2014 All Star Game

[azcat49]

The All Star game is the one game I really look forward to during the summer baseball season. This one has Jeter's last AS game and I think a tribute to the iron horse, Lou Gehrig.

I usually root for the National league as my favorite teams are in the NL. Wondering who you guys root for and why. Style? favorite players? teams?

[UAEebs86]

I always root for the National League.

I lived in Chicago until I was 6 and grew up a Cubs fan because of my dad-I'm now a Diamondbacks fan, and I hate the DH.

[Coop Cat]

[youtube]X03_bNuihLU[/youtube]

[Chicat]

I always root for the National League.

I lived in Chicago until I was 6 and grew up a Cubs fan because of my dad-I'm now a Diamondbacks fan, and I hate the DH.

I hate the DH too, but I'm an AL guy til I die. Diehard Yankees fan and I'm both excited and sad to see Jeter's last ASG appearance.

On a different note, does anyone else think it's time to get rid of the homerun derby? For one, no big name stars participate any more. For another, that time slot would be better served by showing the Futures Game. Give people who root for teams that may not be in contention a sneak peak of what's coming down the pipe in the next year or two and get them excited about the future.

[Merkin]

What's wrong with the DH? It's pretty much universal outside of the NL isn't it? I believe even college and high school have it, along with softball.

NL Pitchers bat at an average of .132.

Best hitting pitchers:

http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/eye-on-bas ... rom-201113

Greinke, .236
Mike Leake, .229
Clayton Kershaw, .204
Yovani Gallardo, .198
Eric Stults, .198
Jhoulys Chacin, .196
Stephen Strasburg, .196
Cole Hamels, .186
Jason Marquis, .183
Cliff Lee, .181

[Coop Cat]

[UAEebs86]

What's wrong with the DH? It's pretty much universal outside of the NL isn't it? I believe even college and high school have it, along with softball.

NL Pitchers bat at an average of .132.

Best hitting pitchers:

http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/eye-on-bas ... rom-201113

Greinke, .236
Mike Leake, .229
Clayton Kershaw, .204
Yovani Gallardo, .198
Eric Stults, .198
Jhoulys Chacin, .196
Stephen Strasburg, .196
Cole Hamels, .186
Jason Marquis, .183
Cliff Lee, .181

If you are going to accidentally hit batters as well as throw at them to enforce the unwritten rules, you should have to take your turn in the box no matter how bad you hit. It also brings more strategy to the game to have to decide when to pull the starter, double switches, etc.

And there's absolutely no reason why Little League and high school should have the DH. The best players on the team usually pitch and play in the field for their non-pitching days/innings.

[Chicat]

What's wrong with the DH?

For one, it should be the same in both leagues. AL teams face a serious disadvantage when they have to sit one of their best hitters in NL parks during interleague and the World Series.

For another, if all players are both offense and defense, one should not be excepted either because of an inability to play the field or an inability to hit.

For a third, it was a gimmick to drum up interest in the sport when it waned. The permanence is simply because the Players Association doesn't want 20 guys who make millions to lose their employment and thus stop paying dues.

So either go DH everywhere or nowhere. Especially now that the AL and NL play each other literally every day, it's silly to have different rules for each league.

[Coop Cat]

I guess that says something about the HR Derby that there were no posts about it. I tuned in just to watch Stanton y got out of it what I expected.

[MrBug708]

In 2001, Chan Ho was selected to throw a fat one down the middle to Ripken. I wonder who gets the call against Jeter?

[Chicat]

In 2001, Chan Ho was selected to throw a fat one down the middle to Ripken. I wonder who gets the call against Jeter?

Adam Wainwright

Then he goes and ruins Jeter's moment by immediately admitting it like the big dumb fuckface that he is. Then Erin Andrews blames social media.

Oh, and not one fucking person mentioned Tony Gwynn.

The only way this ASG could have been a bigger fail is if Selig was caught on camera biting a small child like the blood-sucking vampire he is.

[MrBug708]

Almost explains the Wainwright start

[EastCoastCat]

It was joke Kershaw didn't start...respect the fucking game.

[Coop Cat]

This about covers the Gwynn omission:

MLB, Fox’s Snub of Tony Gwynn Was Disappointing

During Tuesday night’s MLB All-Star Game, there was a prevailing thought among baseball fans watching that the league would somehow honor the late Tony Gwynn during the game. Gwynn appeared in 15 midsummer classics over his illustrious career, the tenth-highest total ever and second-most among players who started their career after 1970. Gwynn also scored the winning run in the 1994 All-Star Game after a tenth inning double by Moises Alou.

On Tuesday night, we didn’t see that video, nor did we see any sort of tribute to Gwynn at all. We also didn’t see tributes to some other fallen legends, including Don Zimmer, Jim Fregosi, Ralph Kiner, and Jerry Coleman, among others. The broadcast snubbed all of these late baseball icons, when all they needed to do was show a graphic, call for a pregame moment of silence, or do something. Doing *anything* to honor the memory of these men would have been better than what actually happened – nothing.

It’s so bizarre. Why not take 30 seconds out of the Derek Jeter Appreciation Hour to acknowledge Gwynn and the others? You can’t blame a lack of time – the timeslot on Fox started at 7:30, and rolled on for four-plus hours. We got an interview with Bud Selig, who is retiring like Jeter, but doesn’t deserve one-tenth of the praise Jeter is getting. And this isn’t some slight against Jeter – I thought the praise heaped upon him Tuesday was obviously excessive, but not surprising or unwarranted. Fox could have cut one interview, one silly pretaped segment involving All-Stars, one video package, and taken care of honoring a legend. They didn’t, and while I’m not outraged, I’m disappointed.

That’s right – Adam Jones wrote Gwynn’s initials and number on his cap. There was no mention of it made by Joe Buck, Tom Verducci, Harold Reynolds, Ken Rosenthal, or Erin Andrews. Would it have been so hard for Fox to have one of their two reporters chat with Jones for two minutes about his tribute? Apparently, that was too much effort for them.

How nobody involved at either Fox or MLB even had a second thought about relegating a Tony Gwynn tribute to the lightly watched cable pregame show and ignoring him completely during the All-Star Game broadcast itself is staggering.

http://awfulannouncing.com/2014/mlb-fox ... nting.html