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1991
 Jeff and his Dad play Nerf baseball in the backyard of their Montreal apartment. In need of a proper strike zone, Jeff fashions a home plate out of an old Nike shoebox, red marker, and some plastic tape. The plate is still used for Home Run Derby today.
May
1994
 Jeff and Rob finish unspectacular high school baseball careers.
June
1994
 On a boring summer evening, Jeff and Jon take some swings with a plastic bat in front of Jeff's house. They decide to make a game out of it, modelling the Major League version of Home Run Derby. Any ball traveling over an imaginary line from the top of the light pole is a home run.
June
1994
Rob and Jeff play for the first time, with rules that establish 5 out rounds and 3 out hit-offs. They use a single ball, retrieving it after every hit. They stay up until 3am and complete 38 rounds, anally keeping stats of home run totals and streaks on a piece of scratch paper. They also keep track of where the longest home runs land.
June
1994
Jeff begins to keep the Home Run Derby stats on his computer, setting up a simple Excel spreadsheet to record the totals.
July
1994
 To preserve the end of a plastic bat that was beginning to crack, Rob and Jeff apply several layers of plastic tape to it, extending the tape down the length of the barrel to make it more balanced. The increased weight and stiffness of the taped bats began to dent and crack the plastic balls. The balls with holes in them prove to be especially fragile.
July
1994
 Rob and Jeff begin to play Home Run Derby using multiple balls, reducing the amount of time spent shagging (balls, not each other). They experiment with different types of balls, but none of them are able to withstand the abuse of our taped bats.
July
1994
 In an effort to preserve the plastic balls, Rob and Jeff begin to tape them with athletic tape. They would still crack, but successive layers of tape would extend their lives.
July
1994
 Without access to the standard equipment, Rob and Robbie play Home Run Derby in Rob's backyard, using broomsticks and his house as the leftfield wall.
August
1994
 Rob discovers ATEC smooth polyballs at Academy. They prove to be the first balls which are unbreakable in Home Run Derby. They are quickly adopted as the standard Home Run Derby ball. Unfortunately, Rob only purchases a package of six, and we would lose most of them down storm drains and in out neighbors' backyards. We have a hard time finding the balls again for the rest of the summer.
August
1994
Rick, Jon's father, takes one swing and hits a home run over the light pole. Because he declines to finish the round, his stats are not officially recorded. Lauren, Jon's sister, takes a few swings and becomes the first girl to play. She also does not complete the round, so her stats are also not officially recorded.
August
1994
Jeff finally realizes that putting boards in front of the storm drains reduces the number of times we have to chase rolling balls or climb into the sewer to retrieve lost balls.
August
1994
Rob shows up to play Home Run Derby with batting gloves and yellow shooting glasses. Jeff and Mitch laugh at him.
December
1994
 Rob and Jeff meet up over the holidays to play Home Run Derby. The cooler weather does not dampen their enthusiasm for the game.
May
1995
 Home again from college, Rob and Jeff desperately search for more smooth polyballs. While visiting a local Target, they run into their old high school baseball coach. An awkward conversation ensues. Rob and Jeff are reminded of the little dollops of spit that collect on the corners of his mouth when he talks.
June
1995
 In a rare display of artistic flair, Mitch creates a bat with several layers of red, white, and blue tape on the barrel. On a hot summer day, the excessively taped bat melts on the sidewalk before it is even used. Mitch's interest in Home Run Derby dwindles.
June
1995
Jon shows some initiative and orders a box of smooth polyballs directly from ATEC. He then bitches for months until the rest of us pay for our fair share.
July
1995
After several of our smooth polyballs disappear, Jon accuses our neighbor of stealing them for his kids. In return, our neighbor bitches at Jon. Jon and Jeff begin decorating their balls with a marker to personalize them.
July
1995
 Our neighbors complain to us about the noise level at night. They also express their displeasure with our home runs pelting their house. As a result, Rob and Jeff start looking for new places to play Home Run Derby.
July
1995
Rob and Jeff begin playing on Norwalk, an adjoining street. The same rules are used, but the dimensions and wind patterns of the new location are different.
April
1996
 Rob and some fraternity brothers play Home Run Derby at the Fiji house at Florida State University. Balls rain down on the Pi Phi house. For the first time, rounds are played with 10 outs and balls hit over a wall are counted as home runs. Rob sets an unofficial record after hitting 14 home runs in a round.
July
1996
While playing on Norwalk, Jon swings and nearly shatters a neighbor's window after letting go of the bat. The search for better locations to play Home Run Derby continues.
August 2,
1996
 Mike uses Jon's camera to capture video footage of Home Run Derby at Norwalk park.
March
1997
 While on Spring Break in the Bahamas, Jeff and Rob consider playing Home Run Derby on the beach, but the ocean breeze makes it impractical.
June
1997
 Home Run Derby rules are modified to extend the rounds, reduce shagging time, and heighten the drama of hit-offs. Rounds are expanded from 5 outs to 10 and hit-offs are reduced from 3 outs to 2.
June
1997
 After an extended absence, Mitch returns to play with us on Norwalk. To make things interesting, they decide that a fly ball landing in the bucket counts for 2 home runs, a ball going through the front door of a nearby house under construction counts for 2 home runs, and a ball hitting the roof of the house counts for 10 home runs.
December
1997
Rob suggests playing Home Run Derby on tennis courts with fences to eliminate judgement calls. After finding a lighted tennis court with a left field wall and a partial right field fence, Rob and Jeff establish that any ball landing beyond the court is a home run. Jeff had a difficult time adjusting to the new surroundings and hated it. These tennis courts marked the first time Rob and Jeff played somewhere other than on a street.
January 25,
1998
 Jeff's computer crashes. All of our accumulated stats are lost. We start from scratch.
March
1998
While at college, Jeff creates a the first Home Run Derby web site, a basic page with pictures and captions.
March
1998
 Rob and Colin play Home Run Derby on a softball field with plastic golf whiffleballs. A fly ball past the infield dirt was a home run.
March
1998
 Jeff and his college roommates play Home Run Derby in a small parking lot near the campus of the Univeristy of Southern California.
May 2,
1998
 Rob and Jeff, now college graduates, return to Norwalk to play Home Run Derby. The earliest surviving Home Run Derby statistics are recorded. Rob establishes an official single round record of 12.
December 27,
1998
 Rob and Jeff test Home Run Derby on a local tennis court surrounded on all sides by a chain link fence. They decide that standing on one corner of two side-by-side tennis courts makes a reasonably sized park (see the diagrams of our current parks). The experiment is a resounding success and would change the game of Home Run Derby forever.
September 14,
1999
 Rob hits 20 home runs to break his own single round record.
October
1999
 While playing on the tennis courts, Rob and Jeff are confronted by a police officer who thinks that we are causing trouble. We ask him to play a round with us, but he declines.
October 5,
1999
 Rob hits 21 but gets screwed when the lights go out and the entire round is voided. The current rules, which would have preserved the stats, are not yet in place.
December 17,
1999
 Rob becomes the charter member of the Home Run Derby Hall of Fame after achieving 100 HOF points.
December 19,
1999
 Rob hits 23 to break his own single round record. This record would stand for over 3 years.
January 17,
2001
 Jeff becomes the second member inducted to the Home Run Derby Hall of Fame after achieving 100 HOF points.
July
2002
Jeff experiments with a Little League aluminum bat. It feels good but the balls don't carry. Jeff returns the bat to Academy the next day.
July 16,
2002
 Rob sustains the first official Home Run Derby injury (strained patella tendon) after swinging out of his shoes.
June 6,
2003
 Rob and Jeff purchase new plastic bats and wrap them with tape. They prove to be more powerful than all of their previous bats. Playing with "juiced" bats, Jeff breaks the long-standing single round home run record with a round of 26.
June 24,
2003
Rob and Jeff attempt Home Run Derby inside a gymnasium. A new batch of smooth polyballs seems harder and heavier than the old balls we used to play with. After a few practice swings, the delicate gymnasium roof has several holes in it.
February 20,
2004
 Rob sets up his video camera to record Home Run Derby from several different angles. A few minutes later, a local photographer wanders by and starts taking pictures for his company newspaper.
February 20,
2004
 Connie becomes the first girl to play a full round of Home Run Derby.
February 20,
2004
 Needing just 1 home run to tie Jeff and reach 1000 for his career, Rob ends a round with six consecutive outs and violently flings his bat in disgust. After years of anticipation, Rob finally hits his 1000th career home run in an anticlimactic losing round of 2.
February 20,
2004
 Jeff hits 28 home runs to break his own single round record.
October 10,
2004
 While driving from Houston to Atlanta, Jeff and Rob chronicle the ten year history of Home Run Derby. The history of the game is now preserved for future generations of Home Run Derby.
October 23,
2004
 Due to the gaudy numbers we are putting up with "juiced" balls and bats, Rob and Jeff consider using metal bats in Home Run Derby.
October 25,
2004
 Jeff completely redesigns the web site. It is now much cooler.
January 17,
2005
 Corky convinces Jeff to play in 17 degree weather. The stiff breeze in from left makes it feel like 1. It snows for a few moments. The weather is so cold that 5 of the plastic balls explode into pieces when we hit them.
January 21,
2005
 Using almost entirely "juiced" balls, Jeff goes apeshit and hits 47 home runs, setting a new single round record. Serious thought is given to using real baseball bats to lower the numbers back to "normal" levels.
January 29,
2005
 In town for the HOFL Annual Draft, Jeff and Corky introduce ten other owners to Home Run Derby. In heavy snowfall, Josh (Seattle) surprises everyone with his big stick and Frank (Mudville) cracks his head on the slippery ice.
June 17 ,
2005
 Jeff's genius revolutionizes stat-keeping for Home Run Derby. Organizing the data makes it possible to make an online database of Home Run Derby statistics (in progress)