All Star Action

I thought I'd toss a few comments about the All-Star game, now that I've had a chance to catch up on my sleep...

Wouldn't you think that, by now, MLB would have a Plan B in case they run out of pitchers? How about pulling a pitching machine to the mound, and calling off bunting? At least have an idea in mind in case this happens again.

The game also points to the problem of getting everybody into the game. The subs played more than most of the starters. How nice would it have been to still have Kinsler available to pinch run when a catcher is the winning run at second? It would be nice to actually be able to use strategy.

I touched on this earlier in my letter to Bid Selig. If my choice is to see Varitek play a couple innings, not even bat, and then Navarro for hours and hours, or just see Mauer play all game, I'll take Mauer. The token Tek appearance doesn't outweigh having to actually watch Navarro. Let the people elected to start actually play. Except for ARod, naturally. He has other things to do.

Didn't I hear somewhere that this is the last year for Yankee Stadium? I thought they'd mention that during the game or something.

At some point as we're falling all over Josh Hamilton, and his amazing comeback do we need to mention that he brought it all on himself? You can spout all you want that addiction is a disease, and I give him all the credit in the world for the comeback. But, I have never heard that the first needle or smoke, or snort or whatever wasn't completely voluntary. Shouldn't we save the "greatest human interest story of the year" award for someone who didn't do it to himself? Maybe someone who got cancer through no fault of their own, and came back to throw a no-hitter? Rather than spend all game (and derby) building him a gold statue, shouldn't he be a cautionary tale? Using drugs apparently caused him to throw a Hall-of-Fame career away. (not to mention the money that would go with it.) It's really a shame.

Is the goal of every All-Star game now to copy the pregame ceremony from the '99 game at Fenway? Legends on the field? check. All-Stars on the field? check. Senior citizen being carted in along the first base line? check. Nicely done.

Gotta love the Red Sox player getting the MVP at the last All-Star game in the stadium. I'm still shocked they didn't figure out a way to get it to Jeter. That single he had was a huge confidence boost for the team.

I was kind of hoping the NL would pull it out. It'd be nice for the Sox to sweep at home one of these years.