All-Star Blog

8:40 I’ve decided to semi-blog the game. They’ve already done the half hour of introductions of both all the Hall of Famers present and all the current players. Some quick thoughts, in no particular order, as George Steinbrenner tosses the first pitch, which was previously unannounced and which I so called a few minutes ago, probably because it was a pretty “duh” guess:
• The ovations given to the Yankees players were as expected: very, very loud.
• The ovations given to the non-Yankees, non-Mets, non-Red Sox players were as expected: polite applause.
• The ovations given to David Wright and the Red Sox were as expected: big loud boos. Honestly, while I was not at all surprised, I was a little disappointed. The only person I approve booing is Papelbon for his downright idiotic comments the past couple days, which I won’t go into or I’ll get upset. I was kind of hoping that they wouldn’t boo the other guys, especially Francona, who has handled the Rivera-Papelbon with nothing but class, and Youkilis, who made a cool comment about how he hopes the crowd does the roll call for the AL when they’re in the field. But as I said, I wasn’t surprised.
Alright so I was wrong. Steinbrenner didn’t throw the first pitch; he delivered baseballs to Goose, Reggie, Yogi, and Whitey so they could all throw simultaneous first pitches to Jeter, A-Rod, Rivera, and Girardi. I’m not one for hoopla, but that was a damn near perfect way to do it.

8:46 Joe Morgan was not among the living Hall of Famers tribute thing. He must be waiting in the wings for Greatest Players Ever That Are Better Than Normal Hall of Famers ceremony.

8:47 The Bleacher Creatures did a roll call for 3 players: “Der-ek Je-ter! Der-ek Je-ter!”, “A-Rod! A-Rod!”, and “Manny sucks! Manny sucks!” I’m not sure how I feel about that. I think it’s funny, I think.

8:59 Jeter hit one the other way (granted, it was badly played by Utley), stole second; A-Rod popped up with two outs and Jeter in scoring position…yeah, that’s about right. They didn’t mention Madonna during A-Rod’s at-bat, thank God.

9:10 The dummies in the booth just reminded me that they did a little tribute to Bob Shepard before the game, who of course should have been doing the PA but is still sick. I thought it was good, giving the crowd a chance to cheer for him. It’s a shame he’s not there.

9:11 Youkilis got a nice round of applause when he came up to bat. Makes up a little for before.

9:15 “The game matters! The game matters!” but they only have starters go two innings. Drives me nuts. Not to mention Manny trying so obviously to be hero and hit a home run. I’m trying to be impartial tonight, at least among the AL players, but I’m glad he struck out.

9:17 Before the game, talking heads were predicting the game’s MVP. Gammons and someone else picked Jeter, someone picked Pujols, someone picked Varitek, which I’m convinced must have been a very badly delivered joked, but he looked serious, whoever it was. Picking the MVP before the game: one of the most meaningless, dumbest predictions you can make in sports. And there are a lot (a LOT) of meaningless, dumb predictions that are in contention for that title.

9:20 An ad for the local news report after the game, on what Heath Ledger’s parents thought after seeing a screening of “Dark Knight”. There are so many things wrong with that, I don’t know where to begin. Although, I guess no one forced them to do it. In that case, it’s just strongly indicative of many things gone wrong. Ugh. And earlier I saw the first presidential campaign commercial that I’ve seen, for Obama. Double, triple, and quadruple ugh all in one.

9:23 Yogi is in the booth. I love him. They’re talking to him like he’s 10. I know he’s old, but come on. He also has a really cool tie on.

9:25 The overlay had Fokudome’s name and stats in Japanese. That was awesome.

9:25 Then Buck pointed it out and it became a little less cool. He has a gift for ruining things.

9:27 Buck is talking to Yogi about Yogi-isms, trying perhaps to get him to say one. Ruin, ruin, ruin, kill a good thing.

10:06 My own stupid prediction: Future Hall of Famers on the rosters tonight. It’s impossible to say, of course, about young guys like Soto and Ramirez, but there are some definites and some definitely maybes. The definites: Jeter, A-Rod, Rivera, Manny, Pujols, and I think you have to put Ichiro in there. The definitely maybes: Chipper. That’s it.

10:17 Another reason why this game doesn’t interest me as much as it “should”: interleague play. There’s a chance I’ll see some of these (what should be unique or at least ultra-rare) matchups during the regular season. Someone was talking about how it would be exciting to see Zambrano pitch to Manny because it would be a possible World Series preview. Wouldn’t it be great to see their first battle at the plate be during the All-Star game, just a few months before they met for only the second time ever, in the World Series? A quick duck into baseball-reference tells me that on June 11, 2005, Manny struck out twice and grounded out in a 7-6 loss to Zambrano and his Cubs in an ordinary June interleague game. Yawn.

10:39 Apparently during the abbreviated roll call, the fans also chanted “Bobby Murcer”, “Box seats suck”, and “Boston sucks”. Sigh. Grow up.

10:41 Josh Groban is honoring America during the 7th inning stretch in a t-shirt, and unshaven. This is a travesty on two fronts. First of all, dress up and shave, you moron. Second of all, where is Ronan Tynan?? This is horse doodoo.

10:43 In the mean time, the AL is down 2-0 going into the bottom of the 7th. I wonder if Tito will get Rivera in in the 9th even if the AL is down. I guess you can’t really say that bringing in Rivera would be a sign of not taking the game seriously, especially with the tremendous year he’s having, but doesn’t that sort of make him bigger than this game that’s supposed to be taken seriously? Because It Matters, after all? I don’t know why I’m worried. It won’t be any more ridiculous than giving all the position players a chance to play. In fact, I just convinced myself that he’s coming in no matter what. What a productive post this has been.

11:01 The crowd is giving it to Papelbon. This is okay with me.

11:04 Fun statistic: Papelbon’s ERA against the Yankees is his worst against any team to which he has thrown more than 2 innings; in 20 innings against the Yankees, he has a 3.60 ERA, 3 losses, 6 saves (4 ERA in 9 IP at the Stadium). See, that was fun.

11:13 Fun statistic #2: Papelbon has given up 15 home runs in his career, to 15 different batters. A full third of those 15 are playing in tonight’s game: A-Rod, Morneau, Utley, Navarro, and Ryan Braun. I’m not trying to be annoying, I’m just flexing the muscles of the amazing baseball-reference.

11:20 Okay, Langoria tied it up, top 9 up next…Rivera? Will they have the sense to cut back from commercial early enough to show us his entrance and the crowd’s reaction? I bet they blow it.

11:23 K-Rod is in. Is Francona telling the guys to not win it in the bottom of the ninth? It’s possible now that Mariano won’t pitch at all. That will be a huge disapp-…as I type that, they show Rivera warming in the pen. Alright, an entrance not during a commercial break is probably the way to go. You’re a better man than I, Francona. Let’s see if Buck screws it up by talking during Mariano’s entrance.

11:24 Cristian Guzman got on base. Go Nats.

11:27 Francona comes out to take the ball from K-Rod…there’s the song, there’s the crowd, here he comes. Just missing Bob Shepard. Biggest ovation of the night here…and FOX cuts to commercial as Rivera is running in. Blew it. They totally blew it. That’s shameful. I perhaps unfairly blame Bud Selig as well as FOX. That’s pathetic. Buck didn’t even get a chance to ruin it, the producers did it. Simply awful.

11:32 Super sweet K-2-4 caught stealing DP to end the half-inning.

11:54 Rivera does a nice job (and is helped by some nice defense) getting out of that jam in the 10th. That should be it for him, even if this game goes beyond this inning. Out of curiosity, and inspired by all the Hall of Fame stuff before the game, I found these dates: 1910-1912, 1969-1974, 1991-92, and 1998-present. Those are the years since 1901 that the Yankees have not had a Hall of Famer on the roster. Of course, there are at least 2 future Hall of Famers since 1998, so those years will be wiped out as soon as Jeter and Rivera are inducted. There were ridiculous years like 1931 when the roster was packed with the likes of Ruth, Gehrig, Bill Dickey, Lefty Gomez…9 players, and the manager Joe McCarthy. There were years with one player, like 1975: Catfish Hunter. Overall, 41 players with 295 seasons of Yankee baseball since 1901.

11:59 Two errors and an intentional walk lead to bases loaded with no outs for the AL. Sizemore should end it here. I’m ready for bed.

12:04 He didn’t. Still tied after 10. I’m getting ready for bed. I saw Rivera pitch. I got what I wanted. Next inning is my last. That makes me feel old…I mean, “responsible”…no, I mean old.

12:18 The AL lose their no out baserunner on a sweet phantom tag by Tejada, “catching” Kinsler stealing second.

12:20 After a walk, a base hit. Without the phantom tag, this game may be over…sonofabitch.

12:21 Since 2003, Michael Young (who is batting) leads the majors in BA w/RISP, with a .357 average. Um…can we buy him?

12:22 I was all ready to type out a “Michael is the man” line, but Navarro was thrown out at the plate on a great throw from Nate McLouth. D’oh.

12:24 Carlos Quentin…most game-winning RBI in the majors this season with 13. They could come up with any similar stat just to get people excited. “This guy has the highest batting average when it’s a clear night at an AL stadium between June 17 and July 29 and there are 2 outs and two on and both baserunners have at least three vowels in their names and the opposing team is wearing blue hats.” In the mean time, Quentin grounds out to end the inning on a nice play by Guzman. Go Nats.

12:26 Am I going to retract my “I’m going to bed” threat? Hmm…gee, you know what would be nice? If Bud would just declare the game a tie. Bud, where are you? Just make the World Series best of 8 so neither team gets home field advantage. Then if the series “ends” in a 4-4 tie, you can just award the championship to whichever team has the fan base that is likely to buy more merchandise.

12:30 The NL advances its two runners to second and third by playing silly NL baseball by bunting. We’ll show you! Tejada is being IBB-ed to load ‘em up.

12:31 This is officially the longest game in All-Star Game history. This country loves superlatives. In fact, I’d say we love superlatives more than anyone else loves superlatives! Ha! Take that, other countries.

12:33 Bases loaded, two outs…pitching change. Noooo! Another commercial break between me and the end of the game! Damn you, Francona.

12:34 I’m thinking tomorrow may easily be a three, four cups of coffee morning. Arkansas Megan sensibly passed out around the 5th inning.

12:36 K to end the top of the 12th. Guillen due up first for the AL…come on, Carlos. I’m smelling a walk-off. In the mean time, so much for all those ridiculous pre-game MVP predictions.

12:39 So close! Double off the wall! Alright Carlos! FOX has been tremendously awful with their transitions in and out of commercial breaks tonight. We almost missed the hit.

12:42 Great play by Guzman to save the ga-…aw, it was foul. Go Nats.

12:43 2006 AL MVP-stealer Justin Morneau is being IBB-ed, bringing up Kinsler, that jerk who was phantom tagged 37 innings ago when he should have just been the winning run. Argh. You owe me, Kinsler. Knock this in! Wait, first base is open, why aren’t they walking him with guys on second and third?

12:45 Oh, because it didn’t matter. Unable-to-manage-his-way-out-of-a-wet-paper-bag Clint Hurdle must have had an inkling that Kinsler would bounce a soft little fuzzy bunny hop grounder to short. 13th inning up after the break. I can’t leave now, and I hate myself. Or, I will tomorrow, anyway.

12:49 Broken bat single for Wright to lead off the 13th. I ate dinner about 6 and a half hours ago. This is absurd.

12:52 We’re watching all the non-stars who are just on the team because each team has to have a guy. I can’t wait to see what happens when Francona has to pitch Kazmir, who they keep showing in the pen. It is well known that he doesn’t want to pitch at all, and he’s the last guy. Would Francona pitch a position player? Oh, wait…he doesn’t have any left! By the way, Kazmir plays for the team that’s right on the Red Sox’ heels…maybe it’s time to rethink this All-Star nonsense, Bud.

12:55 Undoubtedly, the announcers will be being talking about how this is one of the great games because it’s so close and taking so long, blah blah blah…games between the Royals and Indians in September when the times are a combined 50 games out aren’t going to be “good” just because neither team can pull themselves together for the win for 14 innings. That’s what this is like.

1:00 If the AL wins here, J.D. Drew just won himself the MVP. Write it down. Or maybe Dan Uggla’s 3 errors for the NL will win it.

1:02 I wonder how much it costs to buy commercial time for the break between the 13th and 14th innings. $5? $7.50? Yawn.

1:04 Many, many people have left the Stadium. Can you blame them? The game didn’t actually start until after 8:30, it’s Tuesday (well, Wednesday now)…bad planning all around. Nightmare tonight for Bud.

1:05 K to end the 13th…I want to see what Francona does for pitching, then I’ll go to bed.

1:08 Sherrill comes back in and gives up a loooooong fly ball to McLouth. This inning has to be it for Sherrill.

1:11 Alright that was a quick half inning. I’ll go after the bottom of whatever inning this is.

1:14 Tejada loses dozens of fans (that’s most of us who are still watching) as he prevents a would-be hit from making it to the outfield. Meanwhile, Brandon Webb, who threw 109 pitches on Sunday, is on the mound. Disaster for Bud. Steinbrenner the Elder has been asleep for at least 8 innings, I’d imagine.

1:18 Langoria strikes out to end the inning. I’m done. My distaste for this spectacular debacle has increased.