Due to circumstances beyond her control, Batgirl missed much of the All-Yankees/Indians Game, though she did tune in in time to see the Nathanest of Joes be downright AWESOME.
So, dear readers, what's your game recap?
Posted by Batgirl at July 13, 2004 10:26 PMWatch the first inning and the 7th inning and you'll have pretty much watched all that was worthwhile in the game.
Posted by: Nate at July 14, 2004 01:33 AMI was working from 9pm until 3am (central) so my recap goes like this: "My feet hurt."
Mimiru
Posted by: Mimiru at July 14, 2004 03:43 AMAre all the people in Houston as boring and half-dead as the 40,000 at the game last night? Or just big cry-babies cuz their man Roger really stunk?
Posted by: Poppy at July 14, 2004 07:48 AMMy summary of the game:
Some silly Fox announcers talked about everything but the game. Last year's game, Red Sox vs Yankees, The 2000 World Series, Red Sox vs Yankees, Cubs vs Cards, Barry Bonds. Maybe it's because I missed the first half-inning.
Then, as Chocula was ringing up one of the two best pitching performances (perfect inning, 2Ks), the announcers talked to Gagne (who I really liked) about streaks and hockey and last year's game. Then it'd be "I have another question, but we'll wait for the 2-2 pitch." Why that pitch? You talked over 0-0, 0-1, 1-1, and 1-2. What makes 2-2 so important? Someone could have hit a homerun and the announcers would have gotten to it a coupla beats after the fan caught it. They did end with a dismissive praise for the Count. Something like "Let it be known that the Minnesota Twins have a good closer.
Those Fox announcers really make me appreciate Gordon, Bert, and Clay. Every year I have to remember: ESPN does the playoffs better. For me, Fox + Baseball = Icky. Here's hoping ABC gets MLB rights back so ESPN can do the games.
Posted by: amr at July 14, 2004 08:10 AMWatching 'The Rocket' get hit for the cycle was about the only inning to watch, all except for Joe Nathan's great pitching, which was overlooked by the fox commentary team like Dubba's "Iron Ridge" comment (in Duluth last night) from the repulican media her in twins town.
Posted by: kiwi twins fan at July 14, 2004 08:37 AMBut I'm sure all the Iron Ridgers are happy to have G-Dub visit. To know how important the Ridge vote is must be a little special.
And I could not agree more about the Fox broadcast team. While I do kind of like Joe Buck but Tim McCarver drives me nuts. However anything beats Al "The Twins disgraced baseball by playing in the 87 Series" Michaels.
Posted by: boom at July 14, 2004 09:37 AMHey, give the announcers a little credit. They didn't talk to Gagne the entire half inning that Chocula was pitching. They also took the opportunity to talk about ... the Bitch Sox. In their stream-of-consciousness announcing method, seeing a Twins player led to thoughts of the AL Central, which led to thoughts of "which team in the AL Central has anybody outside of the Midwest heard of -- oh yeah, Chicago," which led to discussion of the Freddy Garcia trade while Nathan was mowing down three NL All-Stars.
Posted by: Purple Pete at July 14, 2004 10:01 AMShould have had more Twins in it.. oh well..
Posted by: Liz at July 14, 2004 10:29 AMViolet Pete,
Do non-fans watch the ASG? Maybe just on the East Coast?
Boom,
I've always hated Costas for rooting for Atlanta in '91. Looking back now, I'm not even sure he's guilty of everything I attribute to him.
Liz,
I saw Mike Schmit (sp?) at the home run derby. I thought he might be Jack Morris, so does that count?
Dear readers,
Batgirl used to really enjoy the All-Star Game, but alas she has become tired of a) Joe Torre and b) Fox. Fox should not be allowed to ever get their hands on sports events, particularly baseball.
Sincerely,
Batgirl
The tag line for this event was "This One Counts." If that's the way they bill the game, they should cover it as a baseball game and not Rock N' Jock Softball. The reason noone watches the All-Star Game anymore is because they have taken the baseball out of it.
Posted by: Florida at July 14, 2004 11:10 AMMy observations:
Trouble was brewing (no pun intended) when my waitress couldn't pronounce the beer of the month. I ordered it anyways. It was a Pilsner Urquell, which I've always enjoyed. Soon after I got it Clemens coughed up a triple to Pudge.
It's a good thing we got to the bar when we did, I wanted to see Clemens strike out some Yankees. Had we been a half inning late we'd have missed his appearance entirely.
When Carlos Zambrano was pitching to A-Rod, somebody in the bar loudly proclaimed "you CANNOT hit him!". A-Rod then tripled to score Smokey Ortiz from first.
Scott Rolen is amazing.
When we saw Ted Lilly warming up we figured that would be a good time to leave, that would give us enough time to get home and potentially see Joe Nathan pitch. However we missed Smokey's homerun in the 6th off of Pavano.
Nathan looked pretty good, although I would have liked to have heard more recognition of his appearance than a quickie one-sentence blurb like "Minnesota has a good closer". At least he got to pitch.
That leads into this question. Who were named All-Stars this year but didn't get into the game? I don't think Kenny Rogers or Jake Westbrook made it in. I'm sure there were more, although I seem to remember one of the announcers saying Jack McKeon had used all his position players, but there were probably some pitchers left on their side as well.
Posted by: Skorch at July 14, 2004 11:15 AMJason Schmitt (sp?), super pitcher who looks like the angry head elf from "Rudolph," didn't pitch, which was his pregame decision (barring extra innings). Apparently, he was tired after 130 pitches on Sunday. Wuss! I assume the other starters have similar stories.
Posted by: amr at July 14, 2004 12:20 PMAmr, possibly...
Posted by: Liz at July 14, 2004 02:04 PMel diablo missed the game too as he was at a Concert for Kerry fundraiser. However, at the bar before the show, el diablo also saw the Nathanest of Joes pitch his heart out to the joy of me.
But it sounds like el diablo didn't miss much. His hometown Portland, OR paper has a columnist named John Canzano that wrote this very interesting column:
http://www.oregonlive.com/sports/oregonian/john_canzano/index.ssf?/base/sports/1089806144311330.xml
He claims that baseball was kidnapped. KIDNAPPED!
Posted by: el diablo at July 14, 2004 02:15 PMCarlos Guillen didn't get to play; and for some reason, Torre didn't use the Texas pitchers, Rogers and Cordero. I mean, I know he was saving them "just in case," but why not use Rangers pitchers in an All-Star Game in Texas? He also didn't use Jake Westbrook, so maybe it's for the best that Johan wasn't bothered by an unnecessary trip to Houston, after all.
On, the NL side: Sean Casey didn't play. And Benitez, Graves, Hernandez, and Schmidt didn't pitch.
Posted by: frightwig at July 14, 2004 03:41 PM
The best part of the game came before the first pitch.
It was Ali!
Always the champ.
Posted by: RonDavis at July 14, 2004 10:25 PMAll-Star Game Notes:
5:20 Pre-game intros: Why is Alfonso Soriano batting 8th, behind Derek Jeter? Because Joe Torre is the AL manager and he has a man-crush on Jeter.
5:30 National Anthem, sung by American Idol Singer Fantasia: Ouch, I just put my ears on the 15-day Disabled List.
5:37 Joe Buck just said “Roger Clemens will toe the slab.” For any viewers under 70, that means that he will be pitching, fa shizzle.
5:56 On Jason Giambi’s ground ball to second, Jeff Kent shows all the range of Bartolo Colon sitting in a barcalounger with a brew in each hand.
5:59 A 3-run shot by Alfonso Soriano and it’s 6-0, AL and then we get treated to an at-bat by a pitcher. Now that’s something to see. Go to an All-Star game and watch a pitcher bat. Hey, Bud Selig, how about using the DH IN EVERY ALL-STAR GAME so we don’t have to watch a pitcher look at three strikes and sit down.
6:16 This is the kind of reporting you don’t get just anywhere: Pudge Rodriguez loves the music of Yanni. Thank you, FOX, for enlightening me. Hmm, Pudge likes the music of Yanni and he kisses his pitchers (Ugueth Urbina last year in the World Series), and there were rumors that Mike Piazza is gay?
6:30 Oh my God! Scooter, an animated baseball teaching kids what a slider is, just came on my screen. I just put my eyes on the 15-day Disabled List.
6:32 Derek Jeter has no balls . . . and two strikes.
6:37 The AL has Randy Johnson on the ropes
with 1 out and the bases-loaded. Luckily, Ken Harvey (“Token Royal”) comes up and strikes out. Is there a worse 2004 All-Star than Ken Harvey? He’s hitting .238 since June 1st.
6:42 “Toeing the slab” for the AL, All-Star Esteban Loaiza, with a 4.77 ERA this season. These are the best of the best, people.
7:06 I’ve lost interest, is the game still on?
7:12 The NL rallies for a run in the bottom of the 4th and Tim McCarver says, “Two-out rallies are the most difficult of rallies.” The man’s a genius.
7:15 A video tribute to Roger Clemens with accompanying music from REO Speedwagon. Is there ever a good reason to play some REO Speedwagon music? Since the game hasn’t dragged on long enough, they’re having a mid-inning celebration for Clemens, who, remember, pitched 1 inning and gave up 6 runs in the 1st. He’s getting the Commissioners Historic Achievement Award and they brought out some old fossil to present the award to him. Oh wait, I recognize that rug, it’s Bud Selig.
7:27 Mercifully, the game is now half-over. That only took 1 hour and 42 minutes to play 4 ½ innings of baseball.
7:32 Scooter, the animated baseball, makes his 2nd appearance. Can we please use him next year in the HR Derby?
8:01 Hey, C.C. Sabathia is singing “God Bless America” during the 7th inning stretch! Oh wait, my mistake, it’s another American Idol “Singer,” Ruben Studdard.
8:06 They’re interviewing Eric Gagne in the bottom of the 7th. He seems much less intimidating without his theme music.
8:45 And that’s it. Nothing much happened in the last 3 innings.
Dear Mr. Mueller,
That was truly wonderful. Bless you.
Gratefully,
Batgirl
Look to Aaron Gleeman and the Hardball Times trascript of their chat during the All-Star game to see what I hate most about SABR people...
...They are so crazy mean and cruel.
Posted by: Mimiru at July 16, 2004 12:32 AM