Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Summer=Baseball!



Computer Geek here, shooting out a Day 15 guest post for my wife, so as to save her the embarrassment of writing about a subject that she knows very little – the annual Major League Baseball All-Star Game (MLB ASG).  Now, I’m no baseball expert, but I’ve been a fan of Major League Baseball since 6th Grade, too long ago to be specific, but let me just say that in the first ASG I remember seeing, Hall of Famer and true All-Time Home Run Leader, Hank Aaron of the Atlanta Braves, hit his first ASG homer.  


To me, summer is just not summer until I sit down in front of the TV to watch those guys who have been tearing up their respective leagues that year battling it out to see whether the National League (NL) or American League (AL) World Series participant will have four home games (out of seven) come Autumn.  This year’s game was played at Target Field in Minneapolis, home of the Minnesota Twins, and 41,048 fans showed up to enjoy the festivities, including the National Anthem being sung by Idina Menzel, AKA Adele Dazeem  :) 

Having been born and raised in Seattle, I am a long-time Seattle Mariners fan, so this year’s game was especially sweet, since more Mariners were selected this year (four) than in the last 11 years.  I won’t bore you with the details, like which players (Felix Hernandez, ASG Starting Pitcher; Robby Cano, ASG Starting Second Baseman; Kyle Seager at Third Base; Fernando Rodney, Closing Pitcher with an AL-leading 27 saves) were there, or the Mariners record right now (51-44, 8.0 games back in AL Western Division, second AL Wild-Card spot), suffice it to say I’m proud this year (so far).  Yay!



And, of course, this year, Derek Jeter, the celebrated shortstop of the (Hated) New York Yankees, is retiring after two decades, and was voted into his 14th and final ASG.  Good (riddance).   OK, he’s a nice guy and a great player headed for the Hall of Fame, and he’s not the evil Alex Rodriguez (A-Rod), but he’s still a lifetime (Damned) Yankee.  Oh, did I mention that, before the Mariners came into existence in 1977, I was a Los Angeles Dodgers fan (and still am)?  Hence my rather strong negativity towards the Yankees.


Anyway, I’m happy to report that the American League was victorious, 5-3, Jeter had two hits, Mike Trout of the Something-Something-Something Angels was named Most Valuable Player (MVP), and there was this weird thing about Adam Wainwright, NL starting pitcher, grooving a pitch, which he initially implied to reporters, then denied.  BTW, grooving a pitch means a pitcher purposely threw an easy pitch to hit, in this case, to Derek Jeter.

Grooved pitch or not, a good time was had by all, and we baseball fans can now look forward to the pennant races heating up for the next two-and-a-half months (Go Mariners and Dodgers!), the playoffs in October, the World Series, perhaps in November, and the Hot Stove League, during the snowstorms of December.

And now, for your Seattle Seahawks report…

Photo Credits: ESPN

2 comments:

  1. Greetings CG - but I'm with Randi on this one!

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    Replies
    1. I was so glad he wrote this post because the only thing summery I did all day was to sit down and watch this game for a few minutes. I had no idea how I was even going to write a post about it and CG tossed the hard copy onto my desk. That is true love.

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