Michael Young’s two run triple with 2 outs in the 9th put the American League on top 3-2 and Mariano Rivera secured the American League home field in the World Series with his third save of his All Star career. Despite the low scoring, this was a great game The small ball play from the National League, beautiful plays and clutch hitting from the American League made the 77th All Star Game a classic in itself. The American League is now 9-0-1 in the past 10 years.
Key stats:
M.V.P: Mike Young
Home Runs: American League Vlad Guerrero, National League David Wright.
Lee Smith the All-Time saves leader (478) had a blown save in the 1994 All Star game in Pittsburgh and in tonight’s game Trevor Hoffman second in All time saves at 460 goes in the record books for his blown save in the 2006 classic in Pittsburgh
The blame for this loss has to go on Phil Garner. All week he talked about how he was managing to win but in the 9th inning he wasn’t. Closer Trevor Hoffman is a contact pitcher and Garner didn’t have his best defense out there. Miguel Cabera a great hitter but a below average fielder playing third base missed a easy ball on Lopez’s single should have been replaced by Scott Rolen and another controversial move in the 9th was not getting Andrew Jones in the game at center field and moving Carlos Beltran to left field. Garner just didn’t seem serious about the game when shown on t.v. compared to Ozzie. For the second time in less than a year Garner was out coached by Ozzie.
A nice tribute to Roberto Clemente from the Pirates and MLB after the 4th inning. Although I was born 23 years after Clemente passed away, I still think of him as the face of the Pirates not just because of what he did on field being one of the greatest but because of what he sacrificed for his community and for the things he did for people in need. Clemente is one of the greatest 5 tool players ever to play the game but one player that is closest to Clemente in today’s game in Carlos Beltran. Beltran is a player who hits 35-45 home runs a year, steals 30 bases, plays great defense and gives 100% on a daily basis which is rare in the present game.
Give credit to the Pirates and the city of Pittsburgh for putting on a great show for All Star weekend. I attended Sunday’s celebrity softball game and Monday’s home run derby and the experience of the home run derby I will remember for a long time. Some local media personalities have bashed MLB for giving the Pirates the All-Star game for the 2nd time in 12 years just for the sake of helping out ticket sales for the laughing stock franchise. I don’t buy the argument. PNC Park is 6 years old now and Major League Baseball has to show off one of baseballs best parks in some way. With the Pirates being so bad to get any kind of national exposure; awarding the All-Star game was the only way to give PNC Park the exposure she deserves before she becomes to old for show.
Tonight PNC park finally had it’s time to show her self off on how beautiful she really is. For one night on Tuesday, July 11th 2006 PNC Park truly was glamorous and the whole country finally got to see what she was all about and she didn’t disappoint. The sad note is: She’s back to being a lost treasure starting Friday when our Bucco’s ( the worst team in the Major League’s ) take on the Washington Nationals. Good seats still available.
