Youkilis leaves BoSox game just now with either cramp or ankle/achilles issue.

Send Swish!

Mauer (finally) hits his 4th homer of the year .... 6-5 Twins 7th inning over Jays.

[1] With Youkilis (a tribesman representative) now out today with some sort of injury, and batting below 300 for the year; then absolutely Swish should get the nod. Begrudgingly, I thought Youk deserved it more, but not anymore. Vote early and often for Swish.

Also, who are deez BoSox deez dayz? A very sketchy lineup of unknowns with a sprinkling of our old demons. Scutaro, Papi, Drew, Beltre and Youk (now out of the game) are the only regulars, with a guy named Doubront pitching. The Rays have got to put them away (right now it's 2-1, in the top of the 6th).

5am wakeup call, but fug it - putting on a small pot of coffee, and a plate of something sweet to get ready and awake for the Big Fella's game. I'll catch up on sleep during the AllStar break.

[4] These late games are killing me as well, The mornings are hard to face, but so much better when the Yankees win. Having an iced coffee at the moment.

It was actually 100* here today in lower Westchester. I don't remember that ever happening since moving here in 2001. The prospect of 8 more weeks of potentially this kind of heat is daunting. The Yankees are fortunate to be on the road.

Also, I read in LoHud just now that Mo is passing on the ASG. He is quoted that he has been pitching hurt(!) and needs the time off. Now what...

[5] Right knee, left side, is the report. He's available for one-inning stints, but wants to use the break to rest. Now we know why Girardi has been so careful with him (beyond the "he's 40" thing).

It must be the coffee as to why I am posting so much. But, why is Cano participating in the Home Run Derby next week? It can't do him any good, and can only mess up his sweet swinging year. Maybe I'm wrong to think this, but is he a HR hitter? He probably wants the "complete All Star experience" in his breakout year, but the HR Derby is a bad idea. Arod is quoted as saying he encouraged Cano to do it. Arod's sentiment can be taken in a myriad of ways.

Girardi and Long do not want Cano participating.

What do you think?

Big Ugly is in the lead. We need to get to voting.

SEND SWISH

[6] Is he going to pitch in the games prior to the ASG? Or do we get a terrifying look into the future over the next week?

[7] not good. No good can come of it. It'll only mess up his swing, or get him hurt.

[10] Ditto

[9] they haven't shut him down. I think the plan is to baby the knee for now. We can remain in denial about the future until it gets here.

[12] Good. Denial works.

[12] There has to be some 17 year old in the Dominican, or Panama, or Colombia, or Oklahoma, or wherever with the same body type, same hand shape, with the potential for the same mental make-up upon experience to groom for the future. A big bonus to the scout who finds him.

Or maybe that person can never exist again...

It will be another kenboyer moment for me when the day of what we cannot discuss comes.

22 pitch 1st inning.

LeBron is getting an entire hour on ESPN on Thursday night to announce his decision.

I say he's going to announce he is gay.

[16] I'm guessing Scientology.

Jorgie, this is getting ridiculous.

Six All-Star players have committed to participate in the 2010 State Farm Home Run Derby, Major League Baseball announced Tuesday.

Representing the American League are the Red Sox's David Ortiz, the Tigers' Miguel Cabrera, the Yankees' Robinson Cano and the Jays' Vernon Wells.

Shit. I'd rather Robbie take the time off.

Sox rally in the 9th but fall to TB 3-2.

Noooooooooo!!!
Fuck, nooooooooo!!!

No derby for Robbie!!!

Noooooooooooo!!!!!

[16] Another reason why he should play in NY!

Lil' CC works a walk!

[19], [21] see [7]

oh no. tex okay?

Tex just got plunked HARD! In the back (like the kidney). Not good.

Come on Arod, make this easy!

A-BOMB!!!

salami time!!!

is that #20 or 21?!

YAY! AROD GRAND SALAMI!

ARod makes a boom boom!

thats what we call a no doubter

SLOTH!!!

run over the mound!!!

[30] : )

#596. Bronx Banter pool on #600?

[32] There are a lot of women in Oakland who would want Arod all over their mound!

[35]

uhhhh ... wow! :-)

But he's not clutch with anyone in scoring position! :-P

[3] i hate that the ugly crybaby is a tribe representative. i'll take david lee roth instead! ; )

for the first time, i'm getting bits and pieces of the game on the radio in my kitchen. it's getting really static-y and ruining my dinner. i might have to switch off soon, but it's been nice being in the know for a change...

Johnny Damon GW 2-run homer for Tigers in 11th inning just now.

[7] i don't want cano in the hr derby. too bad our collective vote doesn't count there...

[38] nice. he should have 2,501 hits now!

[37] Maybe he was adopted?

[38] btw, i ordered the dvd last night. i couldn't resist your link!

I honestly don't understand the attraction of the HR derby, for either the players or fans. But the again, I haven't cared about the all star game immure thaa decade, except that I don't want any players on my team to get hurt. Send Youk!!

In other news, Miranda is back from the MiL DL. He might make a decent addition to the depleted bench, especially if it means that Chan Ho Park gets released to make room.

[43] You might be on to something. Youk can only go to the ASG if he participates in the Home Run Derby. How can we get that to happen?

Lil' CC could not leg out a grounder to SS.

So i botched and moaned about moving gardner up in the lineup, and since he moved to the leadoff spot he's looked pretty bad. Yeah, I know, small samples and all...

47) that would be, of course bitched and moaned.

i assume tex is okay from the hbp then?!

Arod is not moving well to his left in the field. And with Jeter's range, the left side is particularly vulnerable these days.

[43] Yeah, I used to love the ASG as a kid. Getting to see NL players and stadiums was unusual and exciting. (I only watched a handful of Mets games on WOR back then) Now, I don't think I could make it through the introductions..is it age, interleague play or cable tv that ruined it?

[49] Yeah...he must be playing angry.

I love the ASG and the HR derby. However, I was NOT happy to hear about Robbie. Talk about paranoia. Abreu was ruined for at least half a season a few years ago after he took part. shuddering........

CC !!!

Tension time. CC stressing in front of his homies from the East Bay. 3&2 two outs, bases loaded...and CC GETS THE STRIKE THREE CALL!

[53] yeah, the boBBy example is definitely the poster for the hr derby 2nd half fade. i'm a BIG boBBy fan. that sucked. robbie kinda sorta gave himself an out, saying there's still 5 days left. hopefully he'll feel some pinstriped pressure and graciously bow out...

[51] i hear ya. but i still find myself watching the entire thing. next week's gonna be tough for me though and i'll be teaching a lot monday/tuesday, so i'll prolly miss most of it. oh well...

i'll still never forget fred lynn's grand slam off atlee hammacker! it was either '83 or '84. i guess i can forget the year! hey, i was a kid... shit, who could forget vlad's bat knocking lasorda down in the 3rd base box?! i'm *still* laughing! that was either '03 or '01...

51) those are a few reasons. I could add a few more, most of which involve Bud Selig in one way or another. The clincher is that the game now counts. I for one am truly bothered by the notion that the game influences postseason home field advantage, and I will never watch again, in protest, until that condition is removed.

The center field camera at the Oakland stadium is very skewed. On TV, pitches on the third base side of the plate look ouside the strike zone, pitches on the first base side look like strikes but are called balls. I noticed that last night as well.

YAY-ROD!!!

[57] i do very much hate the fact that this game determines home field advantage for the serious. i'm vehemently against that.

yeah... I think he's back

[57] I don't get that protest. It was essentially random before (alternating leagues independent of team performance). This is no worse. If anything it's better because at least *some* members of the pennant winners get a chance to influence the result.

it is HIGH, it is FAR, it is....caught.

damn you, sterling.

[56] And how can we forget the excitement of the tie ASG?

It used to mean more, when the players stayed their careers with mostly the same team, and the players hated each other. It's hard for milliionaires to hate each other. Nowadays, the ASG is like a clambake,

[64] ah, i tried to! ; )

62) you don't get the protest or you don't get the reason for the protest? The reason is simple...the all star game is an exhibition. It boggles the mind that than an exhibition game would determine anything. Moreover, the rule was made not to make the WS more fair, but to increase interest in the ASG and to prevent the managers from treating it like....an exhibition game. It was a knee jerk to a fluky situation, the tie game when the teams ran out of players, which i never saw as a problem to begin with. After all, other exhibition games, like spring games, end in ties without controversy.

I would far, far rather have the advantage determined arbitrarily, like it used to be with a rotation (I think that arbitrary is more accurate than random). I disagree with the current rule, I disagree with the logic behind it, and i disagree with the reaction to the historical incident that encouraged the rule to begin with.

[66] I just can't get upset about it. Home field in the World Series was arbitrary and remains arbitrary, does it really matter how it is arbitrarily determined? I agree with your opinion of the motivation behind the rule, but I have no issue with the rule. Home field for one-game playoffs is determined by a coin-flip. Is that better? Why not let the players play for it if there's a game, exhibition or otherwise, that allows them to do that. I really don't have a problem with it at all and still don't understand why anyone does. What's the harm? What's the worst-case scenario that could result?

66) i would add, if the issue were really about some fairer mechanism for determining home field advantage in the WS, now that we have the annual excitement that is inter league play, surely a better way can be found: head to head record,, or inter league record, or even the overall inter league record AL v. NL. But to hang that on an exhibition game?

And, if they want to avoid the dreaded tie in an exhibition game surely a rule could be found for that. To protect the players, I would disallow the game to go past 10 or 11 innings,and instead institute a series of tie breakers.

[68] Again, I agree that there are better ways of doing it, but they didn't downgrade from one of them to get to this rule.

67) the worst scenario is possibly what has happened, that one league always gets the home field advantage because of the potentially fluky outcome of a single all star game.

As for which system is worse, in my mind the arbitrary alternation of years is far superior. I would rather be subject to a fixed, predictable rule than to the outcome of an exhibition game that is not precisely fixed or predictable but also not precisely random, either. In other words, I would prefer to be subject t o no human agent than to be subject to a myriad of bizarre human agents, fan voters and all star managers, etc, that have very little to do with my team directly.

And as I mention, there are other ways to determine the home field advantage for the WS that would be fairer, or at least employ mechanisms more directly relevant to the teams involved and real actual ball games.

ah, not the leadoff walk...

69) i guess we'll have to agree to disagree, because i think that the current system is the worst by far of all those we have discussed, including yearly rotation and coin flips. But then I tend to be in the minority on these issues.

I don't think CC will come out for the eighth.

[72] The moral minority.

Wow, both Arod and Tex have make some great plays this evening (even with Arod's left side liability).

[73] hmmm. well, maybe with that dp, he just might! 101 after 7. then again, it's a 5 run lead. joba's pitched the last 2 days, iirc. maybe d-rob & marte. i just hope we don't see pepto. prolly be mosely for 2...

76) yeah, the DP might change things. Still, I bet with the big lead girardi goes with someone else. A few more runs here would make everyone breath easier.

[72] I agree with ya. My biggest issue is all the substitutions in the game, and pitchers only going 1 or 2 innings. This idea that everyone has to play is silly. When I was a kid, the All-Star game was competative, and played like any important regular season game.

But I shouldn't be botching and moaning so much.

i really don't like cereal crisp. not sure we need to push the very large man. someone's gotta be able to finish this thing up for us...

Girardi really must not trust his BP to push CC to around 120 pitches in a game like this. I,m not complaining (or botching), mind you...I,m more of the Nolan Ryan persuasion. But I am a bit surprised.

whoa - the rox scored NINE runs in the 9th to beat the cards!!!

holy crap. i gotta see highlights of that...

[80] hopefully he'll get the double digit strikeout right here, then get pulled...

...and there's the 10th K!!!

now, get him outta there, joe!

Vallejo representing for CC with a big ovation as he comes out of the game. IMO, about two batters late, but the hand was nice in an opposing ballpark.

ah, that's better.

4 outs, kid. nice 'n tidy.

[84] nice. thanks for sharing that. yeah, you, me & mp all think he shoulda been done a bit earlier. but he's a horse and was obviously still kinda strong, so hopefully all will be fine...

Anyone ever been to the Colliseum in Oakland? Is it really the worst in the league?

three swingin' k's in a row.

dig it.

[87] i've never been. i went to pac bell park and it was gorgeous. i have a buddy in the bay area. he swears oakland is by far the worst stadium...and has the worst fans. (sorry, ken!)

I've been to a few games. Worse than Shea, worse than the Kingdome, worse than? The last of the Multi-Purpose stadiums. You have to turn your head to look at the plate. Huge foul grounds. Empty seats. Mount Davis in the outfield. Used to be a dangerous neighborhood (although we know about that). Easy to get to, as BART goes right there.

Let's get this over with, bed by 1 would be nice.

Wasn't Cust a major homerun hitter? What happened to him?

[91] i'll be up for a few more hours. i hope to be out of bed (tomorrow) at 1...pm! : )

very very nice!

i should be home from work tomorrow nite, in time to catch the last inning or two...

92) too many ks. That and he's already 31. He's a classic Billy Beane pickup. The A's got his peak seasons, now he's just an aging, high strike out, former slugger.

[95] Thanks.

[93] End of game means only one thing...jazz chat time!

Check this out thelarmis: http://metropolis.co.jp/arts/agenda/jazz-art-sengawa-2010/

Damn, that was just pleasant.

[97] nice. zorn! i'm actually hopping offline here in a minute...

[98] your best post yet! ; )

2 games up on the rays.

3.5 on you know who. 4 in the AILC.

+103 run diff.

cc doesn't struggle in his hometown!

[99] There are few things I enjoy more than a low stress game sprinkled liberally with some awesome.

[16] That was wrong, but funny.

As to that mini-debate wrt the ASG, I have to admit that I'm with Cliff on this one.

It doesn't upset me at all.