I like the All-Star Game. It's a bunch of great performers gathered together to play a great game. Sounds like a good time to me.
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Game Thread: All-Star Game! This entry was posted by ubelmann
on Tuesday, July 10th, 2007 at 6:00 pm and is filed under Guest Writers, MLB, Minnesota Twins, ubelmann. It is one of 821 entries by the author.
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247 comments to Game Thread: All-Star Game! |
Cup of Coffee A colleague of mine who is a big sports guy (primarily college) read Top Jimmy's column and told me that the Twins should trade Joe Mauer. What do I take from that? Joe's demands are large enough that some of the more casual fans are starting to get turned off by him. Citizens Online28 Users Online WGOM Engagement AreaLog InRetired WGOM Jokes
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Race to the Bottom: Highest Loss Totals in T-Wolves History67: 1991-92 Recent Letters to the EditorIn Response to Cup of Coffee: March 12, 2010, New Guy wrote: My dad went to law school with her daughter. One time my family visited her in California and had dinner at her house. The food was unimaginably good. Way beyond anything I have ever had… spookymilk wrote: She's almost 20. We're good here. Milt on Tilt wrote: Is she 18 yet? SBG wrote: Leeann Chin is dead. spookymilk wrote: That explains my feelings for Emma Watson, too. AMR wrote: Alas, my wife went out to run some errands when the FedEx guy arrived. I must wait until tomorrow. Milt on Tilt wrote: ugh. It's $10 online. I think I have to spring for it. Beau wrote: I've recently become a Ferguson convert. I now find myself staying up past my bedtime, at least to see the intro. A lot of people can make me laugh. He makes me… hungry joe wrote: apparenly, ozzie isn't a fan of spicoli either. davidwatts wrote: It was on really late last night because it was the end of the show, but when Eddie Izzard and Craig Ferguson get together, wacky stuff … in the show, Izzard tries to tip over… In Response to Cup of Coffee: March 11, 2010, Milt on Tilt wrote: Behind the rest of America I guess? AMR wrote: You mean Aaron, Tim, Paige, and Katie? Milt on Tilt wrote: It was criminally wrong. This is easily the worst season ever. I think I'm gonna tune out and just come back for the final 4 AMR wrote: Well, that was bollocksed up. Todrick, Alex, Katelyn, and Lily. I think we can both agree that was very wrong. At least those four won't have to tour. In Response to Music Day, CarterHayes wrote: I've got a crappy little faux retro turntable that I might play an old scratchy 33 on from time to time, but these days it's more for … like one of those Crosley jobs that… Milt on Tilt wrote: Oh yeah. I saw that. Of course, I was deciding whether to go when tickets were still $15 UncleWalt wrote: I agree with both sentiments, but I read somewhere that they were actually a fantastic live show. So I looked into when they might be coming to town. As you probably know, their show at… AMR wrote: Only Sevendust song I know. I bought the first two Skunk Anansie albums, so I quite liked that single. I think I need to download that tonight. AMR wrote: Try the vocal album "The World Is Gone" by Various. It's like a Portishead with dubstep instead of trip-hop. But it draws a bit more from British Folk so that while using the sound of… E-6 wrote: 1. Car Built To Spill There's Nothing Wrong With Love 2. After Class Atlas Sound Let The Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel 3. The Heavenly Music Corporation Robert Fripp & Brian Eno… nibbish wrote: From live clips that I've seen, I think I would agree. The album took some getting used to, but it ended up being one of my favorites, but yeah... I don't think that it would… nibbish wrote: Thanks a lot, I'll check those out right away. I'll admit my knowledge of that whole "scene" is next to nonexistant. Big Mak wrote: This is 'The' List. Big Mak wrote: Listened to a little bit of 'Memories of the Future'. Liked it better than what I've heard of Burial, but I felt like my coolness quotient wasn't quite high enough for it. In Response to Frank Sinatra and Antônio Carlos Jobim -- Girl From Ipanema, brianS wrote: You want to be careful where you say such things. Johnny Fontane Mr. Sinatra has friends. Popular Recent Posts
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I like the game, but could do without some of the paid endorsement overload.
Is anyone worse at broadcasting a sporting event than FOX? I say no.
And I'll take ESPN to show for the exacta.
Like comparing rotten apples and rotten oranges.
Right. Better make that a quinella.
rotten apples and rotten oranges
Yet the Brits would have found a way to make something of that - marmalade, chutney, Pimms, HP sauce...
Past their choice in announcers, I've never really had a problem with any ESPN baseball broadcast. They show the game-that's what I care about. When FOX broadcasts the celebrities in the crowd, you can barely make out the game going on in the background.
I take it back. That Simpson's movie promo tie-in was genius.
I'd be happy as a clam if Homer and Apu did the game instead of Buck & McCarver.
Was that a baby I saw with one of the Indians? Is he campaigning for a political position or something?
Anyone else catch Leyland giving a nice shout out to Minnesota (and a few other markets) while slagging the belief that baseball doesn't exist outside of NY and Boston. Testify, Brother Jim! Testify!
One of my roommates didn't understand why the Dodgers were being booed. LA and SF/Oak are the 2nd and 12th largest metro areas in the US. (Boston and New York are the 11th and 1st largest metro areas in the US.) It's not even just the small markets that are being neglected by FOX and ESPN.
What's with the pink Cadillac? Willie Mays sold Mary Kay?
Does Willie get to keep the car? Because that's a sweet ride.
It's nice that Willie Mays is being honored, and I'm not necessarily against announcing the full All-Star lineups, but no one should be allowed to advertise a start time of 7pm and not start the game until at least 45 minutes later. Call it a pre-game show, and tell me when the real game starts.
McCarver and Buck. Smug and Smugger.
These idiots better get the game started before they lose the East Coast audience.
And the flyover states...
First pitch, 54 minutes past the hour. Add six minutes, make it a pre-game show, and start the game on time. Oh wait, I forgot, fans love it when you mislead them.
Please Joe Buck, tell me something about the Captain that I don't know.
O Captain, My Captain!
Obviously not a clutch situation, or Jeter wouldn't have just hit into a DP.
He's not as clutch as Big Papi according to Buck. Anybody think Travis Hafner will ever make an All-Star team?
That was a clutch reach-on-error by Ortiz there.
McCarver was comparing Peavy's sinker to Webb's sinker. Peavy GB%? 46.9%, similar to Silva. Webb's GB%? 64% and leading the league.
Did you see White had another setback? Hangnail on his small toe, I hear.
Right or left?
Right, I think. But, I'm starting to think his main injury might be between his ears.
I am stunned, STUNNED, I tell you. Never saw that coming.
Prince flashing iron.
Fielder with the error. Aaah, the irony.
+10. But no agony or ecstacy.
Why isn't Prince wearing leather pants, stiletto heels and a purple coat? If you're gonna use a guy's name, you'd better dress like him, dammit.
Who didn't have "first commercial" on the "Our Country" pool?
The terrorists.
Nah, I'm pretty sure they paid for that slot, so I hope they would expect it.
Usually, I cheer for the AL, but I would like to see David Ortiz make two or three errors that cost the AL the game today.
I'll settle for a few more RBI hits just past a lunging/diving Jeter.
Lunging--that's the word I was looking for.
Don't forget the SB off Pudge--not even the 2nd best catcher in the AL Central as judged by Jim Baker.
But, but, Cal Ripken, Jr. told me that Pudge could control the game with his arm behind the plate. What happened?
Jose Reyes is a very exciting player. He reminds me why Guzie was my favorite player for a few years.
I like Reyes a lot, too. I just hope his coverage in the press doesn't become Jeterian.
Reyes definitely not metrosexual. So you are safe.
By the way I actually chuckled about LEN3's line about Henry Sanchez's injury. It was funnier than anything Top Jimmy has ever written.
Past a lurching Jeter!
You'd have thought an All-Star would get to that.
Peavy last pitched 5 days ago. Shouldn't the ASG starter be able to go more than one inning?
Wait, I forgot, Tony LaRussa is in charge of the NL side. I'm surprised Peavy was left in long enough to finish one inning.
I'm digging that "worm's eye" camera angle.
With his goatee more neatly trimmed, Josh Beckett reminds me of a pudgier version of Joel Pineiro right now.
Is this avail on MLB Tv, audio, or Gameday? I canna seem to get in.
No problemo: Bob, Paul, Phil, and Al holding down the fort tonite.
It's on FOX, so it's blacked out nationally on mlb.tv. I'm not sure about radio.
So my 80 piasters this year for MLB.tv gets me Nada for ASG. Non. Nein. Nil. Nikto.
You don't have FOX?
On now. I only get commercial time tonite w/ Tour on.
Ah, A-Ster up to bat.
And quickly he is at 2B.
Aha, I see. Time share issue.
Espen Radio had it...it was streaming on KFAN which I think is illegal.
What a false hustle dive by Utley there. He wasn't even close.
The Captain put a little extra false hustle on that hit so it just spread while rolling through the IF.
With Ichiro signing a $100 million/5 year deal, how does that affect Torii's market value? Does it put him out of range to re-sign?
I don't think it really changes a whole lot. Torii's going to get a lot of money, and I think he was already out of range for the Twins to sign.
already out of range
Time for new face/sideburn.
E-5.
Soup Campbell on the radio: "It's a good thing Sabathia doesn't play for MN, or else there'd be another guy who you could call Paul Bunyan."
No, actually he'd be Babe the Blue Ox.
Since when was Paul Bunyan fat? Did he have an "old Bunyan" phase similar to the "old Elvis" phase?
Near the end yes. He was eating a lot of deep-fried walleye fingers and drinking copious amounts of beer. He porked out a bit. Part of it was some mild depresssion. He and Babe had a falling out and weren't talking much.
I heard Babe took up with some Hare-Krishnas. Took on th' Garbanzo-bean protein substitute too quickly and ended up in Mayo.
That's right. Was it kidney trouble?
Actually, more of a social situation. Paul's 2nd wife, Muriel, refused to let him anywhere near the house.
I forgot about the nasty divorce. I never knew anyone could be come so enraged over plaid shirts. I mean it was the guy's signature outfit. He just didnj't look right in strips or paisley.
Not only did the paisley not look right, but you could tell it really affected his performance.
Cialis for P.B.? Shocking. Simply Shocking.
Paul Bunyan in Paisley. I don't think Bemidji could pull that off, even with an A-team ad guy.
Not like they did with a chicken with a helmet in a tank.... Heh.
Dukakis?
+1,000,000. Like the Kings of Kamadey two-er.
You know, on one of the nationally televised games last week they were saying Morneau's nickname was Paul Bunyan. They must not read blogs.
I caught that, too. It was the first time I'd ever heard him called that.
A year or two ago, I heard the D-Backs announcers refer to him as that.
This just in: YESHD is playing 'White Shadow' tonite during the ASG.
I always liked Thorpe.
Is that show on DVD yet?
Bucket of cold water: http://www.startribune.com/508/story/1295455.html
That's the same Cranky Patrick column that Reusse puts out monthly. He can do better.
Perhaps, but they have dug themselves another hole and a playoff run seems unlikely based upon them having to put up those winning percentages.
I agree that it's unlikely that the Twins will come back, but that doesn't change the fact that Reusse writes one of these columns every month regardless of how good the Twins look.
Wah.
Ulger coaching third? Wow. Not. Even. Close.
Who is coaching third base? Ullger?
Morneau sighting.
Tim McCarver: the only possible explanation for increased home run rates is performance-enhancing drugs.
Did Selig approve this script?
He also answered his own rhetorical question, "Clearly."
How about Yankee Stadium shrinking by 80 feet in the gap. Or the rise of Enron.
Exactly. Small parks, more emphasis on conditioning and weightlifting. There was a belief in the old days that weightlifting was detrimental. Heh.
And, hey, maybe the ball is wound tighter.
No, it's all drugs.
Just look at all of the positive tests we've seen, power hitter after power hitter.
WOW!
That was awesome. Nice work by Ichiro.
Of course, I wasn't really even sure that Ichiro was at the plate at the time, since we were too busy following Eric Byrnes' dog in McCovey Cove. FOX's ineptitude is beyond compare.
That bit was pathetic. Byrnes later said his ball had "sanken," Nice one, Eric.
Look! Look! It's a dog! Everyone look over here! It's a dog! And he's swimming away from a baseball!!
It’s a dog! And he’s swimming away from a baseball!!
That cracked me up. It might have been just a cute/lame distraction if the dog had only fetched the ball, but that's why it was so funny to see the dog swim in the other direction. You almost can't beat a silly bit that goes completely awry because an animal has an agenda of its own, although Ichiro just managed it.
The C.C.
Run, Ichiro!, run!
Hit a HR, get replaced in the field. Hardly seems fair.
Wow, the dog made it back on the boat. YippEEE!
At first I thought that seemed like the quickest inside-the-park HR I'd ever seen. But, even more amazing, from the replay you could see that Ichiro wasn't even running hard. He seemed to slow up coming into 3rd, and just turned on the jets after rounding 3rd base, slowing up again for the last 20 feet or so, after he was sure there would be no play at the plate.
Thank goodness Crawford was out there and not Ordonez.
That was a pretty nice play by FOTF to keep Reyes to a single. +$2M total contract value
Joe B*ck: "This is the prettiest park. Forget just about baseball."
You need to get out more, Joe. They have these things called "National Parks." I think you would find them to be a real eye opener.
He's stuck inside his enourmous ego.
Joe is proof that the apple sometimes does fall far from the tree.
Or perhaps that his mother took a shining to the door-to-door brush salesman when Jack was on a road trip.
That's just the second HR Cordero has allowed all season. And Crawford only has 6 so far this season.
Carl Crawford
How much you wanna bet that Fox would try to flash Family Guy graphics onto the walls of the Grand Canyon?
I bet they could do it, too.
I'd like to see Eric Byrnes thrashing about in the Colorado River.
Stewie!
Verlander rag arm there.
A triple and maybe should have been an inside the parker.
Vlad got to it quick enough that with his arm, I don't think Beltran could've made it a HR, but he could've made it interesting.
Hey, let's interview Derek Jeter! Who is that guy?
Lookin kinda scraggly.
Thank god we got this interview. It had been about 15 minutes since I had seen Jeter's face.
Derek, can you guys come back in the second half?
Yes.
Insightful. That's leadership.
Now is not the time to regress to the mean, Mr. Verlander.
What? I thought Morneau couldn't play defense like Dougie B-ball.
Russ Martin to AL bullpen: you guys may be needed soon.
Since he didn't get the start, I was kind of hoping Santana wouldn't get used at all, but it looks like he's probably coming in next inning.
Just to piss Gardy off, he gets the inning after the long GBA delay. And yes, it took this berting long in Yankee Stadium when I went to Game 1. It's just a ridiculously stupid display of patriotism that adds nothing to the game.
That was just riveting. I've never seen a coach have such a mundane conversation with an umpire before.
I was just thinking that added zero to the telecast.
Bringing the FOX telecast total to, um, zero.
Which definitely makes it below replacement broadcast level.
Is it too soon for Pat O'Briens revival?
Much too soon. He'll need months of A Clockwork Orange-like treatment program. Watching his own interviews with Paris, Britney, etc.
Plenty o' Beethoven then. Good.
A little of the ol' Ludvig Von. And milk. Lots of milk.
I hate Joe Buck. I hate his voice.
I hate his ass-face.
I hate his morals.
call..hunter..dong...
dong minus 120 feet. Too high.
wrong...
Is this the impromptu moment of silence?
What are the bridesmaids trying to do?
+10
Damnit, where's Huey Lewis and the News!!!!?!???
On the bright side, at least she shaved this morning.
They're walkin' on a thin line...
Happy to be stuck on you?
Of course, Buck and McCarver talk incessantly about anything but the game during the game, but where are they when you have real dead air to fill?
No Mr. B*ck, that was not definitely worth the wait.
Definitely worth the wait. Sorry, Joe, I wasn't waiting for that.
Weak. In case you were wondering, the heart of rock and roll is still beating.
I want a new drug.
One that won't make you sick?
Or make my FACE break out...
Cansellara finish - nice.
That was stellar, wasn't it.
Due. Gonna wear th' yeller, gotta deliver.
It kinda pisses me off that a 2-time CYA winner, a guy who has started 3 Game 1's in a playoff series, and the best pitcher over the past 4 years would need to be "introduced" to the national audience by FOX. Maybe if they did their job during the season, people might already "know" of him.
"Probably" the best left-handed pitcher in the league, according to Joe B*ck. What a bold statement.
Does it also kind of piss you off that Santana had to be specially selected by Jim Leyland to even make the team?
Nah, if Shea Hillenbrand thinks he's a useful player, then I'm not sure I can trust any player's concept of value.
LOIGY?
Yeah, this guy strikes out too many batters. No way he could ever last as a starter unless he pitches more to contact.
Santanamera.
Showing Rincon how it's done.
Johan looked pretty darned good. Lee humiliated on a ball in the dirt. Soriano caught looking. Nice.
In political news, a new Harris poll reveals that the favorite major league baseball team of Republicans is the Atlanta Braves, while the favorite major league baseball team of Democrats and Independents is the New York Yankees.
How did the Twins become less popular when they actually became good?
The dumbing of America, I guess. I blame big media, big business, and big government.
John Birchers must be Colo.
How long before a couple of NL owners tell Bud to end this "this time it counts" bs?
No owner has crossed Seligula and lived to tell the tale.
Prob. not going to happen soon.
Santana's due up 4th this inning. Let him hit!
Extra base machine.
Okay, so that Victor Martinez PH appearance turned out pretty well.
WTF, Mike Lowell comes up and they talk about David Ortiz. And they don't even mention that Morneau was up.
You wouldn't want to talk about the reigning MVP.
These guys are the f*ckin' pits. Joe Morgan is like Gandhi in comparison.
Morgan is like Vin Scully by comparison.
You see, SBG, since Ortiz is a member of the Boston Red Stockings, it is okay to talk about him while Lowell (another Red Stocking) is batting. And Morneau doesn't play for Boston at all, so he's not part of the script.
Sanchez makes like Punto.
Joe Mauer wouldn't have done that.
Nah, Joe Mauer would've started the game, gunned down Jose Reyes, and been replaced by that point in the game. There's nothing wrong with Martinez as a hitter--it's his defense that drags his value down some.
We're looking at 10 straight wins for the AL (forgetting the tie in there).
Man, if I had a choice between being a Fox sports producer or swallowing Drano, I'd go with the Drano.
No way, I'd take FOX sports producer without thinking twice. Then, I'd fire B*ck and McCarver, and find someone who adds something to the broadcast.
You fail to grok the network television hierarchy, Ubes.
Maybe you just underestimate the power I could wield if I infiltrated the system.
You'd be my hero...
PH HR seems like kind of a cheap stat when such a large percentage of AB are pitch hit AB.
What, you mean it's not an accurate measure of clutchness?
I like how the *uckhead said that the Indians were expected to compete with the Tigers in 2006. Yeah, everyone had the Tigs winning in 2006 before the season started.
Screw you i-phone...
Could Posada have taken any more time making that throw to second?
Yes, if he were Matthew LeCroy.
Point taken.
That "passed ball" was a "wild pitch" on Clemens last week.
I forgot to mention this earlier, but kuddos to Fox and MLB for making Joe Buck only the second-most annoying person on tv during the event. It took an awful lot of vision to bring Dane Cook aka "the least funny man alive" into the fold.
Oh, and I might have to invite McCarver to my wedding if only to push him into the river.
After the "dancing at weddings" bit, I vote Drano, Twayn.
I want a closer metdown and a tie game...
Miller Chill---you have got to be kidding me..
Nice Yanquis smack there. Can Torii follow it up?
I just realized--the AL has no backup catcher!! Gardy must be going crazy on the bench there. "I'm tellin' ya, Jimmy, don't do it. Don't use up your last catcher. You'll regret it."
Gardy bums a heater from Leyland at this realization.
They also got into it in the first inning. Gardentool wanted Jeter to bunt Ichiro over to second.
Bruce Froemming--one of two umpires to officiate 5,000+ games. Feature, or bug?
I'm not sure I understand your question, but I actually appreciated FOX's insight. Of course, it would have been better if they had pointed out that in his first game Tom Seaver was one of the starting pitchers and that it was called in the bottom of the fifth for rain. Or that in his first game behind the plate, Tom Seaver was again pitching and that Pete Rose, Tony Perez, Johnny Bench all got in the game.
I was more pointing out that maybe it isn't such a great idea to have anyone officiating that many games.
Or that the longest game he ever called behind the plate was this 18 inning game that ended with a bases-loaded walk and featured Richfield Spartan Pat Scanlan playing for Montreal.
Wow, LaRussa managed nine full innings and didn't make a single mid-inning pitching switch.
Okay, hearing Froemming curse there when he got hit by the foul tip was pure comedic gold. Who hasn't wanted an umpire to be in pain every now and then?
That's a nasty chin beard.
Makes him look like a Putz.
Putz is really good, definitely deserving of being the AL closer. Good choice by Mr. Leyland.
Cool.
Soar-iano.
With it being a one-run game now, Pujols has to PH here, right?
Gardy's probably pacing the dugout muttering "Push the Neshek Button" under his breath.
If he'd been able to press the Castillo button earlier, the AL would be out of this mess by now.
I don't know about that. The largest hole in the Twins IF is between first and second base. Castillo has better range up the middle than to his left.
I think you've got it backwards, Will. Castillo is good to his left and poor up the middle. Check out Dewan's Fielding Bible--that was even how Castillo was back in '05.
Hmm... my eyes can definitely deceive me. That was just my memory and I thought David Pinto's work confirmed it, but I could definitely be wrong.
My memory is going faulty on me these days, too, but I got this one right, I'm pretty sure. Here's Castillo's 2006 PMR chart. The red "actual outs" curve is to the first base side of the second baseman.
that's nice, ubes.
but for pure painful comedy, you can't beat The Original Dictator's chart. Batista, 2006.
Wow. That is unrivaled awfulness.
And, this deserves more attention than being buried in the end of an exhibition game thread, but if you look at Morneau's chart along with Castillo's aforementioned chart, you can see that their "expected outs" overlap. Castillo looks good at the expense of Morneau.
I'm not terribly impressed with Morneau's range, so I'm not sure if he could get them anyway, but it's possible that it would benefit the team for Castillo to shade a bit more to CF and let Morneau get to a few more of those plays to his right while Castillo gets to more plays up the middle.
It's also an illustration of why defense is difficult to measure.
Speaking of Pinto, is anyone else having trouble getting into his site lately? I haven't been able to get to it for days.
And that ball wasn't really hit all that sharply, either. Castillo seems to make the play on the grounder deep in the grass to his left a lot.
Nice pitch there.
I don't buy that. I think Lee went around.
C'mon. Wild pitch....
LaRussa's smirk shows that he knew he got a break on Lee's check-swing. You would think with the million cameras there, FOX would give us an angle that shows the swing, but nope... They're trying to get to a Punto level VORB
Frankie! Relax.
Kak. 3 BBs in a row. Hoo-hah.
Single and a play at the plate...
Easy as Pi.
That was more like pushing the "difficult" button.
Next year, we should give the NL a DH while we let our pitchers hit. It would only be sporting.
Bitchiro!
Huh, Ichiro claims that's his first inside-the-park HR ever. I would not have guessed that.
I was disappointed that there were so few product endorsement opportunities during the game and the MVP presentation. The American Century is over. We are on the decline.