2001 All-Star Game - Comments

[NetShrine]

Post your comments on the game in this thread - thanks!

[BuzzBuzzard]

I am traveling this week and am in Maryland. I was in my hotel room early, caught alot of the pregame, wathced player introductions, then muted the tv and started reading Slaughter House Five (never read it before). I turned on the volume to watch the first Piazza/Clemens AB, and the game caught my eye again when Ripken hit his dinger. Other than that, I didn't watch because the game is a joke. As I type this, I still don't know who won.

BTW - I have to assume that someone served it up for Ripken, and that is why the game is a joke.

[ChrisCary]

I turned it off in the sevneth or eighth.

If I had to listen to McCarver or Buck tell me one more time which moment was memorable I was gonna shoot myself.

do they assume they are the only ones capable of recognizing memorable moments?
It's like they're scared to death that they may not have one.

Overall it was allright, I'm beginning to understand that I can't watch it as a baseball game but as a hokey celebration of baseball.

This thing should be held in the offseason as part of the international awareness: Bring it to a warm place after the season when people can watch a game that doesn't matter without jonesing for real baseball, the hokiness may go over better then.

[NetShrine]

Originally posted by ChrisCary
Overall it was allright, I'm beginning to understand that I can't watch it as a baseball game but as a hokey celebration of baseball.

I think that's the spin baseball is trying to put on it - which is good, IMHO. I mean, really, it's just an exhibition game - therefore, it will never have the weight of a post season game or even a regulation game - - so, who really cares what the final score is? Point being, you need something "memorable" to keep someone's interest - and, of course, to have the hook that people remember the game.

In all the All-Star "great moments" it's always about something that happened as opposed to the game score. People remember Parker's throws in 1979 - not who won the 1982 game.

For me, obviously, the Cal thing will always stand out.

Buzz - I'll admit, when he first hit it, I too thought "gift." But, on the replays, you will see that the pitch was timed at 92 MPH. That's not exactly a BP fastball - - even if the location may be favorable to the hitter. Plus, I don't think that Chan Ho Park is the type to offer up a freebie. If it had been Schilling, a student of baseball history, maybe. But, not Park - - he's pitching for a nation, and would never want to look bad.

Buzz, I did think of you personally when Jeter hit the bomb to dead center for the HR. I think he was trying to tell you that he belonged there.

I was also impressed when Bud the Commish (in his speech) offered congrats to Cal for his 3,000+ hits and 400+ RBI. I've always believed that Bud never knew the difference between a HR and an RBI - now I have the proof.

How did you guys feel about Posada bringing out his kid for the intros? I know his kid has been through more than anyone should go through in a life, much less an infancy - but, I'm still questioning whether that was the right or wrong thing to do.

Lastly, yes, I laughed on the Lasorda thing - just like everyone else. Put, I also wonder if we should be laughing? We he be laughing if the bat had stuck into his chest like a spear?

[ChrisCary]

Net,

They said the bat hit Lasorda before we saw it and I had a moment of panic, then they showed him getting up smiling and I was relieved.
When they showed what actually happened I laughed all the way into the next commercial.
had he been hurt, nobody would have laughed.

I don't think Park served up a homer, but I'm positive he gave him something to put into play, "here's one from me" sort of thing.

[pjl7]

This flies in the face of the anti-hokiness crowd, I think it is inexcusable that Gwynn was left on the bench.

[NetShrine]

Originally posted by ChrisCary
I don't think Park served up a homer, but I'm positive he gave him something to put into play, "here's one from me" sort of thing.

At 92 MPH? :confuse2:

Originally posted by pjl7
This flies in the face of the anti-hokiness crowd, I think it is inexcusable that Gwynn was left on the bench.

Perhaps it's time for a signature change? ;)
"Tony Gwynn deserves better..........":p

Chris Berman called the (not allowing Gwynn to bat) move "asinine." And added that baseball only went " eight and two-thirds" on this one. I think I agree. Actually, I felt bad for Tony last night. It was like "Come to this party that we're throwing for Cal" and at the last minute they squeezed his (Tony's) name onto the card.

[ChrisCary]

Net,

Those stadium guns are notoriously several miles over the actual speed, the pitch was more likely in the high eighties and flat.

And I agree with you totally on the Gwynn thing

[Jacob Papile]

i'm totally with you guys about "gwynn" as rickey
h. calls him (or "right fielder"). tony was classy
as always, but since they were ostensibly sharing
the spotlight, what would it have hurt for tony
to pinch hit? btw, the low point for buck and mccarver had to be the otherwise entertaining bit
with torre when they asked to talk to frank torre
and joe t. looks around and says where is he?
and buck the schmuck says "he's behind you joe...
he's ALWAYS BEEN BEHIND YOU" wot the heck?!?!
how smarmy is that? joe torre must have heard it
cause looked like he was having stomach pain.
course, he ALWAYS looks that way....

[BuzzBuzzard]

Originally posted by ChrisCary
Net,

Those stadium guns are notoriously several miles over the actual speed, the pitch was more likely in the high eighties and flat.

And I agree with you totally on the Gwynn thing Amen, brother.

[NetShrine]

Funny that Jake mentioned Rickey. Reportedly, Bruce Bochy was queried as to whether or not this would be Rickey's last year - and, if yes, he too was to be invited to Seattle.

I wonder - if Rickey plays next year - and says it's his last. Does he get the same treatment as Cal and Tony?

Numbers-wise, he is at a higher level then Cal and Tony. However, (and I hate to use this word but it's the only one that comes to mind) class-wise, Cal and Tony are miles ahead of Rickey.

Somehow, I think Rickey gets to just go quietly - without a salute.

[NetShrine]

My last shot on the "gift" HR - -

July 11, 4:04 PM ET
By Rob Neyer
ESPN.com

It's funny. In the wake of last weekend's Pepsi 400, in which it's been speculated that one or more drivers might have allowed another to win the race, some couldn't help but wonder if Chan Ho Park didn't groove that first-pitch fastball to Cal Ripken last night. That possibility didn't quite ring true, though. Not in a scoreless game, with a pitcher from a foreign land, in his first All-Star Game. And then when I got home and watched the replay on ESPN, I saw that Park's pitch, straight and true that it was, came out of his hand traveling 92 miles per hour. If you're trying to give up a home run, you don't throw the ball 92 miles per hour.

And while Ripken has managed only four home runs -- one of them an upper-deck shot at Safeco on May 31 -- in the first half of the season, he's still a strong man, and occasionally his once-fearsome muscle memory takes over.

[jpalexa]

Why can't Cal's HR just be that the man hit an honest pitch over the wall? Why this instant and convinced stance that it was a "gift"?

Ripken, Jr., has shown again and again that he is all about coming back when written off and about shining when the spotlight is brightest -- didn't he dinger the night of 2130 *and* 2131?

Hey, I'm not thrilled that Cal "conveniently" announced his retirement with enough time to get him voted in as a starter to the All-Star game -- if you want "contrived," look at that.

Plus, if it weren't for Cal, the only thing worth talking about All-Star-wise would be the Lasorda gaffe!

[NetShrine]

Lieber is probably happy about Cal. When Jeter and Magglio went yard back-to-back, it was only the 5th time in the history of the game - yet, no one is talking about that. It's third in the pecking order behind Ripken and Tommy.

Was watching the AAA All-Star game last night - Tony Pena was the MGR for one team and they had him miked (like they did Torre and Bobby in Seattle). The announcers asked Pena if he was the Lasorda fall. He laughed and said yes followed by:

"Tommy's one of a kind - and he's the one."

I thought that was pretty good. Hopefully, Tony will be managing in the bigs some day - and we can start comparing Yogi-isms to Pena-isms.