2010 All-Star Game

[Guest themetfairy]

The AAA All Star Game is on the MLB Network.

There's a Cyclones game on SNY, but it's in a rain delay.

[Guest The Second Spitter]

G-Fafif wrote: "The National League will win another All-Star Game over my dead body." --George Steinbrenner

Duuuuuude............I thought of this, except I was worried one of the admins was going to tear me a new one, for typing it.

[Frayed Knot]

The Second Spitter wrote: G-Fafif wrote: "The National League will win another All-Star Game over my dead body." --George Steinbrenner Duuuuuude............I thought of this, except I was worried one of the admins was going to tear me a new one, for typing it.

Oh man don't ever think that.
In nearly 9 years of this board the number of posts that got spiked is probably countable on one hand ... by Mordecai Brown.
Let 'em fly.

[Guest Edgy DC]

If you get criticized, the admins' responses carry no more weight than those of the other posters.

So fill me in... that column is fake, right? Right?

[Ceetar]

Edgy DC wrote: If you get criticized, the admins' responses carry no more weight than those of the other posters. So fill me in... that column is fake, right? Right?

I couldn't find it anywhere on my searches.

[seawolf17]

I didn't think it was THAT good, fellas. Nowhere near up to Wally's standards. But I'm honored to have fooled you all.

[Guest The Second Spitter]

Ceetar wrote: Edgy DC wrote: If you get criticized, the admins' responses carry no more weight than those of the other posters. So fill me in... that column is fake, right? Right? I couldn't find it anywhere on my searches.

What column are we talking about?

[G-Fafif]

I didn't think it was THAT good, fellas. Nowhere near up to Wally's standards. But I'm honored to have fooled you all.

At first blush, it was so totally fucked up that I believed it. About five minutes (and several blind alley searches) later I was thinking, "Wait a second..." I had to remind myself that the MFYs had played World Series in which they had the middle three games and even their amen corner hadn't complained. Two other tipoffs:

1) A word is missing from the first sentence.

2) The knock on the Braves was a little too Metcentric.

But you had me going, you sick little monkey.

[Zvon]

Got my ticket here for the 1996 All Star Game at the Vet.
Great box seats (for a game of this stature), section 232.
65$
I know over time prices do and should go up.
But 65 bucks

(Don't know if I ever told the story of me sneaking into the after party with some of my brothers and a few friends.
I think I did though. That's a classic.)

[Guest The Second Spitter]

Edgy DC wrote: If you get criticized, the admins' responses carry no more weight than those of the other posters.

Like the Genius, I'm highly sensitive to personal criticism, however unlike him, I'm not close enough to the owner of CPF to get an admin fired.

[seawolf17]

G-Fafif wrote: 1) A word is missing from the first sentence.

Argh. I left out the word "win." I'm going to go back and edit it in.

[Guest metsguyinmichigan]

Wolfie, you got me. Brilliant.

[metirish]

Well played wolfie, while I was skeptical the column was not beyond Matthews.

[Frayed Knot]

Ashie62 wrote: What are the only two days of the year when none of the 4 major U.S. sports are active? The day before & after the all star break I despise the AS break.

There used to be several other 'blank' days in the sports calendar, but that was before leagues starting deciding that the likes of Christmas & Christmas Eve were perfect spots for TV programming.

But it could be worse, there's only seven games on the sked for today.
So, even though we have to wait until 10PM EDT to renew our fix, we're fortunately not one of the Sixteen teams with an extra day off.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I actually enjoyed not having any baseball to watch for the past three days. And it will extend a bit, because 10 p.m. games are not my speed.

[seawolf17]

I know that making the schedule is hard, but do we really need that many teams out of action for an extra day? Seems a little silly.

I'll miss all of these 10 pm games too.

[Guest Edgy DC]

I have this plan when I'm commissioner to shut down the baseball schedule for the entire week, but instead of it being a drought, it would be Baseball Week --- filled with a smorgasbord of non-sucky special baseball programming:

1. The MLB Draft (This, if I haven't succeeded in eliminating it first.)
   
   
   
2. The Hall of Fame Game (This will count in the standings, but be played at Doubleday Field in Cooperstown.)
   
   
   
3. All Star Game One (This will be played competitively, with players encouraged to stay in as long as is strategically necessary, and starters able to go five or six if they succeed.)
   
   
   
4. Hall of Fame Inductions
   
   
   
5. All Star Game Two (Each ASG wil be played at a different city in the same region --- why make people wait 30 or so years for the game to come to their town?)
   
   
   
6. The Futures Game
   
   
   
7. The bloody and viciously contested All Star Game Three (Aren't there three deserving starting pitchers in each league?)

Other shit like old-timers games and concerts and parties and stuff can be sparkled in there.

[TransMonk]

I like the 10pm games (they're 9pm for me). The house is quiet, I'm done with all my daily tasks...and next week: Vin Scully!

[Benjamin Grimm]

There was a period of time in the 1960's when two All Star Games were played each year. I know little of the details, though. Why was it implemented? How long did it last? Why was it discontinued? Was the All-Star break still three games, or was it longer? Were both games played on consecutive days? Were they both played in the same park? Was one of the games a Tuesday game?

I guess I could look it up, and perhaps I will, but not just now.

[Willets Point]

Here's a New York Times articleabout the Midsummer Double Classic.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: There was a period of time in the 1960's when two All Star Games were played each year. I know little of the details, though. Why was it implemented? How long did it last? Why was it discontinued? Was the All-Star break still three games, or was it longer? Were both games played on consecutive days? Were they both played in the same park? Was one of the games a Tuesday game? I guess I could look it up, and perhaps I will, but not just now.

The ASG began as a way for players to earn $$ for their pensions since the owners weren't taking of that then. I believe some years had 3?!? (haven;t read the link)

[Benjamin Grimm]

Here's a New York Times articleabout the Midsummer Double Classic.

Cool! I guess I'm not the only one thinking about this today.

When Midsummer Had Two Classics By RICHARD SANDOMIR Published: July 15, 2008 The American and National Leagues played two All-Star Games each year. It was a slightly daffy idea that sounds nothing but harebrained in retrospect. Who needed a second Midsummer Classic that wasn�t always a classic? Those were the days before interleague play, days when baseball lore tells us players from each league were raring to whip their rivals, and league presidents delivered pep talks to stoke the players� juices. But there was a simple and obvious reason to play two games: money. "If no dollars were involved," Commissioner Ford Frick said in 1959, "we wouldn�t play it. However, in my heart, I know it�s not a greedy grab as some have called it." The primary reason for the second game was to put more money into the players� pension fund. According to a news report at the time, baseball had fallen behind in some payments, and a second game would finance the shortfall, and then some. "The players were looking to address their pocketbooks," said John Thorn, a baseball historian. "They weren�t thinking that the two games diluted the All-Star Game." Marvin Miller, who would later become the head of the players union, said that the financial records he eventually found showed increased revenues to the pension fund. "But eventually, there was a realization that one game was better than two," he said. Miller said the talks that kept the two-a-year games going for four seasons became tangled in negotiations over extending the season to 162 games for expansion that would start in 1961, without paying the players "a nickel more." The deal, he said, was to increase the pension funding by perpetuating the playing of a second game. While Miller could not say whether the owners had enough foresight to use the 162-game ploy in 1959, Lee Lowenfish, another historian, said he believed they did. "In 1946," he said, "Larry MacPhail wanted to add 14 more games to defuse union possibilities. I definitely think they knew about the eight extra games, but that�s the problem with the history then: the records are hidden." (MacPhail was a top Yankees official at the time.) There wasn�t much consistency with the scheduling of the games. In 1959, Game 1 was played in Pittsburgh on July 7 and Game 2 in Los Angeles on Aug. 3. The next year, the games were two days apart, but in 1961 and 1962, they were separated by 20 days. In 1959, they were played in two National League stadiums; in 1960, they were staged at two American League ballparks (Municipal Stadium in Kansas City and Yankee Stadium); but in the next two years, they were split between each league. After the second game in 1960, which drew only 38,362 at Yankee Stadium, Harvey Kuenn of the Cleveland Indians, the American League player representative, said he wanted a final determination about whether the two-game format should continue. Before the second 1961 All-Star Game was to be played at Fenway Park, John Drebinger, a New York Times sports columnist, speculated that it might be the last year with two midseason games. "The public at large is finding a second all-star attraction something of an anticlimax, like playing a second World Series in Brazil," he wrote. The players had every reason to continue the pension-funding second game, so off they went the next season to play two again. In Washington, the National League won, with Juan Marichal the victor in relief. Then, at Wrigley Field, with home runs by Pete Runnels, Leon Wagner and Rocky Colavito, the American League won, 9-4. But four months later, owners ended this strange period in baseball history. They agreed to increase the players� share of proceeds from a single All-Star Game. "I don�t think any other sports has ever had two All-Star Games, and it just showed that baseball had no leadership," Lowenfish said. "It was certainly haphazard."

[Fman99]

Frayed Knot wrote: So, even though we have to wait until 10PM EDT to renew our fix, we're fortunately not one of the Sixteen teams with an extra day off.

That's even more ridiculous.

[MFS62]

I attended the 1960 ASG in Yankee Stadium with a friend who was a Pirate fan.
The NL won 6-0, Pirate Vern Law was the winning pitcher and Whitey Ford was the loser.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/ALS/ALS196007130.shtml

We went home happy.

Later