Yes, yes, I know, I know - I said I'd be doing politics and life in general (excluding the daily weather, despite the name of the blog), yet all I've done is write about sports. Well, I'm SORRY for deciding to start right around the All-Star break of my favorite sport, and the continuing saga of one of the most beloved football players ever. Whatever. It'll work out in the end. Quick word on Jesse Jackson (yet again) though - does anybody hear echoes of the phrase "double standard" being thrown around? I do, but only in my own mind. Honestly, why doesn't the media call him out more on it? Not that what he said was right, but Imus has hell to pay and gets fired over calling the Rutgers women's basketball players "nappy-headed ho's", and Jackson doesn't ignite a similar controversy over what HE has now said twice??? I wonder sometimes...
Anyways, to my main topic - the Neverending All-Star Game. More specifically, the Yankees, Fox, and the New York fans. First the New York fans. Okay, we get it. You hate the Sox. You hate the Phillies. But the All-Star Game is neither the time nor the place to remind us and their players of it. Totally classless move to boo Chase Utley. Totally classless move to boo every Sox player. It's the one time a year where the Sox and Yanks are on the same team - buck up and swallow your hate for just 9 (in this case 15) innings. It doesn't do anybody good to hear all the boos. The All-Star Game is supposed to be a showcase of the best the game has to offer. Don't remind us of the worst.
And speaking of the best the game has to offer, I'll now set my sights on the Yankees and Fox. Honestly, that was the best you could come up with for your grand pre-game spectacle? A carbon copy of the '99 Fenway pre-game than can't and shouldn't be copied? Right down to the dramatic ride in from center field on a golf cart for a team icon. Only the moment with Ted Williams at Fenway was something extraordinary, and the Steinbrenner ripoff rang hollow. Furthermore, the collection of greats at Fenway was even better than the self-proclaimed "greatest collection of talent" present on the field in New York. Okay, the way they introduced them was cool, but still. There were several people missing, including Nolan Ryan, Sandy Koufax, Carlton Fisk, and Yaz, that were there at Fenway along with more current greats like Pete Rose and Junior Griffey. Look, I hate the Yankees as much as is possible having grown up with two Yankee fans for brothers. But I respect the old Stadium as the "baseball cathedral" it is. Fenway's better, but you have to give the House that Ruth Built its dues. And I was waiting for a pregame devoted to the memory of the place that never came. Not a slight riff on something transcendent done 9 years ago in their archrivals' own lyric little bandbox.
One more gripe. I can't remember which one - both could be equally guilty - out of the award-winning* duo (*the Most Obvious-Sounding and Yankee-Loving) of Joe Buck and Tim McCarver, but one of them said of Hanley Ramirez "he's one of the best and brightest young stars in the game today." At which point I turned to my dad and said "I think it could be argued that ALL of them could be considered one of the best and brightest young stars in the game today." Boy do I miss having Sean McDonough in the booth for the Sox games.
One thing I'll remember though, and this is a good thing. I thought it was a classy move by Tito to let Jeter and A-Rod have their ovations, and also let Mo come in when he did. The camera angle Fox used when he ran in from the bullpen, looking towards the mound from left-center, was really something. The sight of Mo running in just about silhouetted against the backdrop of the majestic Stadium, set to the crunching strains of "Enter Sandman", was enough to make me, a die-hard Sox fan, appreciate the moment for what it was.
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