Sunday, July 20, 2008

MLB gets it right.

We had an interesting MLB all-star break last week. It was in some sense a changing of the guard with some fresh, new faces in the game. The old roiders are out and the new blood is in. Whether or not the new "blood" is squeaky clean, who knows, but at least it has a chance at being clean! The feel good story started on Monday with Josh Hamilton crushing the ball in the early rounds of the usually stupid home run derby. He hit a record 28 home runs and that from a guy who went from being a high draft-pick to a drug-junkie back to the All-Star game. Though he lost the derby to Justin Morneau, Josh was clearly the story of the week.

The game itself featured a lot of freshers like Hanley Ramirez, Geovany Soto, Kosuke Fukudome, Brian McCann, Edinson Volquez and Tim Lincecum (who didn't pitch) on the NL side and Josh Hamilton, Dioner Navarro, Ian Kinsler, Evan Longoria, Joe Saunders and Justin Duchscherer in the AL. Heck even Joe Buck didn't know some of these guys and he thought "Dukesher" was pronounced "Ducksher". Inexcusable, but goes to show you how new these guys were at the national stage.

The All-Star game on Tuesday was a 15-inning thriller and unlike the last time, brother Bud let this thing complete and did not stop it when the score was tied. Once again, not screwing up is usually a great win of MLB. People don't expect anything more from this league. Just don't screw up and stay out the way. AL won once again 4-3 and they get the home-field for the World Series. What kind of moron decides the home-field for their championship round on an All-Star game! Only in MLB and only under the stewardship of Brother Bud! I am just happy it's not decided based on the Spring Training record I guess.

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