MLB ASG Game Thread

glennhoffmania

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I go to CBS Sports and these are the first two things I see on the front page:
 
Heyman: As planned, Derek Jeter's final All-Star appearance is short. And as if Jeter wrote the script himself, his performance is brilliant.
 
 

Top Headlines
 
Then this is the beginning of Heyman's article:

 
As he said in his own defense afterward, "I'm a knucklehead."
 
And, "I'm an idiot."
 
He was right on both scores, at least as far as his verbiage on All-Star night is concerned. The Cardinals ace and NL starting pitcher never should have said that he threw a couple of "pipe shots" to Yankees icon Derek Jeter, because "pipe shots" was translated, understandably to pitches down the pipe, which meant gimmes.
 
 

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This is why I commented in the thread last night that I thought Wainwright's comments were kind of awesome, because eventually the Jeter cultists would understand it as a backhanded insult to their God.
 
Even the fact that he's having to walk his comments back is awesome because we all know that he's being forced to do so.
 

gtg807y

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I know this isn't a new thing to say about major televised sporting events, Fox, Jeter, or the All-Star Game in general, but - Jesus that broadcast was an over-commercialized, star-fucking, boring, unwatchable piece of shit. I probably turned it off on three separate occasions before giving up for good in the 5th. And love baseball and used to love watching the All-Star Game. Why would a casual fan sit through this three hour commercial for "celebrating teachers presented by TARGET and PEOPLE MAGAZINE - thank you TARGET and PEOPLE MAGAZINE" and "let's fight cancer with MASTERCARD - thank you to our friends at MASTERCARD." And the rest of the time it feels like we're at upfronts for their new fall shows. At least be a bit more subtle with this crap. I think Fox is the worst at this. I get that they have advertisers, but Fox (and MLB is guilty here too) just puts the commericals at center stage and any actual content is just sideshow. 
 

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gtg807y said:
I know this isn't a new thing to say about major televised sporting events, Fox, Jeter, or the All-Star Game in general, but - Jesus that broadcast was an over-commercialized, star-fucking, boring, unwatchable piece of shit. I probably turned it off on three separate occasions before giving up for good in the 5th. And love baseball and used to love watching the All-Star Game. Why would a casual fan sit through this three hour commercial for "celebrating teachers presented by TARGET and PEOPLE MAGAZINE - thank you TARGET and PEOPLE MAGAZINE" and "let's fight cancer with MASTERCARD - thank you to our friends at MASTERCARD." And the rest of the time it feels like we're at upfronts for their new fall shows. At least be a bit more subtle with this crap. I think Fox is the worst at this. I get that they have advertisers, but Fox (and MLB is guilty here too) just puts the commericals at center stage and any actual content is just sideshow. 
What's even worse is the planting of the "stars" of their upcoming Fox TV shows in the stands and then giving them some FaceTime while promoting the show.  So awkward. 
 

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gtg807y said:
I know this isn't a new thing to say about major televised sporting events, Fox, Jeter, or the All-Star Game in general, but - Jesus that broadcast was an over-commercialized, star-fucking, boring, unwatchable piece of shit. I probably turned it off on three separate occasions before giving up for good in the 5th. And love baseball and used to love watching the All-Star Game. Why would a casual fan sit through this three hour commercial for "celebrating teachers presented by TARGET and PEOPLE MAGAZINE - thank you TARGET and PEOPLE MAGAZINE" and "let's fight cancer with MASTERCARD - thank you to our friends at MASTERCARD." And the rest of the time it feels like we're at upfronts for their new fall shows. At least be a bit more subtle with this crap. I think Fox is the worst at this. I get that they have advertisers, but Fox (and MLB is guilty here too) just puts the commericals at center stage and any actual content is just sideshow. 
 
That's annoying, for sure, but I can live with that.  It's really filling in cracks between action, so whatever. 
 
What really bothers me, and I mentioned this earlier, is the utter domination of one storyline at the sacrifice of nearly all others.  It's an all-star game, most of the players there have an awesome story to tell, but they didn't bother with any of it.
 
- No mention of a legend of the game passing away last month. 
- Charlie Blackmon came out of nowhere to have an all-star season.  What's behind it? 
- Koji Uehara has had about as dominant a past year as any reliever in MLB history, yet he was signed for peanuts.  What does he credit that to? 
- Sean Doolittle was drafted as a 1B, how did he and the A's handle the transition to P so successfully? 
- Devin Mesoraco looked like a potential bust coming into this season.  Did his new manager give him the confidence he'd been lacking with Dusty Baker? 
 
There are a million of these storylines, and only a few were given any play and each lasted about 5 seconds before moving on to the next Jeter moment.  Except of course for Todd Frazier's little league team and where Mike Trout grew up.  And guess why those were discussed?  Because Frazier got to stand next to Jeter and Mike Trout grew up idolizing Jeter.
 
I just don't get it.  Is anyone going to tune out because they only mention Jeter 50 times instead of 100?  Can he have his special moments and yet they still acknowledge all the other amazing things going on in the game and with its players outside of how it relates to Jeter?  I just don't understand why they (and ESPN on Lebron/Favre/Tebow/Manziel/etc.) have to browbeat the living shit out of specific people.
 

gtg807y

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Hendu for Kutch said:
 
That's annoying, for sure, but I can live with that.  It's really filling in cracks between action, so whatever. 
 
What really bothers me, and I mentioned this earlier, is the utter domination of one storyline at the sacrifice of nearly all others.  It's an all-star game, most of the players there have an awesome story to tell, but they didn't bother with any of it.
 
- No mention of a legend of the game passing away last month. 
- Charlie Blackmon came out of nowhere to have an all-star season.  What's behind it? 
- Koji Uehara has had about as dominant a past year as any reliever in MLB history, yet he was signed for peanuts.  What does he credit that to? 
- Sean Doolittle was drafted as a 1B, how did he and the A's handle the transition to P so successfully? 
- Devin Mesoraco looked like a potential bust coming into this season.  Did his new manager give him the confidence he'd been lacking with Dusty Baker? 
 
There are a million of these storylines, and only a few were given any play and each lasted about 5 seconds before moving on to the next Jeter moment.  Except of course for Todd Frazier's little league team and where Mike Trout grew up.  And guess why those were discussed?  Because Frazier got to stand next to Jeter and Mike Trout grew up idolizing Jeter.
 
I just don't get it.  Is anyone going to tune out because they only mention Jeter 50 times instead of 100?  Can he have his special moments and yet they still acknowledge all the other amazing things going on in the game and with its players outside of how it relates to Jeter?  I just don't understand why they (and ESPN on Lebron/Favre/Tebow/Manziel/etc.) have to browbeat the living shit out of specific people.
 
I agree entirely - so instead of all the commercial crap being the filler, fill time by talking about the actual game. Again, I know they have to do this to make money, but other networks aren't nearly as bad as Fox. 
 
soxhop411 said:
 

darren rovell @darrenrovell · 2h


MLB on Gwynn: "The Baseball family has sadly lost a # of people this year & did not want to slight anyone by singling out 1 individual.

 
 
Bullshit MLB....
 
 
The baseball family has thousands of players who have played in All-Star games, including dozens at this very game, but is fine slighting almost all of them by singling out one individual.
 

brettzky99

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Chris Berman is suck a tired hack he doesn't even remember some of his best nicknames and waffle references by leaving the MY out of Mike "Lego Gallego."
 

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CoRP said:
Grooved?
 

 
91 mph
 
 
Nice.
 
You can also see that the two pitches he threw to Jeter are the only two not in his normal velocity clumpings, suggesting that they were not part of his repertoire:
 

 
 
Also, the didn't have any horizontal movement:
 
 

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For a guy who said he remembers watching Pedro strike out 6 guys to start an ASG, that's some bullshit.
 
Pedro would be ashamed.
 

Harry Hooper

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Hendu for Kutch said:
 
That's annoying, for sure, but I can live with that.  It's really filling in cracks between action, so whatever. 
 
What really bothers me, and I mentioned this earlier, is the utter domination of one storyline at the sacrifice of nearly all others.  It's an all-star game, most of the players there have an awesome story to tell, but they didn't bother with any of it.
 
 
 
 
For me, the first major event I noticed this happening was when the Marlins won the WS. All the talk & cameras were focused on Jim Leyland. He was the only story, and he didn't even play in the games. It was way over-done.
 

Hendu for Kutch

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Right, because if there's one thing that Fox hates it's singling out one person at the expense of everyone else.  Jesus, if you watched the game that reads like the Onion wrote it.
 

Harry Hooper

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Hendu for Kutch said:
Right, because if there's one thing that Fox hates it's singling out one person at the expense of everyone else.  Jesus, if you watched the game that reads like the Onion wrote it.
 
 
Boom!!!
 

terrynever

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With regards to Wainwright's "pipe" pitch to Jeter on Tuesday night, has anyone mentioned Rip Sewell's eephus pitch to Teddy Ballgame in the 1946 All-Star game? That was back before the All-Star game counted, also before the Internet.
 

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terrynever said:
With regards to Wainwright's "pipe" pitch to Jeter on Tuesday night, has anyone mentioned Rip Sewell's eephus pitch to Teddy Ballgame in the 1946 All-Star game? That was back before the All-Star game counted, also before the Internet.
 
 
Sewell did tell Williams it was coming, but the eephus was intended to get the batter out.
 

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Harry Hooper said:
Sewell did tell Williams it was coming, but the eephus was intended to get the batter out.
If Wainwright had thrown a looping slow-pitch ball to Jeter, I would love to have seen the reaction in today's world. In 1946, it was all good fun.
 

Harry Hooper

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You're probably right though the only HR ever hit off the eephus was the one by Williams. It was no grooved pitch.
 

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Sewell actually warned Williams before the game that he would throw him his blooper pitch, which reached 25 feet in the air. Ted fouled the first one off, then homered on the next one. Again, it was all done in good fun. The All-Star was an exhibition game in those days.
 

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Reports say Ted swung and missed badly at the 1st one, then fouled one off the 2nd one, and finally homered on the 3rd one. As for Tuesday night, Wainwright should have just kept his yapper shut.
 

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Harry Hooper said:
Reports say Ted swung and missed badly at the 1st one, then fouled one off the 2nd one, and finally homered on the 3rd one. As for Tuesday night, Wainwright should have just kept his yapper shut.
Agreed. According to what I'm reading on the Internet, Ted fouled off the first one and then asked for another and homered on that pitch.

The Yankees' Steve Hamilton also threw an eephus pitch randomly in the 1970s. He got Cleveland's Tony Horton to foul out to Munson. Horton crawled back to the dugout on his knees.

Bill Lee retired Tony Perez twice with soft lobs in the 1975 WS but Perez homered on his third chance.

There is a long history to this kind of chicanery in the big leagues. It's kind of fun to remember it. I just worry that today's generation has lost its sense of humor over such stuff.
 

terrynever

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Harry Hooper said:
This is a good read about the eephus.
Thanks, Harry. That was a lot of fun to read. I actually saw the Gorman Thomas AB on TV. Forgot about it till now. It was hysterical. Maybe it cheapens the game when pitchers give in to hitters. Certainly that was the feeling when McLain grooved a fast ball to Mantle to get him past Jimmy Foxx with his 535th career homer. But in the end, the game should always have an outlet for fun. And as Jeter said the other night, you still have to hit it.
 
Also, I wish we all could watch Ted Williams hit for 21 years, like some of our parents did. Best there ever was. And smart, too.
 

Harry Hooper

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terrynever said:
Thanks, Harry. That was a lot of fun to read. I actually saw the Gorman Thomas AB on TV. Forgot about it till now. It was hysterical. Maybe it cheapens the game when pitchers give in to hitters. Certainly that was the feeling when McLain grooved a fast ball to Mantle to get him past Jimmy Foxx with his 535th career homer. But in the end, the game should always have an outlet for fun. And as Jeter said the other night, you still have to hit it.
 
Also, I wish we all could watch Ted Williams hit for 21 years, like some of our parents did. Best there ever was. And smart, too.
 
 
I'll never forget that story about Ted, just a couple of years before he died, talking about his dreams of batting against Randy Johnson.
 
Definitely need more fun. Gorman Thomas and Harvey's Wallbangers, Tiant and Valenzuela on the mound, Oscar Gamble with the mega-fro,and so much more. Things are too stiff now and need some rebalancing.
 

terrynever

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Harry Hooper said:
 
 
I'll never forget that story about Ted, just a couple of years before he died, talking about his dreams of batting against Randy Johnson.
 
Definitely need more fun. Gorman Thomas and Harvey's Wallbangers, Tiant and Valenzuela on the mound, Oscar Gamble with the mega-fro,and so much more. Things are too stiff now and need some rebalancing.
Priorities have changed. But maybe I'm just an older person who doesn't appreciate the modern athlete. The fun at All-Star games now is the Home Run Derby. The game is supposed to be for real but how can it be when the best pitchers only are asked to get three outs? I don't even watch anymore, except when Jeter is playing. :blink: