Enjoying the All-Star Game
How about THIS for a bullpen? *drools*
I went to the All-Star Game, on a whim, in 2006. It really changed how I felt about the game in general. I had a blast, and I can’t wait to get back to another one, or for it to hopefully be at Citi Field in 2013. It was like being at a party devoted to baseball.
Here’s the article I wrote about it, in 2007. Mid-Summer Excitement
Tags: All Star Game, all star week, all-star, Baseball, celebration, David Wright, excitement, Home Run Derby, Mets, mid-summer classic, party
Vuvuzelas, Dickey and the Mets Win Again
I arrived at Citi Field with plenty of time to get my foam finger to vote for Wright (and Pagan), get some fries, and get to my seat. It was a hot and steamy night, but the Mets made it worthwhile as I improve to 8-2 on the season at Mets games.
Vote For Wright!
Tags: All Star Game, all-star, all-star voting, Angel Pagan, Baseball, chris carter, detroit tigers, foam finger, francisco rodriguez, home field advantage, Interleague Play, k-rod, knuckleball, krod, Mets, New York Mets, r a dickey, vote for pagan, vote for wright, vuvuzela
All-Star Votes and David Wright Foam Finger
Wright Trots home after his first Home Run of the Season
We should all be voting for the Mets to make the All-Star Game. I know some fans think they should just stay home and rest, but in most cases the players themselves don’t want to stay home and rest, would rather have the honor of an All-Star appearance, would be running around doing media appearances anyway, and if they really need the rest they’d bow out. So let’s vote our Mets into the game. More All-Star appearances by Mets just increases their presumed value to the national audience and their overall resume.
David Wright has a chance at catching Placido Polanco of the hated Phillies, and would certainly be a deserving starter. Additionally, the Mets have announced that the first 20,000 fans at Citi Field for Wednesday’s game against the Tigers will receive a Blue “Make Wright #1” Foam Finger.
Jose Reyes got a slow start to the season off the thyroid issue, but he’s back to playing ball like an All-Star, and there is no reason we shouldn’t vote for him to be there.
Rod Barajas has been a great addition to our team. Why not honor him with a vote?
Most importantly, Angel Pagan has been an amazing fill-in for Carlos Beltran and extremely valuable. Everyone reads stats differently, but there are categories where Angel Pagan excels. WAR, Wins Above Replacement, a stat that tries to calculate how much a player contributes to the success of a team over an easy to find replacement, lists Angel Pagan as the top centerfielder in the National League. Not just that, but he’s tied for 7th overall! (Wright is second). So voting for Pagan wouldn’t be a homer pick, he actually deserves it.
Since the ballot contains the AL portion too, my general philosophy is to vote for guys that have a chance to beat out Yankees. Justin Morneau is one that can, and should, beat out Mark Texiera. Andrus for SS and Pedroia for 2B are both long shots, but they’re the runners up at the moment.
Tags: All Star Game, all-star, anaheim, Angel Pagan, Citi Field, David Wright, foam finger, Jose Reyes, Mets, mets givaways, New York Mets, rod barajas, WAR
Enjoy the Game
The All-Star game arrives tomorrow. Tonight is the Home Run Derby. It’s a much maligned three, or four, days without regular season games. I’ve written an article about how exciting the All-Star break can be, and there are some points this year that I’d like to add.
This is the first year of the MLB Network. I’ve really liked what they’ve done so far, and while the All-Star Game is still on Fox, I think we’ll see some good stuff on the Network, getting better every year. Presumably the game will eventually be televised on MLB Network or at least they will have a lot more exclusive rights to things going on around the game.
Watch the game for the celebration of baseball as our National Pastime. Don’t play the “what if” game about injuries and arm fatigue and all that. These players can treat it as a vacation, a reprise from the grind of everyday baseball and the pressures that may envelope them on their own teams. These athletes are in good enough shape that the mental break from the standings is much more important than the physical break from playing.
I’ll enjoy watching the different aspects and play of different stars around the league. Because it’s baseball, and I love baseball. It doesn’t even matter that it barely counts. No one would risk getting excited about the prospects of game seven of the World Series at this point anyway, too much of a jinx.
Tags: all star 2009, All Star Game, Baseball, fox, fun, injuries, mlb network, national pastime, New York Mets, st louis
All-Star Guide
I wrote a sort of guide to the All-Star game, of what to expect, which i’m pasting below. I also created a drinking game, if anyone is interested in that.
Tuesday is the Major League Baseball All-Star game. It’s being played this year in Yankee Stadium, in it’s final season before being knocked down. This is, quite understandably, going to create a feeling of nostalgia around the broadcasts and events involved in this game. From clips of past All-Star games at Yankee Stadium and other memorable moments to discussions about Yankees from Babe Ruth to Derek Jeter, there is going to be a lot of talk about the Yankees and Yankee Stadium during these festivities.
Things to expect on Tuesday for the All-Star game
Players:
-I expect plenty of coverage of Goose Gossage, a Yankee who played in the 1977 All-Star game at Yankee Stadium and is being inducted into the Hall of Fame.
-Thurman Munson also played in that game, and is a much beloved Yankee that will get plenty of discussion.
-The other Yankees to play in the 1977 All-Star game; Reggie Jackson, Sparky Lyle, Graig Nettles and Willie Randolph will get some mention.
-It’ll be mentioned that Randolph managed the Mets and got fired, but other than that I’m sure it’ll be all Yankee references.
-Probably at least some discussion of the other Yankees to play in All-Star games at Yankee Stadium over the years.
-Especially on ESPN, Joe Morgan will talk about, or be talked about, since he was at the game in 1977. If we don’t see a clip of the home run he hit in the game, I’ll be shocked.
-I don’t expect a lot of talk about the Yankees citymates, the New York Mets. David Wright and Billy Wagner will get mentioned since they’re on the team, but even though this isn’t the only stadium closing in the city, not much will be made of the 1964 All-Star game at Shea Stadium. John Sterns was the only Met representative at the 1977 All-Star game, but Tom Seaver was also on the roster for the Reds before being traded back to the Mets, as was former Met Nolan Ryan.
Stadium:
-An overabundance of Yankee Stadium goodbyes. All sorts of people will be asked about their first and last moments in Yankee Stadium and what it means to them.
-Plenty of talk about when Yankee Stadium was built, about Babe Ruth’s career helping to make it what it is today.
-Repeated shots of Monument Park and all the plaques and statues enclosed within. Also discussions about how it’s going to be moved to the new stadium.
-Plenty of overhead shots of the new Yankee Stadium being build, and the comparisons and similarities between the two stadiums.
-I’d be shocked if they showed Shea Stadium at all. Despite there being another stadium in New York that housed plenty of baseball’s history as well as an All-Star game, it won’t get more than a passing mention. At best I’d expect a quick aerial shot of it and Citi Field, the Mets home from 2009 and beyond.
As for the game itself, I suspect it’ll be a fairly decent game this year. There are a great amount of young players on the rosters that are fun to watch, as well as some terrific pitchers. I think the National League will finally prevail this year, after failing in a close comeback last year and Trevor Hoffman blowing the save in 2006. This means Yankees closer Mariano Rivera will not get to close out the final All-Star game in Yankee Stadium for the American League, but he can still pitch the ninth inning if Terry Francona was inclined to do so.
Tags: All Star Game, All-Star break, drinking game, guide, Mets, yankee Stadium
Mets Grab the Holy Grail
The Grand Slam is a jolt of confidence, a great turning point in any game, providing a sudden 4-run swing in the runs column. These are some things the Mets sorely needed, and even better is that it came with two outs, so it was a dazzlingly clutch RISP hit also. (picture not from today’s game)
It’s just one game, although it set a record for RBIs by a Mets player in one game, but even better would be if this was a turning point for Carlos Delgado to finish the season, and maybe even his career, on a warpath to a championship. Of course, the Yankees may be clamoring for him to be their DH next year with his performances at Yankee Stadium.
Now everyone gets to head over to Shea to face Sidney Ponson. Let’s get this party started!
Mid-Summer Classic
We’ve reached the theoretical halfway point of the season, and I’m sure we all hope for a better second half. I’m confident we’ll get there. For now, It’s All-Star time. I point you all to my TOTK article where I explain why I have a little excitement about watching the Derby and the Game.
BTW, nobody except a Mets player has driven in or scored a run in the All-Star game since 2005.
Tags: All Star Game, All-Star break, Mets, Midsummer classic, totk
Interleague Play Draws Near: Command?
Good clean 8-1 win with Jorge Sosa pitching wonderfully nets the Mets the best record in the National League for the time being. The game started at roughly 10:10 and finished at just before 1am. Certainly sounds like a typical west coast start time for the Mets, but it was a home game delayed by rain instead.
Interleague play, Love it or hate it, seems like it’s here to stay. There is a lot of debate about it’s pluses and minuses, discussions about how unfair the scheduling is and about how it’s an abomination. Another draw back was made apparent in tonight’s Mets/Cubs game, one that actually affects the fans. With the extra 15-18 baseball games thrown in against the opposing league the Mets see teams like the Cubs and Cardinals who have long been rivals of the Mets, less. If the Cubs were returning to Shea, waiting out a 3-hour rain delay would’ve been less necessary and the game may have been canceled early and a make up scheduled. However that’s not the case; the Cubs play their last game at Shea for the year(although I did pick the Mets over the Cubs in the NLCS, so they could still come back, just not in the regular season) later today and then fly back to Chicago. So the fans sit through a rain delay, the players sit through a rain delay, and the game is played late. The Mets did award anyone with tickets to yesterdays game a free ticket to the Minnesota series, which is nice but besides the point.
While I both like the idea of seeing the different teams, especially in cities where there aren’t two teams like in New York, I personally think it might be a bit much. It ruins a certain flavor of the World Series match-ups too. The World Series is about the best team from each league, going head to head to see which is the best in the ‘World’.(If Bobby Valentine got his way, they’d then go on to play the best team from Japan) Four times in the 10 year history of interleague play has the World Series featured two teams who played each other in the regular season; 1998, 1999, 2000, and 2006. It wasn’t so much two teams pitted against each other as a rematch of a regular season series. The fans didn’t get to ooo and ahhh at the opposing teams stars, as they’d already seen them.
That being said, I’ll still enjoy this weekends games against the Yankees. I’ll be at all three games, screaming at the Yankees and their fans. I’ve even got 6 extra tickets that I need to get rid of at cost for Sunday night’s game. Hopefully I can find someone to take them and not be out that money. If you’re interested, let me know.
One final thought; A lot was made about the American League’s dominance over the National league in Interleague play and over Trevor Hoffman in the All-Star game. I would argue that the Cardinals came through when it mattered, and that’s how you truly determine who’s better. What else is the World Series for right? I think the Interleague games will be more split this year, and I predict the National League will finally win the All-Star game and home field, hopefully at Shea Stadium.
Tags: All Star Game, Best Team, Chicago Cubs, Interleague Play, Rain Delay, St. Louis Cardinals, Trevor Hoffman
That Home Run Swing
Apr 09, 2007 12:46 AM
David Wright’s power numbers were down the second half of last season and he’s off to a little bit of a rough start this year. However, one thing I’m tired of hearing about is the Home Run Derby and how it messed up his swing. This is not an exclusive argument to Wright and has been applied to many players. Obviously the biggest detractor from the argument is to look at how the Derby champion, Ryan Howard, did afterwards. His swing certainly didn’t look messed up.
I find it really hard to believe that a professional hitter, which is what all of the participants of the Derby are, can be messed up by a couple of hours of extracurricular fun. Why do those 50 or so swings have a bigger effect then the dozens more a player does between the derby and his next regular season game. At the very least he’s got the All-Star Game and any warm-up associated with that, plus batting practice of the next game after the break. Besides the hours of batting practice Wright and other such players had for the last 80 games or so, there is also a hitting coach and 24 other players (Okay, more like 12 other hitters) on the team that can help out if his swing looks a little off.
So does the Home Run Derby actually affect a player’s power numbers for the second half of the season or is it just another stat anomaly that people read too much into? My bet’s on the latter.
Tags: All Star Game, David Wright, Home Run Derby, New York Mets, Power Numbers, Professional Hitters, Ryan Howard