Tony LaRussa has always been an idiot and will always continue to be an idiot. Bases loaded. Bottom of the 9th. Two outs. The Nationals are down 5-4. Aaron Rowand is due up. The only player left on LaRussa's bench is Albert Pujols. LaRussa lets Rowand bat.
WHAT!?
The Nationals need just a long single. A double would have worked perfectly. Heck, a homerun would have made this the best All-Star game ever. Which player has better odds of pulling through? Aaron Rowand or Albert Pujols? The answer is clearly Pujols.
So we must ask why LaRussa left Rowand in. The only thing I can figure is that LaRussa wasn't watching the game because he was too busy writing love poems to Albert. I was a bit sickened by all the man-love LaRussa was giving Albert during the Home Run derby. And LaRussa wouldn't stop oogling about Pujols in the dugout interview during the game. LaRussa blew this one big time. Soriano did his job. He hit a two-run homer in the 9th to make it 5-4. Derrek Lee did his part with a hit, walk, and a stolen base. The only thing LaRussa could do was let AL-wannabe Aaron Rowand lose the game for the Nationals. jerk.
The Willie Mays tribute was alright. He's the most firey 200 year-old man I have ever seen. He was telling Jose Reyes to keep backing up when he was about to throw out the first pitch. I thought it was funny how he took off his All-Star jacket and his Giants uniform before he went cruising in the Cadillac. Willie Mays does what Willie Mays wants to do. I bet MLB officials were freaking out that he took his jacket and uni off. Ha! s**** you, MLB! Willie Mays does what Willie Mays wants.
I thought it was terrible how Fox cut the whole ceremony short. They showed Wille being driven around for about 2 minutes and then went to commerical. Tasteless.
Though there wasn't anything extraordarily special about this ceremony. It was a complete copycat of the Ted Williams tribute at the All Star Game in Fenway Park. Now that was a special moment in baseball history. It was great how all the players wanted to shake his hand. San Francisco tried running a carbon copy of that moment. Sorry, San Fran, you can't carbon copy special moments. Try to be more original next time.
Couldn't agree more that LaRussa is an arrogant and self-absorbed Jack@ss of a human being. He makes me sick. And someone really should tell him that he is in dire need of a haircut and a new hair style.
Posted by: Mark R on Jul 11, 07 | 8:37 am
Did you notice in the top of the 1st how some fan behind home plate was making some incredibly annoying motion with his arms? He did it for the first three batters, and he wouldn't stop! I thought he was gonna do it the entire game. And then FOX caught on, and they moved the camera slightly down a bit to make the scoreboard thing at the top of the screen cover him up. I wonder if someone at FOX told MLB or the security to tell that guy to cut it out.
we were just talking about this at work and someone said that LaRussa never does what people wants him to. That's his whole schtick. If common sense says to do something, he doesn't do it. Yeah, well, LaRussa, look at what YOUR way got us. Another loss for the National League. Go suck an egg, LaRussa.
As long as I'm ranting, how about Bud Selig not showing up for Barry Bonds breaking the all-time homerun record? C'mon Selig, YOUR own office never ever officially condemned Bonds. You never caught him. So you can't just not show up for the homerun record. You sat on your stupid little hands while players juiced it up, and you did NOTHING. So you can't just sit it out now. Suck it up, and be a man, and show up for Bonds breaking the record.
i just figured out what was missing from the Willie Mays tribute. It's nice to have him throw out the first pitch, but then the riding around in the car thing seemed a bit odd. Usually when there are these tributes, they have something they actually dedicate. A statue, an offical day declaration, a section of the ballpark, a flag that will always hang at the stadium. Something. But they didn't do any sort of dedications in his honor.
The 2007 All-Star game will have many good memories. Like that guy who couldn't hit the ball off the tee before the game started. that was just bizarre. At least take some practice swings, dude. It's funny, cuz they did all that work setting up those outfield barriers, and they had an offiical umpire out there and everything. And the guy couldn't hit it past the pitchers mound. It was right before the game started; way to get the game off to a bang.
oh yeah, and then how about the God Bless America song in the 7th inning stretch. The PA announcer introduced the lady, and then they weren't ready. So it was silence for a good 30 seconds and the fans actually started to boo!
I forgot about the tee ball man. That was pathetic. The guy swung like a little girl.
Don't get me started on the singing of God Bless America in the middle of the game. It was a great tribute after 9/11. But it's run its course. The only time a game should be interupted is when there is something monumental. Monunmental events don't happen annually. It's contradictary. Once a decade is the only time a baseball game should be stopped for an event.
As reported by Yahoo Sports about Albert Pujols: "Afterward, Pujols seemed mildly annoyed, saying he might not have come – he was a manager's pick – had he known he wouldn't play."
Just another observation about the All Star festivities... Where do they find those kids who are in the outfield during the Home Run Derby? How is it possible to find that many kids who are incapable of catching a ball? It's totally ridiculous and embarrassing.
I'll bet if they brought some kids up from the Dominican or something, they'd be able to catch those balls with their bare hands.
Posted by: Mark R on Jul 11, 07 | 2:39 pm
My impressions:
How much longer do you think FOX could have dragged the pre-game stuff on? Why did I bother to get everything done last night by 8:00 (ET)? I think the game began sometime around 8:50...granted, Tee-ball Guy was pretty funny, and it was great to honor Mays, although I agree with Moose that it felt kind of contrived. Of course, I'm never happy with FOX's baseball coverage. They stink at baseball almost as much as tee-ball guy.
I'm a big Ichiro fan, too. My family are big George Sisler fans...it's nice that his record was broken by someone as good as Ichiro. Anyway. He has his detractors, though; people say he should hit with more power (apparently, he routinely launches the ball during BP) and needs to be more of a team player. If he wasn't already in his 30s, I think he'd be the one to break Pete Rose's hits record.
Which brings me to the 9th inning. It was great to see the Cubs players doing well. I don't remember the last time I rooted so much for a guy to hit a homerun as I did for Lee last night -- I felt like a little kid. Yeah. LaRussa stinks. He's almost as bad at baseball as FOX AND Tee-ball Guy.
Posted by: Walt on Jul 11, 07 | 4:09 pm
Hey Walt, for some reason every time you leave a comment on my blog, my blog admin has been requiring me to approve your comments before they get published. I think I found a way so that your comments will immediately get published without approval from me. The next time you leave a comment we'll see if it works. By the way, thanks for being a regular reader and commentator on my blog.
