5 Interesting Observations from MLB All Star Game

Another All Star game is in the books and the AL is the win... oh wait thats right, the NL won this year 3-1 and now have home field advantage for the World Series. Sorry for that mistake as I, along with everyone else got so used to talking about the AL and there dominace in winning All Star Games that you just get used to typing the same thing. After the All Star game I just wanted to throw out some observations of what was in my book one of the better All Star games in the last few years.

1. When does FOX finally tell Tim McCarver to sit at home and sound like an old guy? I know that he has alot of baseball knowledge and he has been with FOX for quite a long time, but McCarver is starting to sound like he has had the infamous run in with Alzhimer's, Several times during the pre game show and during the game it sounded like McCarver would either forget what he was talking about or he tried to come up with some weird fact that nobody could give a crap less about. For example, when they were talking to Joe Giardi in the AL dugout and they were talking about the Rangers Cliff Lee and McCarver starts talking about whose house Cliff Lee was renting while he was in Seattle. McCarver heres an answer to that question; WHO IN THE F*$& CARES???

2. American Anthem. Why is it that every time we get a celebrity to sing the national anthem, they have to get this stupid idea in there head that its ok to f*$& up our national anthem by trying to trick up there voice. I listened to the anthem and when that stupid cast member from GLEE tried to go from one end of the voice spectrum to the other I threw my hat at the TV and said that this is it. I want to start a campaign that says unless you sing the national anthem exactly the way it was written, you need to be put in jail for a year until you can learn to sing it right.

3. Why is it when there is a long streak of losses by one team, the network feels the necessity to run the obligatory "here's what was cool in the last year that the losing team won" montage. I hate these cause anyone that is watching the game doesn't care to remember something from the past. Thats why it is in the past.

4. Pitching was absolutly fantastic. From David Price to Ubaldo Jimenez and pitchers into the 5th inning, both teams really could have been throwing no hitters with the heat and the movement that they were dealing. Verlander hit 100 MPH on the radar gun and several pitchers were hitting 99 MPH. I thought we were going to get another Randy Johnson- John Kruk moment.

5. Marlon Byrd should have been the MLB All Star Game MVP. As I said to my soon to be wife last night after the game was over, here was a very good case for Marlon Byrd to be MVP. In the 7th inning Byrd comes up with 2 outs and the NL threatening to score at least one run. Matt Thornton from the White Sox gets ahead in the count 0-2 when Byrd couldn't catch up to 2 fastballs. Then Marlon does what Marlon do, and he works the count and is patient. He makes Thornton work and gets the count to 3-2. Thornton then tries to come in on Byrd's hands and Marlon gets out of the way and draws the walk which brings up Brian McCann (then we know what happens). But if it weren't for the patience of Byrd, the NL would have been out of the inning without getting a run and going on to lose the game 1-0. Then the greatest play of the night. David Ortiz on first base and John Buck at the plate. Buck hits a shallow fly that Marlon Byrd couldn't get to. Marlon with clear mind sees that Ortiz was going back to first base comes up guns a blazing after getting the ball on the bounce and gets Ortiz, the lead runner for the second out of the inning. If Byrd doesn't make this play, it brings up the winning run to the plate and there is only one out to the inning. NO BRAINER FOR ME!!!

Tell me some of your observations of the game that I may not have covered here at my email address: Eric@BigBadSportsDaddy.com