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