Wednesday, July 16, 2008

One Uggla Game

Wow! What a long, boring game. I was literally bored to tears for most of the 2008 All-Star game. The only thing that made the game itself somewhat entertaining was Dan Uggla. At one point, I thought to myself that there would be no possible way that he could top that mistake. Then he did. Many, many, many more times.

I feel bad for the guy, but that was absolutely horrendous. Three errors, three strikeouts and a double play. Dan seemed to have some kind of bad luck mojo cloud hanging over him the entire night.

It's not like any of the other players were much better. Both sides, but especially the American League, wasted opportunity after opportunity to take the lead and end this travesty. No one could do it. I don't know if it's a mark against the hitters or a nod to great pitching. Countless times the bases were loaded with less than two outs and not a run would cross the plate. Unbelievable!

On the Sox side, Crede went 0 for 1 at the plate and did very little work in the field and was replaced quickly. Quentin wasn't so lucky. He came on in the late innings and went 0 for 4 with 1 strikeout, but reached on a Dan Uggla error. Not exactly the greatest efforts in All-Star history, but it was nice to see them play. They both looked like they were having a blast.

It was good to see Luis Aparicio out on the field, but I was left to wonder where Carlton Fisk was. I like Gary Carter, but I think Fisk would have been a better choice to stand alongside Yogi Berra. Why not have all three stand there? Someone screwed up, it would appear.

Of course it wouldn't be a New York All-Star game without a little controversy. Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon was loudly booed whenever he went out on the field. I have a hunch that if the New York fans wouldn't have shouted overrated during Papelbon's outing, the American League may have held on to win the game in regulation. I think it's a sad day for New York, when a player's wife is threatened. That's what exactly happened to Jonathan's wife. I can understand the rivalry between the Red Sox and the Yankees, but the Red Sox players are there to help the Yankees players (and other American League players) in a team effort. Leave the booing for the regular season games. It's only an exhibition game, people.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

While I think that Uggla has not heard the end of the comments, I also do feel sorry for him. Now, none of those hits would have gotten by Nellie Fox who would often go down on one knee to be sure a bad bounce would not get by him. As for Aparicio, he made playing shortstop look easy.

Bill
www.goldenagebaseballcards.com

Steve Gierman said...

I think I heard the commentators mention a bad ankle that he was nursing. It was heartbreaking watching that after awhile.

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