CINCINNATI -- Three innings into the Mid-Summer Classic and it’s . . . OK I guess.
Sorry, still jacked from the Home Run Derby last night, realizing that a few tweaks turned an awful event into a great one. Now I’m thinking of what some tweaks would do to a merely boring event like the actual All-Star Game. Maybe get rid of the every-team-must-be-represented rule, pick 20-25 guys and play a real game?
Yeah, I know it’ll never happen -- pitcher usage would be a problem -- but we’re just starting the fourth inning and our fifth pitcher is in the game. They’re all so good. They all throw fire. Kind of makes things hoo-hum.
Not that we haven’t had some excitement so far. In the first inning Mike Trout hit a homer that just snuck over the right field wall on the fourth pitch of the game from Zack Greinke. Trout, by the way, was born six weeks before Guns N’ Roses’ “Use Your Illusion” albums came out. He’s so young and so good and he already has a lifetime All-Star Game cycle, having singled, doubled, tripled and homered in his appearances.
The NL came back in the bottom of the second, as Paul Goldschmidt hit a slow roller to third which Josh Donaldson air-mailed, allowing Goldschmidt to wind up on second. He reached third on a Buster Posey groundout and then came home when Jhonny Peralta singled.
Since then, not much happening. And on we go.
But really, Rob Manfred: let’s make this crazy like the Derby!