enjoying it."
With the event behind him, and his swing intact, Chisholm will look to set a career-high in homers as he's already at 17 HRs and needs just eight more to break his 24-homer mark set last season. More importantly, he'll hope to help get the Yankees over the hump and win the World Series after falling short in five games to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
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