Just a few random observations from last night’s All-Star Game:
– Incredible diving catch by Ryan Braun, but I’m still trying to figure out how he didn’t break his wrist. Check out some of the photos of the catch:
I think I speak for quite a few Brewer fans when I say, “Where the hell has that been this year!?” I appreciate the effort and all, but if he had gotten hurt on that play, I would’ve been pretty irritated. Probably as irritated as I’m going to be the next time I try to tell someone that Braun is a horrible defensive left fielder and they respond by saying, “No way! He’s awesome! Did you SEE that catch in the All-Star Game!?”
– Braun is still hitless in three career All-Star appearances, but had a bit of bad luck last night — the GIDP came on a pitch that shattered his bat, while the 3-2 strikeout against Justin Verlander came on one of the nastiest pitches I saw all night.
– Corey Hart looked lost at the plate, but throughout the entire break he seemed like one of those guys just happy to be back.
– I absolutely love the fact that whenever there’s an All-Star Game in California, the hometown fans seem to boo players from every other California team, not just their rivals. We saw in San Francisco (understandable with the Giants/Dodgers rivalry), and we saw it last night when Angels fans spent what seemed like half the introductions booing, between all of the California teams and the Red Sox and Yankees, who the Angels seem to play every freaking year in the playoffs.
– On the subject of booing, some seemed to think booing the Yankees players was in poor taste considering the passing of George Steinbrenner earlier in the day. I disagree. I think George would’ve loved it. He took great pride in building a winner, and when you win as much as the Yankees have in the past 28 years, people are going to hate you. It’s jealousy. It’s motivation for the players — Derek Jeter has always said he feeds off the booing when the Yankees are on the road, and you could see Alex Rodriguez soak up the jeers like a WWE villain last night.
– Finally, it was great to see the NL finally able to hang on to win after four straight years of one-run losses. The game still doesn’t mean much, but as a sense of pride you could tell the NL desperately wanted to win — just check out Marlon Byrd‘s excited fist pump as he slid across the plate as the third of three runs driven in by Brian McCann. As a Cub, that’s probably the most exciting thing Byrd will be a part of all year.
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