What an evening for the great Mo, the last baseball player who will ever sport the number 42, the greatest closer in the history of the game, and one of the ten greatest New York Yankees of all-time, Mariano Rivera. In his last All-Star Game, he pitched a 1-2-3 eighth inning and was awarded the All-Star Game MVP. As he jogged out to his trademark entrance song, Metallica's "Enter Sandman," it was an incredible moment for fans, players, and just everyone who has a passion for the game of baseball. Both dugouts were united in applause and the Citi Field crowd was absolutely thunderous. It's moments like these that give you goosebumps and make you think, "Wow. I'm watching sports history unfold right now." One of the best last All-Star Games ever right up there with Chipper Jones' last year and Cal Ripken Jr's. in 2001 where he switched with Alex Rodriguez and played shortstop, then went out and hit a home run. You're the greatest Mo and it takes a great athlete to make an entire nation of baseball fans, team affiliations aside, feel compelled to root for you. (Unpopular opinion: I don't think he was the most deserving for the award though. He was certainly deserving but you look at the 8th he pitched and it was a groundout, a lineout, and a groundout. Chris Sale was more deserving after a perfect 2 innings in relief (6 up and 6 down, 2 via punchout. However, Major League Baseball would have been absolutely slaughtered if Mo hadn't gotten it so, even if I think it was kind of gift-wrapped for him, I don't have a problem with it at all. Just that he wasn't the most deserving. I also don't think Jim Leyland did anything wrong by putting him in in the 8th instead of the 9th. What happens if the NL gets 4 runs in the bottom half of the 8th? Then there's no 9th for Rivera to pitch in. Better safe than sorry.)
Way to rep Halo Nation Mike Trout. On the first pitch of the ballgame, he ripped a screaming liner down the first base line for a two-bagger off Mets ace and hometown hero, Matt Harvey, who is the best pitcher in the bigs right now. He looked comfortable up there surrounded by his fellow All-Stars and perfectly balanced the line between not appearing intimidated, but at the same time not appearing cocky and arrogant (I'm inventing a new word to describe the latter: "Puigy." Yeah I went there.)
Also, what a job by the aforementioned Harvey of working out of a jam. After the leadoff double to Trout, he nailed Robinson Cano in the knee with a pitch forcing Cano to leave the game. (Sidenote: the situation was handled pretty well by everybody. Harvey was very apologetic about the incident and Cano did himself some good by not missing any games. Nobody wants to see a crosstown war (Battle New York anybody?). Crisis averted.) After that, he really hunkered down and got the Murderer's Row meat of the order of Miguel Cabrera, Chris Davis, and Jose Bautista to strike out, fly out, and strike out, respectively. Definitely didn't look like a pitcher pitching in his first All-Star Game.
There's something great about low-scoring pitcher duels. Sure, it's not the most exciting way to do things, especially in an All-Star Game, but I for one find something magical about two elite pitching staffs going toe to toe waiting to see who blinks first. Heck, we only had 12 combined hits. Two of the three runs came via sac fly and RBI groundout. THE AL HAD A PERFECT GAME GOING UNTIL THE FOURTH INNING. This is baseball at its purest. None of that 12-10 ballgames stuff. Don't get me wrong, I love shows of offensive fireworks, but every now and then, it's refreshing when pitchers are in the spotlight and not the other way around.
Prince Fielder hit a triple?!?!? That had to be one of the most exciting plays in All-Star Game history. OK maybe I'm exaggerating just a bit but if you weren't sitting there captivated, watching him go around the bases, wondering if he would make it there in one piece and not just run out of breath and fall over between second and third, then you're lying. You could see him turning on the after burners as he rounded first, almost as if there was a box of donuts waiting for him at third base. And he made it. Yep that's right. Prince Fielder hit a triple. I have officially seen everything. (Actually, I have yet to see an intentional walk with the bases loaded. I lied. Sue me.) Shame he was stranded there though. Guess he would have been to winded to make it to home plate by then anyway. Oh well.
Manny Machado flashing some leather at the hot corner. Wow! After another insane play just weeks ago against the New York Yankees, he was at it again. He made a tough play at third and threw out Paul Goldschmidt by about a step. Maybe the Brooks Robinson comparisons aren't so far fetched after all.
Cliff Lee's poker face during the intros while he was being booed by the Citi Field fans was absolutely priceless. That's all I have to say about it. Let the picture in all its glory speak for itself.
I'm not a big fan of the whole one pitcher comes in to face one batter deal in the All-Star Game. It makes sense during a non-exhibition game (weighing righty v. lefty matchups, bringing in a groundball pitcher to face a double-play prone hitter, etc.). I get that. But in the All-Star Game, it just serves to slow things down and interrupt the flow of the game. Then again, it's the only good way to make sure every pitcher enters the game. Maybe, it's just something we have to deal with.
I think Tim McCarver sent sports broadcasting back 15 years with his horrendous performance doing the game's color commentating. First of all, after Harvey nailed Cano with a fastball to the knee, in the biggest facepalm of an utterance in sports broadcasting history. McCarver quipped "Too much knee" in a casual, nonchalant manner. Really? That's the best you could come up with?!?!?! Too much knee???? Words can't even begin to describe how ridiculous that sounds. Then he was at it again in the 8th inning. When Mariano Rivera entered the game to "Enter Sandman," McCarver did a rather disturbing WTF reading of the song's lyrics. Enjoy. Or not.
Man that sounded a lot like Christopher Walken reading "Good Night Moon" on the Simpsons.
And on that pleasant note, that's where I'll leave you. It was an incredible All-Star Game and I'm looking forward to the second half of the MLB season! Go Angels!
No comments:
Post a Comment