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Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Thoughts on the All Star Game

As an NL fan, I'm starting to get the same feeling of dread watching each year's All Star game as I do when I watch an Atlanta Hawks draft, Presidential election results, or a Hollywood movie based on a comic book. Something terrible is about to happen, the only question is exactly how things are going to get all screwed up.

The exact moment I realized things would not be going well was when Chris Young walked Roberts the inning after the NL wasted Reyes' squib double. A goofy bounce on Ichiro's homer gave the AL the lead, and I had a feeling they wouldn't give it up after that. Poor Ken Griffey. He was in the running for MVP one moment, and then watches helplessly as the game careens away the next. I'm happy for Ichiro though, inside the parkers are always fun.

Tony LaRussa ruined a really good All Star game for me. In what bizarro world does the statement "Aaron Rowand is a better option than Albert Pujols" have any basis in reality? I can see why he didn't pinch hit for Orlando Hudson. No matter what Tony said about Pujols playing anywhere on the field, no one wants to see Albert playing second base. But Aaron Rowand? I know damn well Albert plays outfield and Aaron Rowand isn't even the best player on his own team. The move made no sense and Tony's weak argument afterwards rehashing the same crap he said during the game about Sanchez moving from utility player to backup third baseman due to Cabrera's injury is BS. Hudson got on base so that wasn't even an issue. There is no excuse for keeping the best hitter in the National league on the bench then the game is on the line. Update: Ken Tremendous perfectly encapsulated my feelings toward this.

Any chance the Cardinals could salvage their season is gone. All Star MVP is one of those lines on the resume that is still remembered decades later, and LaRussa denied his star player even the chance to get one. If Pujols gets that at-bat and even pulls off a bloop single, that blooper would have become baseball lore. I will have to respectfully disagree with anyone who tries to convince me that Albert will let this slide and that there will be peace in the Cardinal dugout.

Hey Bud, you know how you want to market this game as "This one Counts"? Well if you really want it to count, ditch the tradition of having the managers from last year's World Series (a certain one of whom has a losing record right now, by the way) manage the game and give the honor to the managers of the two teams with the best records in the game at the break. Give the bench coach spots to the managers of the other two division leaders. Then we'll see if the game is managed like an exhibition game or not. You think Bud Black or Willie Randolph would have left Albert on the bench?

ESPN has replayed the Home Run derby and the celebrity softball challenge 47 times each, but I've only seen maybe a 30 second blurb on the Futures game on SportsCenter. C'mon people, replay it once at 3am or something. How else am I going to know who the hell these people in the Bowman Draft Picks set are?

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