:x The All-Star selection went as expected. The only surprise for me was the three Baltimore Orioles who will be starting for the American League. I didn't realize that they have so much more talent than the Yankees, Red Sox, Angels, Rangers, Tigers etc... In the National League......San Francisco Giants manager Bruce Bochy outdid himself by making sure that ZERO Dodgers will play in the game. The only Dodger even picked to be on the roster was Clayton Kershaw, who is scheduled to pitch the Sunday before the All-Star game, making him ineligible to play in the game and he will have to be replaced... No Puig...who is batting .407 and who has played in 31 games. (Bryce Harper is the starter in RF. He's only played 49 games and he's batting .260.) No Hanley Ramirez who is batting .406 and played in 31 games. No Adrian Gonzalez, who is the best 1st baseman in the NL - I would like some of you American League fans to post here and tell me about some of these AL stars. I've never heard of some of them...like Adam Jones of the Orioles. I see he's batting .290...is he really the best CF in the AL? - Glad to see that Dominick Brown of the Phillies made it. I saw him when the Phillies were here last week and he homered in that game and he made a great impression on me. He's one of those guys who was supposed to be all-world out of high school, but was merely good. Suddenly at age 25 he's reaching his potential. He's an old-fashioned power player and he should become even better...
BTW... I see that the great Jonathan Papelbon didn't make the All-Star team. Doesn't he play for the Phillies? They were just in town last week for three games, but he didn't pitch. I think he was hiding...
No Dodgers, that is pretty amazing. But the Dodgers are making a move in the standings which in the end is what is most important. Having Kershaw not pitch makes him available earlier in the pitching rotation after the All Star break.
First of all Miguel Cabrara FINALLY was voted a starter in the All Star game. All he had to do to get the fans (?) to vote for him was win the Triple Crown. Right now the Tigers have 6 players on the roster with Jhonny Peralta, Prince Fielder, and Torey Hunter joining Miggy in the field and Max Scherzer (13-0) and Justin Verlander in the pitching rotation. One Tiger who some day should make the team is Austin Jackson the Tiger CF and lead off hitter. Last year he was hitting over .300 at the break and Curtis Granderson .240 got the vote. This year he missed a month but still has scored 53 runs in 55 games. He also has a great glove. Chris Davis is having a great year. 33 HRs at the break is outstanding. As to Jones he was probably helped by A. Jackson missing a month. Granderson missed time also.
Hey gip, speaking of the Tigers is old Tiger Stadium still standing? When they held the All-Star game in Comerica Park, Tiger Stadium had not been torn down.
Jason Castro, Astro's Catcher and the leading edge of our "renewal" made the team. He was the #10 overall pick in the 2008 MLB draft out of Stanford.
Sadly Doc the old girl was torn down. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2U4xKXNk8Gg&feature=player_detailpage
What no cool video of the dynamite demolition? Just a machine eating it up row by row...cruel! We desperately need to put the Astrodome out of it's misery. It's not used and it costs us every year millions to just maintain it as a decaying, rat infested hulk. But it's a political football, people crying about how important it was to them and Houston's history and can't they turn it into an amusement park or a hotel or a convention center (we already have one downtown), etc. It's an embarassment.
Back to Jim's original post. The O's have more talent than the Yankees this season. Most of the Yankee AS talent has been on the DL all year ( Texeira - Jeter - Rodriguez - Granderson ). No to diminish any other players but if Jeter was not out he would be starting ahead of J.J. Hardy... no question. Adam Jones is a real good player , comparable to Granderson. If Granderson was not out all year and having hsi normal year he would have likely carried the fan vote as well. Rodriguez and Texeira would not have no matter what.
:idea: Starting pitchers are Scherzer (Tigers) vs. Harvey (Mets)... I agree with this selection. It was a no-brainer. http://espn.go.com/mlb/allstar13/story/_/id/9479696/2013-mlb-all-star-game-matt-harvey-max-scherzer-start-mound
:x I hate Home Run Derby. It's like watching the great fishermen trolling an aquarium with nets. What's the point?
I liked this Homerun Derby... <iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/CxYoQuG5Y6o" frameborder="0"></iframe>
How much do I hate HR Derby? I watched Monday Night Raw instead. To me, HR Derby is like watching a Sunday morning slow pitch Church softball game. Boring.
A little trivia about the original Home Run Derby Show. It was filmed at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles. Wrigley's Cubs had their spring training facility on Catalina Island. The other teams weren't thrilled about having to take a ferry to the island to play exhibition games so Wrigley built a replica of his stadium in Chicago in LA for spring games.
I watched the original HR Derby show faithfully. It was the early era of sports on TV, and it was exciting stuff to this kid. Mantle, Mays, etc., hitting HRs and chatting with the emcee in between turns at the plate. Great stuff.