All-Star Game pitches some pageantry
Even if you’re just a casual baseball fan, you have to admit that Major League Baseball has the best all-star spectacle among the major sports.
Those that read my column on a regular basis know that I’m a big baseball fan, so admittedly there may be some bias on my part. However, if you saw the Home Run Derby or the All-Star Game itself you know exactly what I’m referring to.
Other sports may have certain aspects that are fun to watch, but usually the games are a joke and not worth watching. For example, the National Hockey League has its skills competition, and the National Basketball Association has the three-point competition and the dunk contest, all of which are fun events to watch only to be capped off by a farce of game. As great as the National Football League is, its Pro Bowl is a sham of the game of football.
If you saw the Home Run Derby, you witnessed a virtual unknown in Oakland Athletics out elder Yoenis Céspedes hit bomb after bomb into the New York night beating out Washington Nationals’ young superstar Bryce Harper for the crown.
The 27-year-old Céspedes is from Campechuela, Cuba. After displaying his talents in the 2009 World Baseball Classic, many wondered if this great talent would just waste away in communist Cuba. However, Céspedes along with 10 of his family members defected from Cuba in the summer of 2011. Now just two years later, he is making $8.5 million a year and winning the Home Run Derby in dramatic fashion with a 455-foot. blast over the center eld wall and over the 2014 Chevrolet Silverado, which he’d take home, at New York’s Citi Field.
Despite not winning the derby, Harper and his father, Ron, won the hearts of those watching, particularly any dads. Bryce chose his father to pitch to him during the competition. Any father who has ever played “catch” with or thrown batting practice to their sons knows how special a moment this was for the Harpers.
“I wouldn’t trade it for nothing,” Ron told the media afterward. “It’s a dream come true.”
You can criticize the selection process and who should’ve made it and who shouldn’t be participating, but you can’t deny that the pageantry around the MLB All-Star Game is incredible. I was with my children at the Louisiana Boardwalk when the all-stars were about to be introduced. I rushed them out of the store and into a restaurant so I could see and hear the introductions.
I love to see all the players in their different colored uniforms representing their respective teams. I like how MLB stays the traditional path with the home whites and visiting gray uniforms. Of course in today’s world, it’s about accessorizing and product marketing so you did have some outrageous cleats and gloves being worn. One in particular was Baltimore’s Adam Jones who sported some glow in the dark orange spikes. On the way home I was listening to the game on the radio, and the announcer commented that Jones’ cleats were “an assault on the senses!” The greatest moment of the game came in the bottom of the eighth inning, when New York Yankees closer Mariano Rivera came out of the bullpen and trotted to the pitcher’s mound to the sounds of Metallica’s “Enter Sandman.” None of the American League position players had taken the eld, so that Rivera could receive the tribute he rightly deserved. Players, coaches and managers from both teams stood in unison with the crowd, cheered and saluted the greatest closer in the history of the game. Even the staunchest of Yankee haters had to admit that this moment was truly special. For me, it was one of those moments where only baseball could do it right and truly capture that special moment in time that it was.
In the ninth inning, I had a bit of a nostalgic moment, which made me smile. Taking the mound for the National League in the top half of the inning was Pittsburgh Pirates closer Jason Grilli and in the bottom half was Texas Rangers closer Joe Nathan. I was fortunate enough to get to know both Grilli and Nathan when I worked for the Shreveport Captains back in the late 1990s. Both players came up in the San Francisco Giants organization and had stints here in Shreveport. Seeing them in the MLB All- Star Game reminded me how much I miss having af liated professional baseball here in Shreveport.
The All-Star Game also has the moniker of the “Midsummer Classic,” and on this night, it truly was classic.
Charlie Cavell may be reached at [email protected].
