A perfect moment in time.
As I mentioned last week, I am a huge fan of Chipper Jones and I wanted to see him in the All-Star Game. I am glad he made it and got a standing ovation. Getting a hit was icing on the cake.
Jeff Passan of Yahoo! Sports wrote this beautiful column about Jones’ night and his impact to the baseball world.
There’s no crying in baseball? My eyes watered reading this and flashing back to all the great memories watching Jones play ball. I think you might do the same too.
Let’s get Jones one last spotlight for the national audience.
As you know, I am very critical of Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game. It’s the voting and the fact that the game affects the playoffs that really irritates me. But it’s not all that bad.
There are a lot of good things about the All-Star Game and I hope that the fans allow for one more great moment to happen with the Final Vote.
In the National League, it appears to be a two-man race between veteran Chipper Jones and rookie Bryce Harper. Both have great appeal to the national audience and either would be great selections. But the vote should go to Jones.
Jones has announced that this would be his final season in the big leagues and with a tremendous Hall of Fame career, it would appropriate for the fans to vote him in and give him a farewell. For this one selection, I don’t care if this game “counts”.
I’ve always loved how Jones has played throughout his career and he is one of the reasons why I fell in love with baseball. He deserves this.
To vote for Jones, visit MLB.com and you can vote multiple times. Deadline is Thursday at 1PM PT.
Bud Selig has made the All-Star Game worse since 2002.
Every year when the MLB All-Star Game rosters are announced, there will always be a good handful of players that the public believes were snubbed. But with the All-Star Game, these things happen when you leave the fate to the hands of the fans.
Fans are fans and many of them might not have a good grasp on reality of what constitutes as a player having a good season. This is what I don’t like about the ASG. It just takes away the opportunity for some players to make it to the game.
Maybe I’m old-school, but I don’t want to make the All-Star Game all about the fans. Especially since these games “mean something” to the playoffs, I would prefer the best of every league to be in it rather than some guy who is very popular.
Can there be a balance of intelligent player selection and allowing the fans to get involved? I think the NFL has it done right.
Photos of the All-Star game jerseys for this year’s midsummer classic have surfaced on the Internet and boy oh boy, I don’t know if dig it.
The side panels are fine but I don’t like the collar at all. It just looks so out of place. But at least the panels and collar will match the team’s pants, which is nice.
What’s really fascinating is that the jerseys will feature numerals with some very funky design. I don’t know how clear it will be when the players wear it but it screams of Nike to me.
I will give credit to the Royals for making sure that the jerseys reflect their colors well and the crown is a nice touch too. Maybe it won’t be so bad once I see them on the field. Or maybe it will be even worse. Who knows?
