The tendency of one league or the other to utterly own the All Star Game for incredibly long stretches of time is truly the weirdest thing in sports. I know more about baseball than anyone I know and I simply cannot explain it, and every explanation I’ve ever heard sounds stupid.
I mean, it’s so weird. When I was a kid the NL won every year; I think at one point they went 19-1 in a 20 year stretch. When they finally won it in 1983, people reacted with amazement as if a housecat had learned to talk. You could argue they had some more talent but they can’t have had THAT much more. I’d not confident an MLB team would beat an AAA team nineteen times in every 20.
I’d dismiss it as a fluke but then awhile back the AL took over and they win almost every year. I think they’re on a streak of like 24-5 or something. Why? The NL has lots of inner circle Hall of Fame level stars. I find it bizarre.
Gets worse: the NL won 3 in a row 2010-2012. Other than that the AL is 23-1-2. As you intimated, not even the 1962 Mets vs. the 1961 Yankees would have a record that bad over a 26 game stretch, ANY 26 game stretch.
I was talking about it with my wife (who is 10 times more knowledgeable about baseball than I am), how weird it was that the AL is so dominant in the All-Star Game when the NL seems to be filled with teams with better records. The AL is just mediocre this year, to the point where any team even close to 50% has a shot at the postseason. Yet, they again go into the All-Star Game and cruise to a win.
My guess is that the AL might be more front-loaded. Where many teams have really great stars on bad teams. At one point the Angels had Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani and still sucked. Maybe there is more of that going on across the AL than the NL. That was the only thing that made any sense to me. I have no idea if that’s true, because I don’t know the makeup of every team, but it seems plausible to me. After all, the All-Star Game is supposed to be the best players from every team, so it isn’t going to properly represent teams as a whole.
You’re a Mariners fan (as am I). The M’s are the type specimen for the phenomenon: generational players languishing their entire stint (often their entire careers) in otherwise unremarkable and mediocre underachiever teams.
And yeah, it seems like an AL disease. The M’s seem to be the most persostent and extreme case of the illness not yet killed by it.
The Brewers hold a five-game lead in the NL Central, and though they are second only to the Yankees in team ERA, their pitching staff has been plagued with injuries. They currently have six pitchers – including three starters – on the IL, and two of those starters, Brandon Woodruff and Quinn Priester, are on the 60-day IL, and are likely out for the season.
Today, Milwaukee traded outfield prospect Jadyn Fielder (son of former Brewers star Prince Fielder, and grandson of former slugger Cecil Fielder) to the Astros for starters Lance McCullers Jr. and Colton Gordon, though McCullers, himself, has an extensive history of injuries, and is currently working his way back from an IL stint.
The way he did it was epic. They introduced the “magenta ball” (in honor of sponsor T-Mobile I’m sure) and once you’ve taken 14 swings, every pitch is a magenta one. If you get a HR with a magenta ball, you continue to be pitched more balls. If you don’t get a HR on any swing, it’s over.
For the longest time, nobody was hitting the magenta balls, at all, until Kyle Schwarber hit one (and only one), in (if I remember correctly) his final at-bat, as he went first in the final round. Schwarber hit a very respectable 11 HRs on 16 total swings (including the magenta ball which gave him the extra try).
Walker was not hitting as well, and I believe he had hit 8 HRs after 14 swings and only had the magenta ball left. So it was next-to-impossible for him to win. But he hit the magenta ball for a HR. Then hit the next one, and the next one, going up to 9, 10, and 11 HRs to tie. Then the next swing at a magenta ball… A 12th HR and a win. It was so improbable and dramatic.
I really didn’t care who won the HR Derby, but that was one heck of a finish, and awesome for Cardinals fans.
One thing I haven’t seen announced yet is any special venues like Field of Dreams, Rickwood Field, London, etc. I wonder if MLB is reticent to lock anything fun down with a strike looming.
But as long as everyone gets the same “juiced” balls, who cares? Apparently, he’s bitter about being eliminated in the first round, and I’d counter by asking why he couldn’t hit better with juiced balls.
Duane Ward, a relief pitcher for the Blue Jays, who starred during their back-to-back championship seasons in 1992 and 1993, has passed away at age 62, the team announced today. The announcement indicated that Ward died of natural causes, but no further details were given.
Ward’s best season was likely 1993, when he finished 70 games and had 45 saves (plus another 8 finishes and four saves in the playoffs), was named an All-Star, and got votes for both the Cy Young and MVP awards. However, an arm injury before the '94 season effectively ended his career.
The Red Sox won their 13th in a row today, and are now two games above .500. They beat the Rays 6-1.
In the bottom of the third, Boston scored 3 runs. Without a hit.
Walk
Fly out
Hit by Pitch
Walk to load the bases, with one out
Passed ball, run scored, runners on second and third, still one out
Ground ball to third, bad throw to the plate, run scored, runners on second and third, still one out
Fielder’s choice to second, run scored, two out, runner on third
Fly out
Ward was in Toronto for a ceremony/reunion of members of the 1992-1993 champions, and a dedication of a statue of Joe Carter. He died so soon before the ceremony that a chair for him was still in the setup. It seems most people involved weren’t told until after, but it’s now apparent Mark Shapiro knew, as he didn’t look well.
I am sort of that way with the Mariners. They seem to have regressed back to the mean this year; just good enough that they look like they will make the playoffs, but just barely missing.
After winning the last 3 in a row (including an 8-0 shutout of the Reds last night, helped by a Cal Raleigh grand slam) they have just eked their way into first place in a terrible division by way of their 51-50 record. Is this the team they are, or the team that was shut out 7-0 in the game just before this little win streak? (And they were not good for the month before that either.)
