All-Star Thoughts

Ah! What a week. The final All-Star Game at Yankee Stadium. While I had long believed that nothing could live up to the hype generated for this week, I was proven waaaay wrong. Let's look back at the All-Star Break that was, Woodchuck Hole style!

Sunday - Futures Game - great performance by LaPorta. USA still gets head handed to them by World.

Monday - Home Run Derby - Sizemore fails to advance out of first round. I was pretty bummed until Josh Hamilton's performance came along. 28 homers, 13 in a row. That he didn't win it was a travesty. I often disagree with WKNR's Kenny Roda, but he made an excellent point in saying that the Home Run Derby should also have a carryover from the Semis to the Final, not just from the Quarters to the Semis.

Tuesday - All-Star Game - Most people view 15 innings of prime-time baseball as a never-ending bore. I regard it as a little slice of Heaven, especially with a scorecard in my hand. Seriously, what's more fun than the challenge of finding space on a scorecard for the 15th inning, especially at 1:30 in the morning? As fun as the scoring was, the game was even more exciting: numerous stolen bases and plays at the plate, watching the best of the best (the fan vote this year confirmed that fans are capable of looking past names and voting in the best guys) go at it, and best of all, key contributions from Indians players. Two shutout innings, one hit given up by Cliff Lee and Grady Sizemore scoring the game-tying run. The best part of the ight, however, was the pregame ceremony with the Hall of Famers standing in the field alongside the starters. To see that many of the greatest to play the game in both this era and those prior was awesome. My concern, however, is that many people watched this ceremony and didn't recognize many of the names being announced. Seriously, it amazes me how many people follo a sport and don't know it's history. My advice to such people is to pick one sport they follow and learn the history of it, you will enjoy that sport so much more knowing where it came from.

Wednesday - LaPorta and Stevens named to All-Star team, WA-HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Here's some All-Star trivia

- This year marked the fourth and final time that Yankee Stadium hosted the All-Star Game.
- The first three times it did, the Yankees won the AL Pennant, a streak that will likely be broken, given the strong play of the Red Sox and the Rays.
- While Yankee Stadium is the ballpark to host the All-Star Game and World Series action in the same year on multiple occasions, one other team has done it twice, albeit in two different ballparks. Who was that team? (answer in next entry)

My uncle made an interesting observation at a Captains game I attended with him recently: How does baseball expect to develop players in leagues with two-man umpire crews? However, that is just what baseball now does in half-season and single-A ball. My uncle also had a great solution: increase the luxury tax on high payrolls and put the money towards hiring the extra umpires needed to put three-man crews in all of organized baseball.

One concluding thought: WTAM's Kevin Keane claims that baseball is the "one sport invented by God." Given Mr. Keane's line of reasoning, could it be more than mere coincidence that the Rays suddenly improved after dropping "Devil" form their nickname?

Again, look for my Mid-Ohio updates this weekend. If you're in the Northern Ohio area this weekend, you may want to stop by the races as many of the cars and drivers from the Indianapolis 500 and 24 Hours of Le Mans (including the winners of both races) will be running. Le Mans cars on Saturday, Indy cars on Sunday. I'll post a full listing of weekend sports activity in NE Ohio tomorrow.