Seated at a U-shaped table in the banquet room at Anna’s Ristorante on March 22 amid about a dozen other people, Gene Gill calls out a name: “Shohei Ohtani.”

The 30-year-old Japanese designated hitter and pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers scored the second-highest number of home runs behind 32-year-old New York Yankees’ outfielder Aaron Judge during last year’s regular Major League Baseball season, making Ohtani Gill’s first pick in a just-for-fun contest to see who can predict 2025’s top 10 home run hitters. 

Smithfield’s informal home run derby club, which is entering its 46th year, meets annually at Anna’s during spring training. Gill is among its most senior members, having joined in 1980 a year after the group started.

As they go down the row, someone else calls out Judge’s name.

Just like in fantasy football or any other professional sports draft, every player in the league is available at the start.

“Once a player is selected, he’s taken off the board,” said Bobby Everett, another longtime member who joined in 1980 alongside Gill. The name-calling process repeats for 13 rounds until everybody has a team of 13 hitters.

Only the top 10 count. The extra three are to account for the possibility of an injury taking a player out of rotation for one or more games.

Winning typically takes all 10 players scoring at least a cumulative 270 to 280 home runs, Everett said.

Justin Hardwick, who’s been a member for 10 years, saw his first win last year with a team that included Philadelphia Phillies right fielder and first baseman Bryce Harper and Baltimore Orioles left fielder Tyler O’Neill.

Everett, who grew up playing baseball, said the group used to have a plaque that served as a rotating prize, but it was lost several years ago and never replaced. Now the only prize is bragging rights.

Whoever finished last at the end of the prior season gets first pick of available players the following year.

The March gathering has been held at numerous places over the years, but for at least the past 30 years has been at Anna’s, where the wait staff now know Everett on sight.

“They know exactly what I’m coming in there for,” Everett said.

The group has also changed with the times. In place of print newspapers, Price now uses a laptop, projector and Excel spreadsheet to display the relevant statistics for available players and to keep track of everyone’s picks. He uses RotoWire, a fantasy sports website, to download the weekly statistics each Sunday and email it to group members Monday morning.

None of the original 1979 members are still participating, Everett said. Some dropped out. Others died. That’s why the group is making an active effort to recruit younger members to keep it going.

At the other end of the table from Everett and Gill were Hardwick’s son, Chase, Carter Hartman and Francis Bunn, all 13, and all players with Showcase Baseball Academy, a regional youth travel baseball team.

Price’s 21-year-old son, Taylor, a James Madison University student, and Hardwick’s 10-year-old daughter, Pfifer, are the group’s two newest members.

“We want to turn it over to another generation,” Gill said.