2009 MLB All Star Game and Home Run Derby
 

I figured we could have a thread for this

Go Inge!!!

Cruz is hitting some absolute bombs.

Great promo State Farm. Only took 12 minutes for Pujols to swing twice.

Just wanted to let people know who aren't watching on espn or not at home. If you have an Ipod Touch or Iphone with the mlb program, you can watch the home run derby live on it right now. pretty cool.

I missed the first few minutes- what was the Pujols State Farm thing?

SI

Damn, Prince Fielder is strong

SI

Some regular dude got to pick Left, Center, or Right. Then Pujols had two chances to hit a homer.

He didn't swing for like 5 minutes each time and the whole thing was kind of awkward. He also didn't do it, so it was very anti-climactic.

Some dude with a huge beer gut was selected to "call his shot" by choosing where Pujols would hit a HR before the derby started (he would have two chances). They had him walk out to home and do a dramatic point out to LF. Pujols then stepped up and took roughly 20 pitches before lining one into short left. Dude got another shot, did the dramatic walk again, and Pujols popped up the 11th pitch to center.

I know this is definitely a generational thing but watching TV on a phone seems like a step backward to the days of handheld televisions to me. (and not in a positive sense)

Wow. Inge shouldn't have been there.

Found this so compelling that I switched to Kevin James standup on Comedy Central.

When did the bat off thing start?

SI

Come on. A 3 man homer-off is boring? I know it means nothing, but it should be fun.

Yeah I sort of feel the same way. I couldn't even get into Pujols hitting so it's not like it's because he got knocked out. It is sort of like the NBA dunk competition to me. When I first started watching it I was in love with it. But now I sort of just have it on in the background and when I hear the crowd go crazy I may look up and rewind to see what I missed. But all of these pitches they are taking and delays between hitters have really made this pretty boring.

GO Nelson Cruz!

though Prince has hit some absolute bombs

UIC moment of the night for me

Berman: "There's something in the water down there in Texas. Hamilton last year. Juan Gonzalez before that- Uh, everything's bigger in Texas"

Yeah, let's stay away from the cliches that could be steroid related particularly while referring to Juan Gonzalez, k ;)

SI

This is still going? They need to go back to the old 3 outs in an inning black/white way. This new Derby takes 4 hours and becomes tiresome after 1.

Hellz yeah Prince! I think he also won the most curse words they needed to bleep out.

Well **** I had him at 8:1 to win the damned thing.

Yeah, I was mentioning that to someone in AIM- boy, home run derby sure is profane

SI

Do you guys like what they did with the outfield grass. I love it. Very much St. Louis.

Loved it.

No kidding! The old derby was much better. If they could somehow exhume and reanimate Mark Scott to have incredibly awkward conversations with one of the players while the other is batting, all the better.

I love how they always block two hours of time on the schedule for the derby and it always, without fail, runs 3+ hours. Just concede the point and make it a three-hour block already...

I've always been a fan of the introductions.

What the hell is that thing on Ryan Franklin's chin

SI

Introductions are always good stuff :)

Charlie Manual will be the 5th Phillies manager to manage the NL. The 4 other won their games.

Yup. I'm hoping the NL wins this year just so it could be said that Manuel was the manager who broke the 12-year winless streak.

Well, and I guess it would be nice to have home-field should the Phils make it back to the show. :D

WTF is all this sand and dust doing in my room right now?

I can't wait for this Obama first pitch. My ESPN streak is riding on it!

Did the other 4 also look like they weren't gonna be able to get up the dugout stairs?

The music is giving me chills and memories of last year's World Series.

Hahaha...Musial's cart driver looked like he had no interest in shaking Obama's hand.

Charlie wont need to worry about getting out of the dugout once they get Halladay. :)

Anyone else's FOX feed coming in a lot choppier than other channels? This isn't the first night it has happened either, and it's always their baseball coverage.

Mine, too :)

Up to 4 ;)

SI

Leave it to a Met to screw up the double play ;)

AL just scored first. Hooray, streak of 5!

EDIT: Crap, I accidentally picked AL to win, not AL to score first :(

SI

Part of me feels bad for you b/c that's a pretty big bummer. Most of me is happy for the chance to get 2 or 3 extra picks in to try to keep up with you in total wins on the month ;)

Yeah nice to see that his poor throws aren't confined to regular season play. Been awhile since I saw him in anything other than that so I kinda forgot.

I figured AL to score first and AL to score in 5th were easy since they got huge benefits in odds (i.e. batting first and having the "or no one scores" options).

SI

NL now up 3-2, hopefully it's a close game throughout.

Ok, I get Halladay starting. It's a little snub to Greinke but I get the career argument. But going to Buehrle now? :(

SI

I haven't seen every All Star game in detail, but after the starter, it's not usually 2nd best guy, 3rd best, 4th best, etc down the line. Don't worry.

I know it's not, but usually there's some semblance of order to it. Then again, Franklin's pitching now so it's all out the window in this game

SI

Well, we (Royals fans) had our fun for the night.

SI

Must be hard to walk with that huge ring on your finger. :D

Chase Utley...You are the man!

Pablo Sandoval should be here instead of that Victorino or Howard bum.

WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON WITH TACO BELL RIGHT NOW?!?!?!?

it's all about the roosevelts baby

Thought it was one of those SNL Shorts at first.

That commercial was so bad I assumed it was a parody.

it was a parody and i thought it was pretty awesome

Yeah, it was not good...

SI

Anyone feel like going for a chalupa now? :D

Nice Catch!

Has this seemed like more of a hackfest than All Star games in the past?

SI

Closeups of player's faces on the bench gets old after seeing one for the 10,000th time in the same game.

Ryan Howard; wow. Great decision Charlie; pure idiocy.

So .. suck it NL or something?

Damn! The AL wins again :(

Giants'll have to play Game 1 and 2 at Fenway this year.

Next year, to liven things up, the NL won't be invited. It'll be the AL starters vs the AL reserves in a REAL all-star game ;)

(yes, I'm kidding)

Not a half bad idea really. Or maybe we could have a wild-card entry, where the AL second unit plays the NL on Monday in order to get a berth in the game on Tuesday night.

Fixed that far ya:)

Sucks that Verlander didn't get to pitch, but at least Grandy came up big.

Talk about a snub Wakefield the winningest pitcher in the AL 11-3 and he does n't get a inning. I am sure the reason will be stated that it is becuase he is a knuckleball pitcher but still:rant:

Hey the Pirates had 2 players and neither played. Way to insult the 2 fans left of the team.

lol

Well, or that except for wins, he's not been a top 10 pitcher in the AL by any metric and just happens to pitch for a team that puts up a lot of runs for him

SI

Would be a nice little thing to at least get one of them into the 9th or something. Getting all the pitchers into the game is hard but most of the hitters should get in.

SI

Actually, I'm not shocked about the Pirates. Duke was the last player added as a replacement so I didn't think he'd be one of the 8 pitchers. Sanchez had missed a number of games last week so the Pirates may have said not to play him unless necessary.

Ah, if it's an injury thing then that makes sense

SI