Since we are all tapped out on the daily drama and trauma of politics, let's take a break from financial bailouts, housing crises, unemployment statistics, cash for clunkers, Gulf Oil spills and healthcare debaucles to celebrate the halfway point in the 2010 baseball season by watching tonight's Midsummer Classic, The 81st All-Star Game!
The All Star game is an exhibition contest where 32 baseball players of the American Leauge compete against 32 baseball players of the National League. The designated hitter rule from the American league is used which basically means no pitchers will be batting. The American League has a 7 game winning streak going since the 2002 tie game. Prior to that, the last time the National League won was in 1996. So, there is pride at stake tonight, along with home field advantage for the first two games of the 2010 World Series for the League that wins.
Since post WWII in 1947, the fans were able to vote to chose the 8 starting fielders on each team. That privilege was taken away from 1957-1969 after a local Cincinnati newpaper pre-printed ballots and the NL team was filled completely by Reds' players-that is, until the Commissioner of Baseball intervened and took 2 Reds players off the roster. Since 1970, once again, that tradition has been restored, and the starting players are chosen by a purely an American Idol style fan vote, which the big markets dominate for the most part, over-representing their teams with multiple players on the field. The sheer number of fans in those New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Philadelphia markets can however, be overcome ocassionally by worldwide popularity, as is the case this year. While the Yankees do have starters Jeter and Cano representing, the so-called smaller market teams, such as the AL's Texas Rangers and Tampa Bay Rays, each have 2 players on the starting roster, Hamilton & Guerrero and Crawford & Longoria, respectively. Only the NL Millwaukee Brewers are double represented in the starters by Braun & Hart. This popularity contest and potential over-representation is countered in the overall 32-man roster by the rule that there shall be at least one player representing each of the 30 MLB clubs on the rosters.
The managers are the managers from the two World Series contending teams of the prior year. In 2010, those are: Charlie Manuel of the National League Champion and World Series runner-up, Philadelphia Phillies, and Joe Girardi, of the American Leauge and World Series Champion Yankees. These two managers chose their pitching staffs, while the fellow players vote for the backup players. A second round of votes are cast by the fans for the 1 remaining slot on each team from the top five runner-up vote receivers behind the starters. Each team's roster rounds out with 32 players.
Joe Girardi has named 24-year old American lefty, David Price of the Tampa Bay Rays, as the starting hurler to take the mound for the American league tonight. Price has 17 regular season starts under his belt in 2010, including 2 complete 9-inning games and 1 shut-out. He chalked up 12 wins-4 losses in the first half of the season with a 2.42 ERA (115.1 IP, 95 H, 43 BB, and 100 SO). The Tampa favorite has the lowest ERA of starting pitchers for the American league. When Price was chosen as the number one draft pick in 2007, it was the first time that a pitcher was chosen at the top of the list. The draft choice was obviously a good one.
Rounding out the starting roster for the American League are:
# Name Club Pos. Stats
1 Ichiro Suzuki SEA RF .326, 3 HR, 24 RBI
2 Derek Jeter NYY SS .274, 8 HR, 43 RBI
3 Miguel Cabrera DET 1B .346, 22 HR, 77 RBI
4 Josh Hamilton TEX CF .346, 22 HR, 64 RBI
5 Vladimir Guerrero TEX DH .319, 20 HR, 75 RBI
6 Evan Longoria TB 3B .300, 13 HR, 61 RBI
7 Joe Mauer MIN C .293, 4 HR, 35 RBI
8 Robinson Cano NYY 2B .336, 16 HR, 58 RBI
9 Carl Crawford TB LF .321, 11 HR, 50 RBI
Charlie Manuel named 26-year old, Dominican right-hander, Ubaldo Jimenez of the Colorado Rockies, as the starting pitcher for the National League. Ubaldo also is a first time All-Star Game invitee. In 18 starting appearances in regular season play for the Colorado Rockies, he has 15 wins-1 loss with a 2.20 ERA (127.0 P, 87 H, 46 BB, 113 SO). He pitched three complete games, two shutouts, and even a no-hitter on Atlanta's Turner Field on April 17th, 2010. While Josh Johnson of the Florida Marlins had a lower ERA, Ubaldo had more wins. Manuel has nothing to complain about having both of them on his team. In the history of the All-Star game, Ubaldo is third Dominican pitcher to have this starting pitcher honor bestowed upon him, following: Boston's Pedro Martinez in 1999 and Cincinnati's Mario Soto in 1983. Undoubtedly, Ubaldo is deserving of the honor.
The rest of the starting players for the National League team are:
# Name Club Pos. Stats
1 Hanley Ramirez FLA SS .301, 13 HR, 53 RBI
2 Martín Prado ATL 2B .325, 10 HR, 39 RBI
3 Albert Pujols STL 1B .308, 21 HR, 64 RBI
4 Ryan Howard PHI DH .294, 17 HR, 65 RBI
5 David Wright NYM 3B .314, 14 HR, 65 RBI
6 Ryan Braun MIL LF .292, 13 HR, 54 RBI
7 Andre Ethier LA CF .324, 14 HR, 54 RBI
8 Corey Hart MIL RF .288, 21 HR, 65 RBI
9 Yadier Molina STL C .223, 3 HR, 33 RBI
Each year, there is a time honored fan, player, and sportscaster debate after the final rosters are announced as to whether the best players are present, or merely the most popular players. The true answer is, a bit of both. The Midsummer Classic is part American Idol (the fan vote for the starting 8 fielding position players), part favoritism (the two managers usually rely a bit heavily on their own team rosters for the backup roster), and part honor (the voting that happens by fellow players). No, those with the best stats aren't always the ones who are even the lone representative of each team. How can you compare a .379 on base average best in the National League centerfielder (Andrew McCutchen) with a relief pitcher who has the lowest ERA in the same league (Evan Meek)? Both are of the Pittsburgh Pirates and both deserved a spot on the All-Star roster in an ideal world, but alas, Meek was chosen for his bullpen fortitude. There is no formulaic way of comparing the different positions, so the debate amoung fans, players, coaches, and statisticians will continue as an annual tradition, unless the rules change someday and player selection is all based on first half of the year performance and not popularity, favoritism, or prior years' performance. Each player who is the best at his position in their league can obviously make a valuable contribution to their All-Star team.
And while every effort is made by the managers to give gametime to each player on the roster, it does not always work out. So players' participation may be limited to watching from the bench or bullpen. This was not the case in the 2008 All-Star game that was played in the old Yankee Stadium, where both teams virtually ran out of relief pitchers because so many pitches were thrown during the record long 4 hour 15 minute, 15 inning game.
So if you cannot make it to the stadium, sit back, grill a hotdog, grab a beverage, sing along to the National Anthem with Amber Riley of 'Glee,' and enjoy the game! It all takes place tonight at the Los Angeles Angels' stadium in Anaheim, California and will be aired at 8pm EDT/5pm PDT on FOX Sports in the U.S., Rogers Sportsnet/Sportsnet HD/Le Reseau des Sports in Canada, and MLB.com via the internet. Sirius XM has the radio broadcast for those who prefer to use their imagination instead of visualization.
Kimberly Wilcox is currently freelance writing about financial politics, as well as Healthcare policy, specifically, Chemical Injury and its medical & lifestyle consequences. She is a lifestyle coach to others with chemical injury, chronic fatigue, autism, Gulf War Syndrome & Fibromyalgia, as well as to professional athletes desiring peak performance without use of illegal PED's. She is an expert on Green Living and her new book will soon be published about the Green Life that she has been forced to live for the last decade.
