MLB All-Star Game recap with a tip of the cap to ‘The Boss’
Let’s start this baseball column with a tribute to the late George Steinbrenner, and then we’ll get to the MLB All-Star Game.
Bias alert: I hate the Yankees more than any team in any sport. Watching maybe the best Phillies team ever still lose to New York in the World Series was excruciating. One of my dad’s favorite Jack Nicholson quotes, “I’d rather stick needles in my eyes!” oddly applies in the situation. So my feelings for “Mr.” Steinbrenner are not the warmest. Between you and me, I didn’t really like the man.
But I did respect him.
Since Steinbrenner purchased the team in 1973, the Yankees have won seven championships. That’s one out of every five World Series for a period of 36 years! Add 11 American League titles, 16 division titles, and three wildcard berths, and New York was in the American League playoffs for more than half of the years that he was the owner. Now that’s a leader I can get behind.
Of course you can’t make an omelet without breaking any eggs. Forget breaking eggs, Steinbrenner would crack some skulls if his Yankees were not the alpha-franchise of baseball, and his managers always seemed to get the worst of it. He tortured Joe Torre, whose only sin was not winning every World Series — just four of them; he yo-yoed Billy Martin, who was actually a five-time manager of the Yankees (imagine Larry Bowa as a five-time manager of the Phillies); and fired Buck Showalter after he guided New York to the playoffs for the first time in 14 years. Tough guy to please, no question about it.
World Series or bust. That was Steinbrenner’s creed, and it was the Yankee Way for better or worse. Just know that most of the time, it was for better because of George Michael Steinbrenner III.
(Haha, his name is George Michael.)
World Series Trivia Question: Without Googling this, try to name the team with the second-most World Series Championships since Steinbrenner took control of the Yankees in 1973. (Answer after All-Star Game recap.)
All-Star Game Recap
Last year, I did a running diary of the 2009 All-Star Game and was planning on making it an annual tradition. However, since Jack of All Sports is at the game, I figured I’d just do a quick recap this year instead.
At the start of Fox’s coverage of the All-Star Game, Fox Sports played an interesting quick self-promotion. After listing several sports channels under the Fox brand, the announcer called Fox “the greatest collection of sports networks in the world”. Fox followed that little humble opening with an incredibly heavy-handed opening with a father and son looking into a multi-million dollar telescope with the announcer waxing poetic about how we marvel at stars. There’s more I could say, but it would only bore you to read something so corny.
I’m guessing that ESPN — the other worldwide leader — wouldn’t have done that…
So on to the game. Funny how pitching and defense rule the day in the MLB All-Star Game when nearly every other sport is violently skewed in favor of offenses.
Speaking of pitching, I bow down to David Price. I’m not worthy! In a thrilling opening to the All-Star Game, Price was dialing it up, Pedro-style circa ‘99 in Fenway. With a fastball that was consistently in the high 90s and hit 100 miles-per-hour twice, Price had Hanley Ramirez trying to hit the ball the other way. In fact, Hanley looked more like I did playing little league ball than the 30-home run, .300 batting average star that he supposedly is. I was really excited to see the Albert Pujols-Price matchup, though not as excited as Joe Buck was talking about how the greatness of Pujols — he practically wet himself. As for the outcome: Price decisioned Prince Albert, getting him to fly out to Ichiro, who made a nice play to snag down it down in the right-centerfield gap.
Price made that inning an event.
I don’t know what made Ryan Howard look younger: his baby face, that huge helmet, or Price’s 98 mph heater. As I said before, I’m liking this Price guy.
After watching Pettitte shut down the National League in order in the third, a theory came to me on why pitching dominates the All-Star Game. Starting pitchers know they’ll only be in for one inning or two at max, so they come out and dial it up Rick “Wild Thing” Vaughn style. No one is pacing themselves for quality start, and the radar gun was flaming around the high 90s way more than usual. Is there someway to find out which, if any, starting pitchers are consistently in the high 90s for an entire start? I’ll come back to this subject another time. (Thanks to FOX for telling us that Price hit 100 mph, and that Verlander and Josh Johnson each hit 99 mph. Broxton later hit 99.)
P.S. Finally the National League won an All-Star Game! Big thanks to Brian McCann and former Phillie Marlon Byrd!
World Series Trivia Answer: It’s a tie between the Oakland A’s and the Cincinnati Reds with three World Series titles apiece since 1973. Combined they possess one fewer World Series title than Steinbrenner’s Bronx Bombers.