OK, so it was a good, competitive game after all

July 12th, 2006 | Posted by PostmanR

Well, E went a bit loco on the whole All-Star Game ‘this time it counts’ thing yesterday – and deservedly so. I mean, yeah, the game ended in a tie a few years ago and good ol’ Bud decided the idea that whatever league won the game would get home-field advantage was a good one. A sort of make-up for the mistake, if you will.

And yeah, I can say it’s perhaps a little better than the formula before it, in which each league traded off home-field advantage every year. But, can’t we just say whatever team has the better record, whether it be NL or AL, gets the home-field advantage in the World Series? Doesn’t that make the most sense to everyone?

But no matter, a gala of stars baseball match was played last night, and I must say contrary to all the razzing we gave the event the past few days; it was rather enthralling and did not disappoint.

Props to the American League, who rallied from a one-run deficit with two outs in the ninth to take the game 3-2. The comeback was started by my boy Paul Konerko (who was 2-2 on the night) who grounded a base hit to left. Troy Glaus followed with a ground-rule double and Michael Young blasted a two-run triple right after him to put the AL up for good.

Mariano Rivera locked it down (although it wasn’t so easy) in the bottom of the ninth for the AL victory.

And just like the actual voting/managerial selections for the team, some guys got snubbed on the playing time. Nomar Garciaparra, for instance. The dude is leading the NL in hitting and he can’t get an at-bat. Sure, he was the final fan vote, but couldn’t Phil Garner have given him a shot in the ninth?

O well.

But hey, it looked like Ozzie Guillen broke down in tears during the Roberto Clemente tribute. Nice to see. Although, I’m sure Jay Mariotti will use this to write a column about Guillen’s sensitive side (that is, if he ever starts writing again), because you know, he’s all about flipping the script and completely changing his opinions.

Zing!

Side note: We could have gone with a photograph of Michael Young holding up the All-Star Game MVP trophey. But, we thought this picture of an excited - or perhaps constipated - Joey Cora would be a better fit.