The MLB All-Star Game was tonight and, shock of all, the American League won. The A.L. has now won seven games in a row. Back in ’02? The game ended in a tie. Before that the A.L. had won five more in a row. If it hadn’t been for that public display of spinelessness in 2002, when the commissioner called the game before it was through, surely we’d be looking at a streak equal to that of the NFC’s Super Bowl dominance of the ’80s and ’90s.
I wanted to enjoy tonight’s game—I really did—but gosh, they sure made it hard. Strike one: FOX saying the game would start at 6. I remember seeing that and thinking, this game’s not really going to start at 6, but I decided to start watching then anyway. Of course, there wasn’t an actual game on at the time. Yeah, I could stand to be a little wiser, but they could stand to be a little more honest. When I first turned on the game, they were showing President Obama meeting some of the players, and I was thinking, wow, he’s like the biggest star at this game, isn’t he? It was kind of cool watching him talk to the players. Funny watching him stand next to Ichiro, almost motionless, for a few seconds before I realized the President was signing an autograph for the Japanese baseball star.
Anyway, next up were the introductions. Now I like the introductions. For some reason the All-Star gimmick of showing each player tip their hat as they’re announced always works for me. This year only one player, I think (can’t remember who) was doing the whole holding-his-kid thing, which is good. I was surprised to recognize the name of almost every player, considering I haven’t followed baseball closely for years. But it was still disappointing to think, oh, these guys are the stars now. Perhaps I’m romanticizing but go back five or ten years and the players, to me, seemed like much bigger stars. Even forgetting the home-run record guys, you had Randy Johnson and Pedro Martinez and Nomar and all the pitchers from Atlanta and a million other guys. These weren’t necessarily the headliners, but they were on the team every year, and they were all well-known. Maybe it’s just that I grew up with them, but they felt like bigger stars. This year for real stars we had Albert Pujols and Derek Jeter, and maybe Joe Mauer and Ryan Howard and a few others belong in that tier, but overall I’m not going to remember most of these players when they’re gone. Plus the pitchers—I didn’t know a lot of those dudes. Mariano, Trevor Hoffman, and Josh Beckett are memorable enough, but shouldn’t there be more? What do you think?
Anyway, that tangent aside, the game still hadn’t started yet. Why not? Well, President Obama and four former presidents (and in a proud moment, I actually thought to myself: “I wonder which four”) narrated this tribute to “real” All-Stars or something that I think was about citizens who do stuff in their community. Not to be a jerk but was there a reason for that? Why do sports fans have to suffer through this, “there’s a real world out there” garbage? You know, I doubt Lifetime viewers are tearing up the value-to-society charts, but do they have to sit through a community-service infomercial before they can catch their latest drama? I don’t think so.
By the time the game came on, well, I was already doing other things. I did happen to catch the tail end of Obama’s time in the booth with Buck and McCarver. The booth guys were doing that whole thing where they just chat with the famous guest right on through the live action, and the President was mid-sentence when Prince Fielder smacked a ground-rule double down the leftfield line. Obama stopped, and said “ooh” or “oh” or something and shut up, forcing Buck to pick up the play-by-play. Thank you, Mr. President. I’m glad somebody wanted me to catch some baseball tonight. Plus he let Willie Mays fly along to the game. I think his role in the proceedings will be what I remember most fondly from tonight’s game.
Comments
As for the game, I didn't catch much, but it strikes me as a strange way to pick home field advantage for the World Series. That, and I can't figure out what kind of camera technology Fox was using for its pitcher-catcher angle - it made the whole thing look like a highlight to me.
I get what you're saying about the difference in the all-stars now. It definitely seems like the all-stars I grew up watching were "bigger" stars than those of the last couple of years. I will always remember players like Greg Maddux, Cal Ripken Jr., Ken Griffey Jr., Mark Mcgwire, etc. I doubt if I remember Prince Fielder in twenty years. I don't think it's just because we grew up watching those guys though because I watch way more baseball now then I ever did then so really, I should be more emotionally attached to today's players. Anyway, I agree with you.
Forgive me for this completely unrelated side note, but I thought you would appreciate this, Mike. Yesterday I was in the newly remodeled CU men's basketball team locker room and I couldn't believe the amenities these guys get. They all get personal leather recliners, a huge built-in sound system, a 70in projection T.V., 4 50in plasma T.V.s hooked up to PS3s and XBoxes and a gatorade machine with just about any flavor you could ever want. But, the coolest thing I saw was a space about the size of one of the lockers made of glass cut into the wall dedicated to Chauncey Billups. Inside there was a plaque and some signed memorabilia from Chauncey. While I was looking at that I noticed that Billups still had his own locker there and when I asked the guy why he said that Chauncey still comes by regularly to work out and to give clinics to the team.
Yeah, Blaine, my first draft for this post had a long list of guys I thought were all bigger stars than this year's players. Even once you get past the Barry Bonds-level players, you have a ton of guys like Biggio and Pudge and Juan Gone that I'd take over today's guys. I remember when Rafael Palmeiro failed his steroids test, and it was supposed to be this huge deal since he'd had such great career numbers, but to me he was such an afterthought in the game of the 90s and early 00s.
That locker room sounds freakin' awesome! I remember reading when Mark Cuban took over the Mavs and pimped out their locker room; that made sense to me, but I never would have expected CU's to be that nice. The football team's, maybe. If I were Chauncey I'd keep my locker just to hang out there. That's cool that he sticks around. Gotta be harder to do that at CU than at UNC or something where you'd be seeing NBA stars every summer.
Summers used to be spent day dreaming and following box scores. Now we all sit in front of computers and pine for a HPS post!