MLB All Star Game: Making Memories

Hey now you’re an All Star, get your game on, go play.  Hey now you’re a rock star, get the show on get paid.  And all that glitters is gold.  Only shooting stars break the mold.  -Smash Mouth

Public Service Announcement:  Ok, here we go!  Ahhh, the All Star game.  The Midsummer Classic.  Like my main man Terrence Mann always says, “We’ll watch the game and it’ll be as if we dipped ourlves in magic waters.  The memories will be so thick we’ll have to brush them away from our faces.”  What memories will this year’s All Star Game bring?  

1)  Ted Williams once said, “They invented the All-Star Game for Willie Mays.”  The Say Hey Kid said hey from the leadoff spot in an All Star Game for a record eight times.  Tonight, Ichiro ties that record.  But can Ichiro do what Willie did back in 1963?  Can he drive in two two runs?  Can he score two more?  Can he steal  two bases.  Can he make the magnificent defensive catch late in the game to rob the other team of victory?  Maybe.  He’s alreay won one All Star Game MVP.  Maybe he can win another like Mays did back in 1969.  Say hey!   

2)  Reggie Jackson was the straw that stirred the Yankees drink.  He was one of baseball’s most celebrated figures in all of baseball.  The 1971 All Star Game was the was the moment that put him on the national landscape.  Batting in the third inning against Pirates pitcher Dock Ellis, Jackson absolutely crushed a home run that would’ve cleared Tiger Stadium had it not been for a light transformer atop the rightfield roof.  The Natrural style.  Who will abosolutely crush one tonight?  Who will absolutely bum rush one tonight?  Make folks blush one tonight?  My money’s on the hometown hero.  My money’s on Albert Pujols.  I would not be surprised if he put a dent in the Great Golden Arch.

3)  He hustled the ball around the infield.  He hustled his way down to first.  He hustled in and out of the dugout.  You know what that makes him?  That’s right, Charlie Hustle.  Pete Rose hustled his way right through Ray Fosse and ended his career.  If there’s anybody with that much grit in this year’s All Star Game, it’s Kevin Youkilis.  True Grit.  Fill your hands, you son-of-a-bitch!

4)  In 1934, after allowing the first two men to reach base, King Carl Hubbell struck out Ruth, Gehrig and Foxx to end the first inning.  He then sat down Al Simmons and Joe Cronin to set the consecutive strikeout record.  In 1999, Pedro Martinez, took center stage.  He entered the game and proceded to strike out Barry Larkin, Larry Walker, Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire consecutively.  One short of the record.  If anyone can match what those two dudes done did, it’s Tim Lincecum, the stikenest outenest fother mucker in this here All Star Game.  Yippy ki yay!

5)  In 1941, Ted Williams called his All Star Game bomb the most meaningful bomb of his career.  In the bottom of the ninth, with two outs, Williams sauntered to the plate with two on and his team trailing 5-4.  The Splendid Splinter hit a slider and deposited it into the right field seats for the winner winner chicken dinner.  Know this sports fans:  In RBI situations with the game on the line, Prince Fielder is king.  Long live the King!  Fielder has a  batting average in Late-Inning Pressure Situations, or LIPS as the kids like to say, with runners in scoring position to .364.  Yowza!  Know that that’s the highest among active players with at least 60 at-bats in LIPS with RISP.  And Bill James says there’s no such thing as clutch.

Public Spectacle:

Peace out homies.  Six two and Even!

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