by Steve
As a die hard National League fan I was a.) not surprised the AL won, b.) pissed c.) looking to blame anyone and everyone. The obvious answer is the idiot fans for voting in a couple bums but in reality the blame falls squarely on Charlie Manual's shoulders.
He couldn't find anyone else to pinch hit in the 9th inning for bums like Hawpe, Justin Upton who probably never even faced Rivera, and old man Tejada? Upton is good but young and has a grand total of zero at bats vs Mariano Rivera, Brad Hawpe has power numbers in Denver, but who wants him up in a clutch situation? Tejada is alright and has experience against Mo so i'll let that slide, but still.
Looking over the box score the only options really were Freddy Sanchez and Hunter Pence. Why not throw a vet like Sanchez in there to mix it up and attempt to get on base? Why did Ryan Howard and Prince Fielder only get one at bat? Bottom line the managing was average at best.
But does home field really matter? Obviously it is better to have home field then not have home field. But since 2003 when the All-star game began determining which league had home field, each league has won three world series titles. Each has won three tiles despite the fact that the American League has won each of the last six all-star games. Actually they haven't lost since 1996 but hey if it was sooo important shouldn't the home team be better than .500?
Either way it is hard to argue the MLB All-star game isn't the best all star game of the four "major" sports regardless. Hey, it's the only one I watched.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
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You must've missed Hawpe nearly going yard vs Papelbum. Actually Maddon managed the game horrendously not bringing the lefty on lefty vs Howard.
ReplyDeleteI think all-star games should be managed backwards. Don't you want your best players playing at the end of the game?
i agree, why pull the best players early when the game is usually not yet decided
ReplyDelete-steve
you can't really conclude anything from a 6 year sample set.
ReplyDeletei personally think it doesn't really matter if the game counts because regardless of whether it counts or not, the best team doesn't always get home field advantage... the two teams come from different leagues where they may not even play each other at any point in the season. the style of play is so different that one can't really say the record is the only indication of which team is superior.
not really sure where i'm going with this but i think the game counting helps since the ratings were higher for this than they were for the last 4 world series or something. so bud is doing something right.
-aj