All-Star Tuesday Open Thread (and Gamer)

We like these free-for-alls, so here is another open thread for general ASG and baseball discussion.

I'll start it off with a link to Fire Joe Morgan's takedown of Rick Reilly, the famous religious philosopher.

Comments

[Lar]

Last night, when ag (and I, a little slowly) pointed out the comment, FJM was actually the first place I looked just in case.. haha..

[LocklandSF]

The "he found Christ, so it's all good now" crowd really piss me off.

[FenSheaParkway]

Awful Announcing is also a great resource for instant reaction like that. And with video!

Apropos of very little, but I had the pleasure of meeting Fred Lynn on Saturday. Apparently someone at FanFest tipped him off to the existence of the very same Red Sox bar that I frequent, and I just happened to be frequenting it when he stopped by. Not every day that a perennial All-Star stops by one's regular hang out spot!

[Sully]

On my blog, I proposed that Red Sox fans and Yankee fans should be friends

http://sullybaseball.blogspot.com/2008/07/red-sox-fans-and-yankee-fans-should-get.html

Am I crazy?

[Yankee Fan In Boston]

FSP-

that is fantastic. i trust he was a nice guy and everything. that is always my concern when i'm in situations like that. i would hate it if i was annoying someone by approaching them or if they ended up being a tool.

i almost literally ran into reggie jackson a year or two ago here in boston walking down the street by the hotel where evidently the yankees were staying. aside from being rendered speechless by the sight of him, i was afraid he might be less than welcoming to being bothered by a stammering and overly excited nerd.

but fred lynn! that's really cool.

I once was in a restaurant when Paul O'Neil was lunching. As he approached me towards the john I tripped him and yelled 'take that, Yankee scum'

Everyone in the joint began laughing their asses off. My 15 minutes.

[FenSheaParkway]

YFiB -

He seemed like a nice guy. I didn't chat him up or anything like that (I left that to the others at the bar) but he was pretty low-key and casual. If he took someone's recommendation to stop by a Red Sox bar, I'm fairly certain he knew what to expect there. The bartender did arrange to have a little group picture taken before he had to go, and after that was done, I thanked him for stopping by and shook his hand. He responded by poking me in my Sox shirt and saying 'Well, someone here has the right shirt on!' Easily the highlight of my weekend.

[Yankee Fan In Boston]

perfect, FSP. so cool.

[dknyc]

Great post Sully...should be required reading for everyone on this site.

[ricelynnevans]

I'm very jealous FSP. Freddy tops my list of ex-Sox I'd like to meet. Which is probably not too surprising given my handle.

[Micah-SF]

Boo to Rick Reilly. I'm an atheist - does this mean I cannot enjoy watching a guy blast twenty-eight baseballs into the stands? Because I rather did enjoy that, thanks.

Also: FSP, that's totally awesome. You lucky bastard.

Sully: yeah, it turns out the person that I have the most in-depth baseball discussions with is a Yankees fan.

[Paul SF]

a perennial All-Star

And owner of two of the Top 50 Red Sox seasons of all time!

Shameless plug, I know...

[stuck working]

Me personally, I take a kind of perverse pleasure in Rick Reilly's stupid comment. I feel like it sets the tone to ensure that his tenure with the Worldwide Leader is the multi-million dollar disaster it deserves to be. Sports fans are going to think, "Oh yeah, the guy who said something stupid about Josh Hamilton" for awhile, regardless of their own beliefs about religion.

[attackgerbil]

a perennial All-Star

And owner of..

And he was simply awesome as Herman Munster and that judge in My Cousin Vinnie.

[KR]

Hey did anyone see the clip of Chase Utley's reaction to being booed during his introduction at the HRD? The camera (and microphone) clearly caught him saying one of Carlin's seven words...funniest moment of the night.

Here it is on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBtkQoeaNCE

[Micah-SF]

...

Now you've got me thinking about how much better the whole Congressional steroid hearing could have been if the judge from My Cousin Vinnie was presiding.

"Mr. McGwire... are you on druuuuuugs?"

Yes, it only works if you've seen the movie, but... man, that would have been funny.

[FenSheaParkway]

I missed the HRD (no ESPN at home), but when I heard about the lip-reading clinic that Utley led, I instantly regretted not catching it live. And then when I read about the Reilly comment, I instantly felt better again about missing the whole night.

For those who did see the Reilly comment in real time: was it just another non sequitur (a la the "Taco Bell chihuahua" analogy that FJM also exploded)? Or did it seem like someone trying too hard to be "edgy" or faux-political? Or does he really have an ax to grind on the topic? I'm really curious, mostly because 'atheist' might as well be the eighth dirty word when it comes to mainstream entertainment these days.

[LocklandSF]

Don't know if this quote was talked about yet, but I think it's pretty funny.

"Asked if Francona would make it out of the Bronx alive if he didn't use Rivera in the ninth, Papelbon said, "You're starting to scare me with that question. Do you have the mob after him or something?""

[attackgerbil]

FSP: Reilly was going on and on (as were all the other announcers, each in turn) about Hamilton's battle with addiction, time out of the league, the "dream" he had, his accepting of Jesus as his savior, turning his life around and gushing about the awesome-ness of his performance which was made super-duper awesome to the max considering his life circumstances. I almost missed the line because it had really become a droning sound at that point. Anyway, it was at the end of his version of the retelling that he threw in the "lousy night to be an atheist" line which just clunked. There was a brief pregnant pause. Fortunately, the other announcers ignored it completely and moved on; they had another hour to fill of retelling of the story and each needed their turn.

[LocklandSF]

From PeteAbe... This isn't all good.

"It’s strange seeing Big Papi in Jorge Posada’s locker. Or Roy Halladay holding court where Mike Mussina usually does. Johnny Damon is gone and Kevin Youkilis is there in his place.

Ichiro Suzuki asked for his locker to be between two former teammates, George Sherrill and Carlos Guillen. Ichiro, they said, is one of the best teammates they’ve ever had. “People have no idea,” Sherrill said.

Michael Young is right next to Derek Jeter. Joakim Soria was busy getting a jersey autographed by Mariano Rivera. “My hero,” he said.

Yankees clubhouse manager Rob Cucuzza said how impressed he was with the Red Sox players. A few of them asked to see Thurman Munson’s locker. “Those guys and Terry (Francona) have been incredibly respectful,” he said. “I didn’t really know them before this and they’ve been great.”

Then we have Jonathan Papelbon, who is wearing a sleeveless blue t-shirt with a drawing of a hand making an obscene gesture. Yes, that obscene gesture.

Classy."

[FenSheaParkway]

I see, it does sound like all that build-up would lead someone like Reilly (because he's such an IMPORTANT voice!) to feel compelled to lurch over the top with something like that. To read it on the page, it still seems so out of place. Nevermind inappropriate, just impertinent.

[FenSheaParkway]

Lockland - Pssh. That's totally harmless. Papelbon is just honoring the memory of Yankee great Jack McDowell. Nothing wrong with that.

[Lar]

Paps being Paps? Or the next coming of John Rocker? You decide!

[Hudson]

It was priceless, how Morneau completely popped the media's bubble in the HRD finals.

The script was letter-perfect for MLB and the homer announcers... But then Hamilton came up short. Hilarious, to my ears.

[FenSheaParkway]

More pre-game fun to psych yourself up:

Yahoo has a story about Ichiro's infamous annual profanity-laden AL locker room all-star pep talk:
http://tinyurl.com/6gjgoy

I never knew about this before. Classic Ichiro pull-out quote, estimating how much influence his speech has had on the AL's dominance:

"I’ve got to say over 90 percent."

[sf rod]

kinda funny how morneau comes out of the HRD looking like an atheist.

[Micah-SF]

Hahahaha. Ichiro is awesome.

[Micah-SF]

http://joeposnanski.com/JoeBlog/2008/07/15/lajong-wins-derby-hobbs-wins-hearts/

Joe P's impression of what the HR derby was like. Spot on.

[Nick-YF]

that Ichiro article is hilarious.

[Atheose]

I would pay top dollar to hear Ichiro's pep talk. I'm talkin like $50. Seriously.

[Atheose]

Every year, after the AL manager addresses his team, Ichiro bursts from his locker, a bundle of kinetic energy, and proceeds, in English, to disparage the National League with an H-bomb of F-bombs, stunning first-timers who had no idea Ichiro speaks the queen’s language fluently and making returnees happy that they had played well enough to see the pep talk again.

That's a fantastic mental image!

[sf rod]

i thought the "an H-bomb of F-bombs' may have been a bit historically/culturally insensitive....but then again i'm ok with indian mascots and monikers.

[Atheose]

LMAO, John Kruck is predicting that Jason Varitek will be the All Star MVP.

[sf rod]

kruky says tek will win the MVP (ted williams award) tonite. that would be something.

[Atheose]

How is that insensitive, sf rod? We dropped A-bombs on Japan, not H-bombs. BIG difference. ;-)

[Atheose]

Where's the ASG gamer?

[Atheose]

Ernie Banks is giving a pre-game speech to the NL. It's shitty as fuck, especially after learning about what Ichiro does.

[Atheose]

Introduction time: Lou Pinella gets boo'ed, it'll be interesting to see what Paps gets.

[Atheose]

David Wright gets boo'ed. Wow.

[Atheose]

LMAO they're showing George Brett giving a speech to the AL team, and everyone keeps glancing over at Ichiro.

[Atheose]

Tons of boos for the Red Sox, so much so that Carlos Quentin of the White Sox looks around confused.

Where's the gamer?!?!

[sf rod]

sweet. the sox players failed to acknowledge the crowd with a hat tip. that was a pretty classy way to handle the boos.

[Jackie (SF)]

Aw, lots of boos for all the Sox. Makes me strangely happy. :)

[Lar]

Ya, because this is all class: "Alex Rodriguez did a brief interview with the writers just now. As he was talking, David Ortiz shouted out from the adjacent locker, "No more talking about Madonna please!"

A-Rod paused for a second then kept talking as though he didn’t hear Big Papi. Everybody else started snickering, as did Ortiz"

[Atheose]

ARod brought it on himself Lar. You don't want to get joked on by your peers? Don't fuck Madonna.

[Lar]

Ya, that's really classy. Can you imagine what would happen if ARod said something about Manny? Ya, okay. That's what I thought.

[Jackie (SF)]

I also love that Rollie Fingers is still rocking the dastardly villain 'stache.

[sf rod]

every player on the AL side tipped their hats while being introduced with the exception of the 3 sox. gotta believe that was a planned thing amongst them. hopefully we'll see the same from the 4 starters when they're introduced....about two hours from now.

[Atheose]

Oh come on Lar, Ortiz mentioned something that has been mentioned by every person in the country. Everyone else started snickering, so obviously some players are sick of the distraction.

[Atheose]

Jackie, I was JUST thinking about the waxed 'stache!

[Atheose]

Wow, ARod had a BIG hug for Chipper.

[Jackie (SF)]

... actually, it seems like a lot of these 'historical' players haven't changed their grooming habits much since they played (e.g., Boggs's mullet, Yount's facial hair). We need more crazy facial hair in the game today, I think.

[sf rod]

seeing boggs in a yanks cap almost brought a tear to my butt.

[Atheose]

I absolutely HATE the "(player name) CLAP CLAP CLAPCLAPCLAP" cheer. I hate it when the Sox do it, I hate it when anyone else does it. The crowd does it for Jeter, and I cringe.

[Atheose]

Sf rod, I hate that Boggs is in the HOF with a Yankee cap. He played there 5 years, 4 of which were the worst of his career at that point. He played 11 of them with the Sox, all fantastic years.

[I'mBillMcNeal]

Cashman on Mikey K's radio show tonight said CMW will be out until September ... did I hear that right? (I was a bit distracted by traffic.)

[Atheose]

I hate Joe Buck. Jesus christ.

[Atheose]

Wait, I take back what I said about Boggs HOF hat. He has a Red Sox one there, but wore a Yankee one tonight.

[I'mBillMcNeal]

No one ever accused Boggs of having good judgment (Margo Adams.)

[Jackie (SF)]

Gotta say I'm a little disappointed by the totally lukewarm reception for anyone who isn't a Yankee (or Red Sox, I suppose). Apparently the crowd has never heard of Matt Holliday?

[sf rod]

it's almost like the sox starting lineup sprinkled with players i don't like.

[Atheose]

Francona getting a lot of boos too.

[Jackie (SF)]

Tito also failing to tip his cap! Hee!

[Atheose]

Agreed Jackie. Ichiro doesn't get a big applause? Cal Ripkin doesn't?

Hank Aaron got a big applause at least.

[I'mBillMcNeal]

"Alex Rodriguez did a brief interview with the writers just now. As he was talking, David Ortiz shouted out from the adjacent locker, "No more talking about Madonna please!"

Oh, so the fnck WHAT?

Big deal.

[Lar]

Jackie - with these ticket prices..

[Lar]

If you can *seriously* tell me no one here would complain at the very least if ARod brought up the Manny brawl *during his interview (might never happen since Manny skip out on those)*, please, PLEASE ignore me then.

[Jackie (SF)]

Lar - true, maybe I should be more surprised that they recognized anyone except Jeter. ;)

[I'mBillMcNeal]

"Gotta say I'm a little disappointed by the totally lukewarm reception for anyone who isn't a Yankee ..."

Remember, these are the same people who booed aa 19-year-old Class-A Red Sox prospect in the futures game.

[sf rod]

good point lar.

[Lar]

Maybe there weren't blogs that you can google up in '99, but fans at a certain park was booing the crap out of Jeter. Ya. Okay. I think I'm done here.

[sf rod]

good point awarded to the ticket price comment.

[I'mBillMcNeal]

By the way, there's a lot of anger in here tonight? This is the All Star Game. Wher's the love?

[Atheose]

We're not complaining Lar, just pointing it out. Chill out dude! Enjoy the game!

[I'mBillMcNeal]

"Maybe there weren't blogs that you can google up in '99, but fans at a certain park was booing the crap out of Jeter."

Yes, but on opening day 2005, those same fans CHEERED quite loudly for Mo.

[Lar]

To be somewhat fair though, as in most of these "keep on cheering" situations (think graduation) everyone cheers the first few people, and then people tired until someone pronounced comes on (Willie Mays got a huge cheers). They brought in *alot* of HoFers, so people might just get tired. I know if it were me, I would probably cheer my heart out for a few, and then just fatigue until say, a Yankee come on..

[Jackie (SF)]

//Yes, but on opening day 2005, those same fans CHEERED quite loudly for Mo.

... well, yeah, but that was ironic. Extremely ironic.

[Lar]

Okay okay! =P Maybe it's something I ate today. Or I'm filling in for A YF. I'm done with the stuff.. on to the game!

[Atheose]

Holy crap George looks like they just pulled the feeding tube out REALLY bad. I guess this is the first time we've seen him publicly in a few years though.

[Atheose]

I just remembered the season ends with a Yanks-Sox series at the stadium. That'll be exciting.

[SF]

Quick question:

did anyone notice Willie Mays giving Josh Hamilton the total cold shoulder? Hamilton came out to center, extended his hand, Mays was turned the other way and never acknowledged JH, even after they cut away to a long shot from behind home. Maybe Mays never saw Hamilton and the noise prevented him from hearing the greeting, but it was awfully weird.

Also, I liked Winfield bringing two hats, and FU to Wade Boggs.

[Atheose]

Uhh I didn't delete enough of my above comment. Please disregard the feeding tube comment. Sincere apologies.

[SF]

Jackie, where have you been!? Welcome back!

[Jackie (SF)]

Also, I distinctly remember Opening Day 2005 at Fenway including boos of the whole NYY roster, including the massage therapist. Which I thoroughly enjoyed.

I'm not particularly complaining about the booing, but it is a little weird in an ASG (rather than a regular season game).

[Jackie (SF)]

SF - thanks, I've missed you guys too! (got sucked into a semi-supervisory role at work, so not nearly as much opportunity to sneak out between 4-7pm to comment. :)

[SF]

Were they booing Youk? I thought they were cheering him, "YOOOOOOK!!!!".

[SF]

Lar, I was at the '99 ASG, and the Sox fans were universally, every single one of them, cheering Jeter.

OK, Bronx cheering. But whatever.

;-)

[sf rod]

little was said about the class move by tito to ask girardi to be involved.

[Lar]

I hope I'm the only YF here because everyone else is at the game! =P

[Atheose]

Yeah no kidding sf rod.

[Lar]

Will any stadium get 4 All-Star games? Probably Fenway when/if it closes, or if it manages to stay open long enough, but seems unlikely anywhere else..

[Lar]

Forgot Wrigley, though I don't know the situation there..

[Atheose]

Wrigley has had 3 ASG's, right? If so it'll get a 4th when it closes probably.

[Lar]

And here we go!

[SF]

So Tito has asked Girardi to participate, he has gone on the record to say Mo is closing, but he's still a villain. Such is the price of success.

I think the booing is annoying (as I mentioned before I don't boo at baseball games as a rule) but at least the booing has a source: the Red Sox' success at the expense, for the most part, of their rivals. If being booed at an exhibition game is the price of success, let's keep paying.

Now let's all team up, Yankee fan and Sox fan alike, to beat the NL and give the Beantowners potential home field advantage at the World Series!

[Atheose]

They're doing the roll call... but only for Jeter and ARod.

[Jackie (SF)]

I almost didn't notice that the game was actually starting; I got lulled into a stupor by Buck's voice.

Also, yay Cliff Lee!

[SF]

They're doing the roll call... but only for Jeter and ARod.

Wow, that's sad, what a weak roll call.

[Atheose]

Yeah, like every year I'll cheer for the yankees. But it'll hurt.

[SF]

Tough pitch from Lee there to Utley, on the black (or just off) but certainly a damn good pitch.