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July 10 in Sports History: All-Star Game edition



Caption Text

In 1934: Carl Hubbell of the New York Giants and the National League struck out five future Hall of Famers in a row in the second ever All-Star Game in front of his home fans at the Polo Grounds. Hubbell fanned American Leaguers Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Foxx, Al Simmons and Joe Cronin consecutively. The AL rallied to win the game 9-7, however.

In 1940: The NL defeated the AL 4-0 in the first shutout in All-Star Game history at Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis . Max West of the Boston Bees (?) hit a three-run homer in the first inning while the Junior Circuit only managed three hits.

In 1945: The All-Star Game to be played at Fenway Park in Boston was cancelled due to travel restrictions during the end of World War II. The Midsummer Classic would return to Fenway the following year.

In 1951: The NL used four home runs to pummel the AL 8-3 at Briggs Stadium (a.k.a. Tiger Stadium) in Detroit. Ralph Kiner of the Pittsburgh Pirates hit a round-tripper for the third straight year.

In 1962: The NL won the first All-Star Game of two to be played that year 3-1 at D.C Stadium, the home of the Washington Senators. Roberto Clemente of the Pirates had three hits, but Maury Wills of the L.A. Dodgers won MVP honors.

In 1984: National League pitchers Fernando Valenzuela of the Dodgers and Dwight Gooden of the N.Y. Mets combined to break Hubbell’s consecutive strikeout record by fanning six straight at San Francisco’s Candlestick Park on the 50th anniversary of Hubbell’s feat. Gooden also was the youngest All-Star ever at the age of 19.

In 1990: In a rain-soaked All-Star Game at Wrigley field, the AL shutout the NL 2-0. Six AL pitchers combined on a two-hitter. Julio Franco (!) of the Texas Rangers drove in both runs and was named MVP.

In 2001: In his final All-Star Game, the soon-to-be-retiring Cal Ripken of the Baltimore Orioles homered to the delight of the Safeco Field crowd in Seattle, leading the AL to a 4-1 victory. The game also featured a classy gesture by Rangers shortstop Alex Rodriguez, who insisted Ripken switch positions with him at third base so Ripken could play short one final time. Although some questioned the pitch (cough-gopher ball) that Chan Ho Park served to Ripken, Ripken received what was believed to be the longest ovation in All-Star history. He and Tony Gwynn were also presented achievement awards by Commissioner Bud Selig during the game.

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Johnny Damon used to smoke pot… still a babe hound

The latest issue of Men’s Journal really explains a lot about Johnny Damon. Damon said that he used to smoke pot and that “it’s part of life, it’s natural, it’s from the earth”. Damon claims he no longer smokes pot because “you have to grow up some time.”

He said his dad was pretty tolerant of it and that his dad told him, “If you ever want to experiment with anything, let me know. He smoked a little bit, so he said just let him know.” So the lesson to be learned here is this: if you smoke pot with you son, he will grow up to be a professional baseball player. Or are we reading this all wrong?

Furthermore, Damon rubs it in all our faces when he tells Men’s Journal that girls still come up to him all the time and that he turned down a pair of female fans. Oh… Johnny Damon is too good for a threesome. Well F him. We’re going back to smoking some pot.

Links:
[NY Daily News]: From the grass at home
to Yankee Stadium

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MLB Power Rankings Roundup for July 7 2006

As we head into the All-Star break, everyone agrees that the Tigers and White Sox are the two best teams in baseball. Everyone, that is, except the folks at TSN.ca who have the Twins as the #1 ranked team with nary an explanation. Sure the Twins are 8-2 in their last 10 but they are also 10 games out of first place in the AL Central and 9 games out of the wildcard standings. What are they doing up there in TSN?

Here are your power rankings by major site this week.

Rank Sportscolumn ESPN FoxSports Sportsline USA Today TSN.ca
1 Tigers White Sox Tigers Tigers Tigers Twins
2 White Sox Tigers White Sox White Sox White Sox Red Sox
3 Red Sox Yankees Red Sox Red Sox Red Sox Tigers
4 Mets Red Sox Mets Twins Mets White Sox
5 Yankees Mets Yankees Yankees Yankees Blue Jays
6 Cardinals Twins Blue Jays Mets Blue Jays Mets
7 Blue Jays Blue Jays Twins A’s Twins Yankees
8 Twins Padres A’s Cardinals Cardinals Dodgers
9 A’s A’s Rangers Blue Jays A’s Giants
10 Padres Rockies Cardinals Reds Reds Cardinals
11-30 more more more more more more

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July 7 in Sports History: 17-year-old Boris Becker wins Wimbledon

In 1985: 17-year-old Boris Becker of Germany became the youngest player to ever win the men’s singles title at Wimbledon. He defeated Kevin Curran of the United States in four sets. Not only was Becker the youngest, he was the first German and the first unseeded player to win the tournament in its 108-year history.

In 2000: We here on Sportscolumn blog have always been suckers for those goofy minor league baseball promotions, and perhaps one of the best ever occurred on this date in 2000. It always seems the lower class of affiliation, the better the promotion. The Class A Butte Copper Kings, an Anaheim Angels farm club of the Pioneer League, did not let us down that year by hosting “John Rocker Awareness Night.” This meant that any of the people that Rocker insulted in his infamous Sports Illustrated interview would gain free admission to the game. The Copper Kings set a record for attendance that evening with 672 (hey, it’s only Class A); as people with purple hair, “alternative lifestyles,” single moms and foreigners attended for free.

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The Full Count: Who will Ozzie start?

1. All Star start to Rogers?: Kenny Rogers won his 11th game yesterday, tying him with Tom Glavine for most wins in either league. But the bigger news is that his success this season could lead him to the All Star game start. That’s right, Ozzie Guillen said he was leaning towards Rogers to start the game over Jose Contreras, the White Sox’s undefeated right-hander. Rogers this year is 11-3 for the division-leading Tigers, though his ERA is just 3.85. But Guillen inferred that the choice was based more on what dates the pitchers would start. Rogers’ start yesterday is his last before the All Star game, while Contreras and most others have another start. Guillen also said that his closer for the game should he need one would be Mariano Rivera instead of Bobby Jenks.

2. First to 50: The American League has already had three teams with 50 wins for a while now, but the National League got their first yesterday. The team? The New York Mets, whose 11.5 game division lead is by far the largest in baseball. The Mets won 5-0 yesterday over the hapless Pirates, with all the scoring coming in the first inning. Orlando “El Duque” Hernandez had his best start of the season, shutting out the Pirates in 7 innings. The Mets are so good because they are so balanced; they have scored the 2nd most runs in the NL and allowed the 3rd fewest.

3. Team of the Future: The Mets may be on top of the NL East now, but the Marlins showed yesterday why they will be the class of the division in about 2 years. They trounced the Nationals 18-9, with all of their young stars coming through on offense. Miguel Cabrera hit a home run and had four RBIs, Dan Uggla went 4-6 with 4 driven in, and Josh Willingham went 4-6 with a homer and 3 RBIs. The Nationals scored some runs of their own, but their pitching completely broke down. Reliever Saul Rivera had one of the best lines of the year, allowing 8 hits and 8 runs in just 0.1 innings pitched. His ERA jumped from 3.44 to 6.75 as a result. The Marlins are 12.5 games back with a 36-45 record, though interestingly they have scored and allowed an identical amount of runs (383).

4. Payback: After the Cleveland Indians demolished the Yankees 19-1 on Tuesday, the Yanks responded with an offensive showing of their own. They beat the Indians 11-3, including an 8-run 4th inning. That inning included a grand slam by Melky Cabrera, who has filled in decently for Hideki Matsui. The Yankees stole 6 bases off Indians catcher Victor Martinez, and 6 different players drove in a run. Meanwhile, Mike Mussina won his 10th game of the year, the 15th year in a row that he has won double digits. Mussina didn’t make the All Star team despite a 3.24 ERA and 1.04 WHIP, both of which rank in the top 5 in the league.

5. A complete mess: That is the only thing that can describe the situation with Barry Bonds’ trainer, Greg Anderson. Yesterday Anderson was held in contempt of court and sent to prison for an undisclosed amount of time. Anderson, who served three months in prison last year, refused to testify to a grand jury. He was supposed to testify as to whether Barry Bonds committed perjury in December 2003, but he refused to cooperate with the jury. We have a feeling this won’t be the last prison sentence Anderson gets.

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June 6 in Sports History: The First All-Star Game

In 1933: The first Major League All-Star Game took place in Chicago’s Comiskey Park (and the whole idea was proposed by a sportswriter nonetheless). The American League, featuring Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and Jimmie Foxx defeated the National League squad, 4-2. Ruth hit the very first homer in al-star history in the third inning, with a blast into the right field bleachers.


and in 1983: The 50th Anniversary of the midsummer classic was also held in Comiskey Park. Once again, the AL won, this time a 13-3 rout over the senior circuit. Fred Lynn of the California Angels hit the first grand slam in the game’s history, once again in the third inning.

In 2002: Daryle Ward of the Houston Astros hit PNC Park’s first and only home run into the Allegheny river on the fly (many have bounced in off of the walkway behind the bleachers). Ward’s 479-foot grand slam helped pace the Astros to a 10-2 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates. The event was significant to me for two reasons. First, I was at the game; and second, Ward would be my neighbor for a brief period while with the Pirates during the 2005 season, before later signing with the Washington Nationals in the offseason. I moved into the apartment next to Ward on July 6 of last year.

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Dusty Baker is on his way out



Wish almost granted

We’ll never forgive Dusty Baker was completely mismanaging Game 6 of the 2002 World Series and then hightailing it out of town after the season. So we knew it was a matter of time before the Cubs figured out that Dusty is a horrible manager that had the benefit of coaching a team with Barry Bonds at the prime of his career.

On July 4th, Cubs GM Jim Hendry announced that he would use the All-Star break to determine whether the club needed a complete overhaul. Hmmm… at 30-53 and a $95M payroll, the inevitable answer is: Yes. It looks like Baker and coaches Gene Clines, Larry Rothschild, Gary Matthews, and Juan Lopez will be gone as early as next week. Dusty Baker’s contract will expire in 133 days (thanks to the folks at FireDustyBaker.com for that countdown clock.) but that’s not soon enough to get rid of him.

Here are some reactions from the Cubs blogosphere:

“I still maintain that it is absolutely pointless to put some interim guy — and it’s been suggested that if Baker and the coaching staff were dumped, Chris Speier might be the only one retained and he’d be that “interim” guy — in to finish out this morass of a year, and then conduct a search in the offseason, as they did in 2002. Is that what you all want? Three months of another Bruce Kimm? What’s the point?” — Bleed Cubbie Blue

“I am anxiously awaiting the firing of the Dusty Bunch, but I also want to see my Cubbies start playing well again. I am conflicted internally, because if the team does really well, I worry that Dusty will keep his job. On the other hand, I feel like a traitor for hoping that the Cubs do so miserably that Hendry can’t possibly justify holding onto Baker for another minute. The reality is that I truly can’t stand the lame politics that are keeping the Dusty Bunch in power. It is all about Hendry/Tribsters saving face, and nothing to do with what is best for the team, and that is that saddest part of this entire mess of a season.” — Chicago Cubs Online

“But it is not all Baker’s fault. Hendry is not innocent as well. He had to know that Wood and Prior was shaky at best. If he knew that. A good arm was need to be added. Instead he relied on young pitching and it showed. The Cubs really slowed down after Maddux hot start finally and predictably cooled off. Marshall,Williams and Rusch was not enough. And if Hendry thought otherwise, well he was just fooling himself.So he is as much at fault as Baker. Except on difference, Hendry has stated publicly that he was wrong for doing what he did with this team. But I’ve yet to hear Baker condemn himself for the bad play of this team in the last two and half months.” — Firing from the Bullpen

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The Full Count: No birthday present for George

1. Happy Birthday, Boss: George Steinbrenner celebrated his 76th birthday last night. So did the Yankees’ opponent, the Indians. Cleveland’s offense came alive for a 19-1 bashing of New York, the second-most runs scored by any team in a game this season. Travis Hafner demonstrated why he should be on the All Star team by crushing 2 home runs and 4 RBIs. Catcher Victor Martinez, one of the league’s most underrated players, went 5-6 and drove in 3. Six Indians had 2 or more hits, and six also had 2 or more RBIs. Shawn Chacon took the bulk of the beating for the Yankees by allowing 7 runs in less than 2 innings. The Indians also featured some good pitching in the rout: Jake Westbrook went 7 innings and allowed no earned runs. Cleveland is no stranger to blowing out the Yankees; in August 2004 they crushed them 22-0.

2. Tying it up: The Blue Jays have been creeping up on the Yankees for almost two months now, and they finally tied them in the standings yesterday. Roy Halladay, the Blue Jays’ All Star pitcher, became the first AL starter to reach 11 wins on the year. Halladay worked 7.2 scoreless innings to capture what eventually became a 3-2 win over the Rangers. That’s because BJ Ryan almost blew the game in the 9th inning. Ryan, whose ERA has been well below 1 for most of the season, allowed 2 runs in the ninth but escaped with the save. Both the Blue Jays and the Yanks are now 4 games back of the Red Sox in the East, and that’s with Boston losing yesterday. Meanwhile, the Rangers fell to 42-42 but are still in 2nd place in the awful AL West division.

3. Make it 17: Jose Contreras, the AL’s likely starter in the All Star game, remained undefeated with one of his best outings in a while yesterday. Contreras, who posted a 6.21 ERA in June but escaped 3-0, worked 6.2 scoreless innings last night to improve to 9-0. Contreras needed little run support but he got plenty of it; the White Sox offense blew up the Orioles for 13 runs. Paul Konerko hit his 21st homer of the season as every Sox starter scored a run and got a hit. At 54-29, Chicago remains 1.5 back of the Tigers for the AL Central lead.

4. A three-way tie: The NL West has been the most competitive division in the majors ever since the season started. Teams move in and out of first very quickly in this division, in which currently all 5 teams are separated by just 3.5 games. Right now three teams are tied for the lead: the Rockies, the Padres, and the Dodgers (43-40 each). The Giants are just a half game back, while the struggling Diamondbacks are bringing up the rear. The division could be called the NL’s best or worst depending on how you look at it. While all teams are close, the 43-40 mark is the worst in the majors for any division leader. Which team should emerge from this mess? We’ll take the Dodgers, whose offense surprisingly leads the NL in runs scored.

5. LLLLLLima time!!!: In one of the most entertaining stories possible, the Mets recalled Jose Lima from AAA. Lima, who posted an 8.79 ERA in three starts earlier this year, will look to further the Mets’ recent struggles. Or maybe not, considering his 3.86 ERA in seven starts in the minors. Either way, we’ll get to say “Lima Time” one more time.

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July 5 in Sports History: Breaking the AL color barrier

In 1947: Larry Doby of the Cleveland Indians becomes the first black player to appear in the American League. Doby would join the Indians almost four months after Jackie Robinson of the Brooklyn Dodgers broke baseball’s color barrier. Doby was only a part-time player in his rookie season, but would go on to have a solid career with the Indians, White Sox and Tigers, hitting .283 lifetime with seven straight all-star game invites and two World Series appearances in 1948 and 1954.

In 1946: Two gentlemen named Jacques Helm and Louis Reard helped create what they called “four triangles of nothing.” Spring Break. Senior Week, Sports Illustrated and trips to my apartment complex pool would finally become interesting as the bikini was unveiled on a Paris runway; and it caught on in America shortly afterward. While the two-piece bathing suit had been around for centuries, it took Helm’s design and Reard’s marketing genius (as in,” lets get that thing on a model and show it off”) to help make the bikini what it is today.

In 1980: Sweden’s Bjorn Borg defeated American John McEnroe in the men’s final at Wimbledon in perhaps the most memorable and dramatic finals in tennis history (although we rank the one where Pete Sampras vomited and any of the combined 564 career professional appearances of Maria Sharapova and Anna Kournikova as personal favorites). The match not only see-sawed for five sets, it also featured a dramatic, 34-point tiebreaker in the fourth set won by McEnroe, 18-16. Borg, however, got the last laugh in the fifth, winning 8-6 and capturing a record fifth consecutive Wimbledon men’s singles title.

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The Full Count: All-Star teams announced



Top NL and AL vote getters

1. All Star teams announced: The highly anticipated All Star game selections came last night, and for the first time in a while there appears to be no (major) snubs. The Mets and White Sox lead all teams with six selections, and the Red Sox and Yankees combined for 5 players in the AL starting lineup. The Mets will start 4, and 6 of the 8 NL starters will come from the NL East division. Almost every player who deserved a spot got on the rosters, available here. Those who didn’t could still earn a spot through final fan voting of five nominees. The AL nominees are Justin Verlander, Francisco Liriano, Travis Hafner, Ramon Hernandez, and AJ Pierzynski. The NL candidates will be Bobby Abreu, Billy Wagner, Chris Young, Chris Capuano, and Nomar Garciaparra. Unfortunately only one of those players can make it from each league, and the ballots are available online. We’d take Liriano and Garciaparra.

2. A-Rod over Mets: Alex Rodriguez had his best game of the season on a huge stage, almost single-handedly upstaging the Mets on Sunday Night Baseball. A-Rod hit 2 homers and drove in 7, including a grand slam in the 3rd that put the Yankees up for good. The Yankees scored 8 runs in that inning, and they cruised by the Mets 16-7. It was another attempt by Rodriguez to prove his doubters wrong, as many were wondering if he deserved the All Star start (which he got). A-Rod finished the series win over the Mets 5-12, with 3 homers and 9 RBIs. He is now on pace for 39 and 133 over the season, which sound like A-Rod numbers to me. It’s about time that Yankees fans just shut up about how disappointing he is. Sure, he was awful in the playoffs last year, but without his monstrous contributions in the regular season New York wouldn’t have gone that far.

3. Lightning lefty: Is there any question who the AL rookie of the Year will be? At least for now, it has to go to Francisco Liriano. He has so fully dominated his opponents this season, he even has a chance to win the Cy Young. After shutting out the Mariners last night in 8 innings and striking out 12, Liriano is 9-1 on the year. He has racked up 7 consecutive quality starts, and on the year has a 1.99 ERA and .97 WHIP. Liriano just defines unhittable–opponents have only batted .203 against him this year. The Twins are almost guaranteed a win 2 of 5 days with Liriano and Johan Santana in the rotation. The team has now won 10 in a row, and should be a strong contender for the AL Wild Card.

4. A pitcher’s nightmare: That described yesterday’s White Sox-Cubs game, which turned out to be one of the most high-scoring and crazy games of the year. Going into the game many expected a pitcher’s duel between Mark Beurhle and Carlos Zambrano, but they both got shelled. Beurhle allowed 11 runs in 5 innings, while Zambrano gave up 7 in 6 but escaped with the victory. The Cubs won 15-11 in the end, in a game in which four players homered for each side.

5. Start me up: The starting pitchers for each side in the All Star game has yet to be announced, but Brandon Webb has sure made his case in the NL. Though the Diamondbacks ace struggled in June, he returned to his dominant form yesterday. Webb fired a four-hitter against the A’s, striking out seven in a complete game. He outdueled Barry Zito, who allowed 1 earned run through 8.2. Webb finally earned his 9th win on the year after going 8-0 through May. He has been the best pitcher in a league where there has been no truly dominant starter. On the AL side of things, Johan Santana deserves the start but it will likely go to undefeated Jose Contreras. Contreras is 8-0 but is inferior to Santana is every aspect but winning percentage.