The week is over...but it isn't.

I think that I have mentioned before that, once the weekly matchup hits Friday or Saturday, I tend to watch it much more closely than I do early in the week.  So...yesterday I was tracking my matchup with Tom extra close because of how even it was.  Imagine my surprise when Uncle Jimmy texted me at 3:50 PM (with most of the games over), "Of course the week I'm up 12-0 is this long matchup week."  I had not even considered a long matchup week.  Why would this week be any different than any other week?  How long was a long matchup week?  Was I on fire?  As I hurriedly checked Yahoo!, I was dismayed to find that Jimmy was correct...Week 15 lasts for 2 weeks from 7/7 to 7/20.  Fucking All-Star game.  So...for those of you who checked this morning and couldnt figure out why your team's record was the exact same as last week and the matchup still shows a lot of crooked numbers...thats why.  It looks like we can still swap guys out of the lineup, so there should be some interesting stat lines this week. 
The bigger issue, to me anyways, is what the hell am I supposed to blog about?  Usually Mondays and Thursdays are my favorite blog days (with Tuesdays and Fridays being a close second) because on Mondays the structure is there and on Thursdays I can wander in any direction my mind chooses.  For some reason my writing needs that dichotomy in order to have direction.  So, with my mind wandering on Monday, there is no telling what will happen on Thursday.  Maybe everything will be ok.  Maybe I'll end up writing Hamlet completely by accident.  Maybe I will devolve completely and end up licking my keyboard thinking that it is some kind of raspberry sherbert.  But first things first.
The Home Run Derby is tonight, fresh with a new bracket format, because everyone loves college basketball, so why wouldnt we want a bracket style home run derby?  Didnt you guys fill out the brackets?  I have Mercer beating Duke in round one.  Anyways, the derby used to be my favorite part of the All Star break.  I got to watch my favorite players hit balls further than anyone could imagine them doing during actual games.  I will readily admit that I am one of those dorks that likes to get to game early and watch BP.  Having played for so many years, I actually really enjoy seeing what teams run through during their BP and infield practices (there is a definite progression in the BP groups, though ML infield practice, at least the one during BP, looks like it is run by a 8 year old with severe ADHD).  One of my favorite parts of going to a game is watching how Major Leaguers spray the ball where ever they want to when guys are throwing in the mid 70s to low 80s.  It makes you appreciate how difficult it is to be a pitcher and how great pitchers "stuff" must be to make those same hitters look pedestrian during games. 

Lots of people swing gigantic lead pipes to warm up

Anyways, the Derby...I will never forget watching Frank Thomas hit a home run in Three Rivers Park in the 94 Derby.  The ball went an estimated 519 feet and landed in the upper deck, 9 sections over from the foul pole (I had to look that detail up...I was only 13 at the time, I couldnt count seating sections...still cant.)  I didnt think it would ever land.  Apparently, neither did the Pirates, who put a gold star on the seat he hit and later had him sign it (along with the BP coach who threw the pitch).  They thought so much of it that they auctioned the seat off before they blew Three Rivers into the Allegheny.  Likewise, I will never forget watching Sammy Sosa in the 02 Derby at newly opened Miller Park, when he hit 12 HRs in the first round that AVERAGED 474 feet.  He hit one off Bernie's slide, another off the centerfield scoreboard and yet another that went through a window and OUT OF A DOMED STADIUM.  So what if he was definitely on riods and was probably using a corked bat?  Who cares, all anyone wanted to see was him hit the baseball further than anyone thought a baseball could be hit.  And that he did.  According to MLB.com 7 of his 12 first rounders went over 500 feet, and 10 of the 12 went 480+.  My most memorable Derby moment, however, has to be Josh Hamilton's 2008 first round when he hit an unfathomable 28 bombs in the first round.  I say unfathomable because, well...2008 happened to be the year that my wife and I decided to play the first and only Home Run Derby Interactive Home Game.  The rules were simple.  Take a shot of beer for each HR what was hit by any batter.  This went great for a while, we were getting sufficiently drunk at a decent pace.  Then Josh Hamilton nearly killed us and definitely caused our livers to think that we had a not so secret vendetta against them.  28 homers (aka 28 shots of beer) in what could not have bee much more than 20 or 25 minutes...on top of however many were hit by the guys who went before Hamilton.  Somewhere in the middle of Hamilton's run, my wife quit the game and at the end of it I had to quit as well because Hamilton had hit us out of beer.

I have killed your liver!

For some reason though, the derby just doesnt hold the same appeal it used to.  I will probably tune in for a bit to watch.  I want to see TMGS do TMGS things to baseballs.  I want to see Puig and Yo!Anus work their Cubano voodoo.  Joey Bats is a bad man when it comes to baseballs.  And I would basically watch just about anything that Adam Jones and Troy 2LoGitski do.  Seriously, put a camera in one of their backyards at home and show them having a barbeque, I'm in.  If George Springer had been asked to participate, they would have hit the Loudawg Mancrush Trifecta.  Even then, I wouldnt have been glue to it like I have been in the past (well...maybe I would have been to the parts featuring Tulo, Jones and Springer).  For one, the new format seems silly.  Its like they got sick of American Leaguers winning all the time so they decided to have it so that a NL player would be in the final every year.  I dont want to see the leagues battle.  I want to see guys who can hit bombs, hit bombs.  I cant wait for the first time a player from one league with 7 HRs gets eliminated in the competition in favor of a guy who hit 4 just because that guy plays real life baseball in the other league.  The only thing worse would be if they made the Derby the place where home field advantage for the World Series was decided.  There would be nothing like a player on the Rockies deciding which team gets to play 4 games at home in the Series instead of 3.  Wait...that already happens in the actual All-Star game.  Shit.

Actually, the All-Star game has followed a similar run of relevance despite Allan Selig's attempts to make it matter.  What if we dont want it to matter?  I sure dont.  I enjoyed the clowning around that the All Star game was great for. The Larry Walker batting right handed after taking a Randy Johnson fastball a few inches from his head, the Alex Rodriguez moving from SS to 3rd base so that Derek Jeter Cal Ripken Jr could start one last All Star game at SS and set the record for most appearances there, the moment where Barry Bonds picks up Torri Hunter and throws him over his shoulder after Hunter robbed a sure Bonds HR.  These are the moments that made the All Star game great...not some artificial construction that dictates the potential outcome of any meaningful game, let alone games that will help decide the World Series Champion.

Since that tie in Milwaukee in 2002, I dont think that I could tell you the winner of any one of the All Star games, and that includes last year (and I would have a 50/50 chance).  But I can tell you all about the 1990 All Star game (and not just because it was played in Wrigley Field) that happened when I was 9.  The NL started someone named Jack Armstrong (the Cincy Red who I was sure was going to be the next greatest pitcher in the history of the world because he was 11-3 with a 2.28 ERA going into the break..and because I was 9) and the game was scoreless through 6 innings which might as well have been forever.  In the 7th inning, Julio Franco and his crazy batting stance hit a 2 run double and that stood up as the AL won 2-0.  Bob Welch, Dave Steib, Bret Saberhagen, Bobby Thigpen, Chuck Finley and Dennis Eckersley threw a 2 hit shutout at the best the NL had to offer.  That's something to remember...and not because it gave the AL home field advantage (though the A's probably could have used it).  Its the moments that make the All Star game great, not the All Star game that turns out great moments.   I will probably watch some tonight, and maybe some tomorrow night, but I likely wont remember much of it unless someone does something great, like Clayton Kershaw striking out 6 batters in 2 innings or Giancarlo Stanton hitting one that oblitherates the sign in centerfield where Minny and Paul shake hands.  Can we pray for this to happen?  Actually, can we pray that guys will hit the ball at all?  With the weather forecasted as cool including rain tonight (can the Derby be rained out? What happens to all those kids who run around in the OF if there is no Derby?  Are there packs of wild children released onto the streets of the Twin Cities?) and the way the Target field has surpressed HRs over the past couple of years (with the exception of Josh Willingham and Brian Dozier...where have you gone Joe Mauer?), I could see it turning into a pitching duel and making everyone sorry they put the game in MN to begin with.  Anyways...hit me up with your favorite derby or ASG moments in the comments section.