MLB All-Star Game: The Good, The Bad and The Berman
Congratulations to the National League squad for thumping the American League in a lopsided 8-0 shutout victory, extending their All-Star winning streak to three games.
The highlight of the game, in my opinion, occurred before the first pitch was thrown... Chipper Jones' pregame speech, which was captured on video (below), showed the world a glimpse of the passion and desire to win that has fueled his Hall of Fame career. It was also nice to see Chipper collect a hit in his last All-Star at bat (his only at bat of the game) and admittedly, I think I'm starting to realize that I'm going to miss booing Larry Jones when he comes to Philadelphia.
Unfortunately, last night's contest was a bit of a bore... once the NL got up, it was a bit of a snore-fest. The game was certainly well played but a 5 run lead was more than enough for the barrage of arms that Tony LaRussa and Terry Collins had at their disposal.
Giants fans have a lot to be happy about - Melky Cabrera (who earned MVP honors), Buster Posey and Pablo Sandoval accounted for almost all of the NL runs (4 Runs and 5 RBI between the three of them) while Matt Cain pitched two scoreless innings. Bryce Harper's misplayed fly ball has been GIF'd and punned but I don't think it will have any effect on the 19 year-old's ego (or how he plays the game).
Aside from the game, it's evident to me (in hindsight) that the home run derby is too long... by the third contestant, the announcers run out of things to say (and food to eat, in John Kruk's case). Speaking of announcers, I honestly could not think of a worse person to call a Home Run Derby than Chris Berman... Chris Berman doing football highlights in small doses is ok but a two hour home run derby full of Berman-isms is enough to make you wish you were watching the WNBA. His contribution to the broadcast was turning the home run derby into a geography lesson ("That ball is half way to *insert city*"), which is good if you're trying to teach your kid geography... not good if you're interesting in analyzing swings and technique.
The highlight of the game, in my opinion, occurred before the first pitch was thrown... Chipper Jones' pregame speech, which was captured on video (below), showed the world a glimpse of the passion and desire to win that has fueled his Hall of Fame career. It was also nice to see Chipper collect a hit in his last All-Star at bat (his only at bat of the game) and admittedly, I think I'm starting to realize that I'm going to miss booing Larry Jones when he comes to Philadelphia.
Unfortunately, last night's contest was a bit of a bore... once the NL got up, it was a bit of a snore-fest. The game was certainly well played but a 5 run lead was more than enough for the barrage of arms that Tony LaRussa and Terry Collins had at their disposal.
Giants fans have a lot to be happy about - Melky Cabrera (who earned MVP honors), Buster Posey and Pablo Sandoval accounted for almost all of the NL runs (4 Runs and 5 RBI between the three of them) while Matt Cain pitched two scoreless innings. Bryce Harper's misplayed fly ball has been GIF'd and punned but I don't think it will have any effect on the 19 year-old's ego (or how he plays the game).
Aside from the game, it's evident to me (in hindsight) that the home run derby is too long... by the third contestant, the announcers run out of things to say (and food to eat, in John Kruk's case). Speaking of announcers, I honestly could not think of a worse person to call a Home Run Derby than Chris Berman... Chris Berman doing football highlights in small doses is ok but a two hour home run derby full of Berman-isms is enough to make you wish you were watching the WNBA. His contribution to the broadcast was turning the home run derby into a geography lesson ("That ball is half way to *insert city*"), which is good if you're trying to teach your kid geography... not good if you're interesting in analyzing swings and technique.
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