by John Scanlan
Random Observations for a Wednesday…
This is the worst sports day of the year. There’s nothing going on and no, don’t bring up the WNBA.
The American League won again, running their winning streak to 12 games (the tie of ’02 notwithstanding). The National League hasn’t won since Bob Dole ran for President. There is no child sitting in an elementary school classroom who was alive the last time the NL won the All-Star Game. There are only 5 players active from that winning NL squad still active (Chipper Jones, Jason Kendall, John Smoltz, Gary Sheffield and the recently resurrected Pedro Martinez). Tommy Lasorda was still (technically) managing the Dodgers. Torosian’s current Gemco-bought wardrobe was only 10 years old.
Carl Crawford, hitting a single and making a nice catch, might have been the most underwhelming choice ever for All-Star MVP. Pretty appropriate for what was a very underwhelming game.
How about starting the pre-game festivities at 4:30 PST/7:30 EST? Saluting hometown heroes is great and all, but the real attraction is the game and it isn’t ending until close to midnight Eastern. Of course, MLB has been oblivious when it comes to exposing the game to a younger audience, so this comes as no surprise.
One of the joys I still get out of the game is seeing the players wearing their team’s jerseys. Logistically it doesn’t work for other sports, but it’s one of the things that separate it from the All-Star games of other sports.
When will Dodger Stadium host another All-Star Game? Chavez Ravine hasn’t had one since 1980. Since then, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Houston and San Francisco have hosted it twice while Chicago has hosted it 3 times (White Sox twice and Cubs once). Anaheim will host it for a 2nd time next season. With the 2011 game being held in Arizona, MLB won’t want to play the game out West 3 years in a row nor return to Southern California twice in a 3 year span. The 2012 game is rumored to be in Kansas City, 2013 will most likely be in Citi Field in New York and Minnesota is angling for the 2014 game to be held in their new stadium. So it doesn’t look good for Los Angeles anytime soon.
Quick Scans gives less than an All-Star performance every Monday-Thursday at midvalleysports.com
Leave a Reply