Wednesday, July 16, 2008

MLB All-Star Game: 2008 (Yankee Stadium)


Watching the Allstar game in the top of the 13th now. Let’s just end this thing. I can’t believe Aaron Cook escaped 3 innings with no damage. I guess Clint Hurdle isn’t really sweating it if the NL doesn’t get homefield advantage in the World Series. The 2 force-outs at home followed by the acrobatic Tejada play from Short in the 10th. Then the McClouth throw-out from centerfield in the 11th.

I’m glad that the game wasn’t decided on the run that Papelbon gave up in the 8th since everyone in NY misinterpreted Papelbon’s comments to mean that he thinks he should close the game instead of Mariano Rivera. We would have been hearing about the Papelbon/Mariano drama for weeks to come, and people like me would have been contesting, “well if Navarro would have helped out Papelbon with a throw-out instead of a throw-away, like he did for Mariano, then this would be a different story.”

Uggla just made like his 5th error in the bottom of the 13th, and Joe Buck and Tim McCarver are tyring to make excuses for him. It’s too bad for Uggla too cause Ken Rosenthal was talking earlier about Uggla and his dad used to come to Yankee Stadium to watch the greats and his father had always wished that his son would play a game in Yankee Stadium. He reminds me of a rattled Kevin Elster when he subbed in at shortstop in game 6 of the 86’ World Series.

Carlos Quentin strikes out and we’re going into the 14th inning. While I don’t disagree with the format for MLB tiebreakers—extra innings—I think that maybe for the All-Star game they could do something creative. Maybe a bat-throwing contest. Or a 3-on-3 butts-up game. Which brings me to another idea. What do you think about replacing Soccer shoot-outs with a best-of-5 3-on-2 midfield attack? I think you’d see some more spectacular plays and the better team would end up on top more often. Any other sports that need tie-breaker improvements? Ping-Pong: check. Football: NFL should mimic the NCAA format. Tennis: maybe a one-on-one dodgeball contest.

Webb comes in for the 14th inning. Lineout, strikeout, strikeout. On to the 15th.

Brad Lidge comes on in the bottom of the 15th after Kazmir gets the job done in the top half of the inning. Leadoff hit for Morneau. I was about ready to give up on the game and go to bed but I just heard that Kazmir is the last available pitcher for the AL and he just threw on Sunday. That means that if the NL can extend it one more inning, we might be headed for a pitching matchup of Jason Varitek vs. Russell Martin. J.D. Drew up at the plate with 1 out and runners on 1st and 2nd. I’ve got a good feeling about this. Put me down for J.D. Drew as MVP. Drew walks. Bases loaded. Michael Young up to bat. I’m still voting for J.D. Drew cause Michael Young is going to do something undramatic for the win.

…Michael Young mid-length popfly to right and Morneau tags and scores. Game over. AL wins, again. 11 straight.

1 comment:

Scott said...

Great baseball game. I also had Drew for MVP. However, I totally disagree with them giving Uggla his last (third) error, that hop was impossible.