MLB Notes

What a glorious headline that is, don’t you think? With only a few games taking place last night, some reporters looked for actual news to write into their publications. There was even an are-you-serious-type story out of Boston that probably caught a few people off guard.

It turns out that Albert Pujols isn’t upset about being benched in the all-star game. This was the one story that was the closest to actually being news over the past few days. Now, it’s over and nobody will care a week from now. Thanks for the drama to keep us sustained Al.

Looks like Ichiro is going to keep the Asian-fueled population of the Northwest and Mariners fans. He and the Mariners are allegedly going to announce a five-year contract extension today. I could’ve seen this coming a mile away. There was no way Ichiro was going to leave Seattle and can you really picture him in a different jersey?

A-Rod’s back in the limelight, well, you do have to consider, does he ever leave it? Rodriguez hit his 31st home run of the season last night amidst talks that he and the Yankees will talk after this season about his gargantuan contract. If he demands more money, it will make him the greediest player in sports. He does deserve to be the highest paid player in the game, but $30 million a season? That’s just ridiculous.

And finally, the shocker, it looks like Big Papi has been slugging home runs for over a year on a bum knee. The slugger admitted yesterday before Boston’s game against Toronto, that he has had a torn meniscus in his left knee since roughly early June, 2006. If he can knock that many balls out of the park with an injury like that, imagine if he was healthy.

Feature day!

For those who didn’t know, yesterday and Monday were the only two days on the calendar in which no professional sports have games played. Since Monday always has the home run derby, today is pretty much the least eventful sports day of the year. Sure you can count NBA signings as news, but they’ve been announcing the whole “agreed to terms” deals for more than a week now.

So what are we left with? Keep in mind that everyone already gave out their first-half awards for MLB. Well, there’s not much, so we get to read all the feature stories we can handle. There’s no day more jam-packed with them. Any sports site or channel will be running either them or advances for upcoming games. I really can’t wait for sports to come back... and it’s only been a day.

An all-star good time

While I get ready for tomorrow’s uber-post, last night’s MLB all-star game should garner some attention from the sports world, even though it was slotted into a jam-packed day of sports. That was sarcasm in case you couldn’t tell.

Ichiro made some instant history last night and won the game’s MVP award because of it. After a smash towards the right-field wall, Ken Griffey Jr. Thought he was in good position to play the bounce; he was wrong. The ball hit an advertisement banner and went in the opposite direction of Griffey, who was on towards centerfield instead of the right field corner the ball ended up in. Rounding the bases was no problem for the speedy Ichiro, who is now in the record books as the only player to ever hit an inside-the-park home run during an all-star game. Congratulations, you now have a nice new hybrid SUV in San Francisco for when you visit.

The American league was able to hold onto their 5-4 lead and take home field advantage in the World Series for the fifth consecutive year. Including the horrendous tie of 2002, the American league stars haven’t lost the mid-summer classic in ten straight years now. Talk about dominance.

It’s now being reported that moody superstar Albert Pujols – currently embroiled in his personal longest home run drought – is upset that his own manager didn’t use him in the game last night. La Russa actually sent Aaron Rowand, a defensive specialist for the NL, to bat with two outs and the bases loaded out in the ninth inning last night. If you ask me, yeah, that’s a pretty dumb move. La Russa had a chance to win but he blew the game and now has his star mad with him.

What splashes?

Every single lead that you’ll read regarding last night’s home run derby will probably include something about the mass of kayakers that get screwed by the lack of home run balls hit into McCovey Cove. That was my clever way of doing it and not sounding like the rest of the pack.

With four right handed hitters advancing to the second round, very few blasts came out towards the mass of sea-faring, souvenir snaggers. In fact, only a Ryan Howard foul ball made it into the bay.

The Blue Jay's Alex Rios put up the biggest round of the derby with 12 jacks in the second round to put him the championship with Vladimir Guerrero. Too bad for Rios that he crapped the bed and could only knock two out the championship while Vlady easily hit three, tossing his bat in walk-off fashion after the last.

Much has been said in the past about the Derby messing with player’s swings but I think that’s garbage; has anybody ever complained that the NBA’s equivalent – the slam dunk competition – mess with their player’s game? Never. It just seems like the sluggers get lazier after the break, or won’t get as many good pitches because opposing teams will now recognize further that the a derby champ is big hitter. I would think Alex Rios will only be hurt by doing well yesterday.