Know what? You'll hear some people in our business whining about this year's All-Star Game but I have to tell you the truth:
I thought it was a hoot. I mean, really - I have a whole new respect for Terry Francona for the way he handled all the various agendas at work, and if you'd heard the strength of Derek Jeter's statements about what Francona just pulled off, you'd understand it. It's interesting that NL manager Clint Hurdle was so open in saying that he would have gone to David Wright to pitch had the game gone one more inning. Scott Kazmir went to Francona and told him he was good to go until they didn't need him any more.
It was a good night for the Canadians. Russell Martin had a memorable game behind the plate. Don't blame him for those stolen bases, a couple of them were off the pitcher. Martin's block of the plate on in the 11th was textbook, and his short-hop catch of a desperation throw from Cristian Guzman would be a highlight video staple ... if it were not for the fact that the ball was foul. Justin Morneau scored the winning run and Ryan Dempster, who didn't get into his first All-Star Game, put on a show.
My favourite part of the night was the television shot of Mariano Rivera and Derek Jeter leaning against the dugout railing and studying the way Ryan Dempster twirled his glove during his windup. You could read Rivera's lips and what he said was true: Dempster does that because he was told a while back that he was tipping his pitches, that his grip was visible to hitters. I also liked seeing Dan Uggla patiently answering all the post-game questions about his brutal night, at one point tiring and saying: "Look, your reputation doesn't depend on one night."
[amp]nbsp;So that's it. Had to shelve the blog thing a bit because you need to be light on your toes in extra-inning games with deadlines and all. But it was fun. It was Yankee Stadium.
