What Is It About An All-Star Game?

User avatar
HoosierVic
Ex-GM
Posts: 3106
Joined: Tue Apr 02, 2019 9:16 pm
Has thanked: 472 times
Been thanked: 1020 times

What Is It About An All-Star Game?

Post by HoosierVic » Sat Apr 27, 2019 10:40 am

By Vince Morelli
Bancroft League Columnist
UMEBA Weekly

What is it about an All-Star Game?

Everyone knows it’s only an exhibition: the outcome doesn’t count, the statistics don’t count. It’s as meaningless as can be.

But is it?

The 25,000 fans who jammed the Istanbul Grounds for the second annual Unified Middle East Baseball Association All-Star Game on Tuesday evening didn’t seem to think so.
Image
Morelli
And neither did the participants in the tense extra-inning affair that ended in agonizing drama-filled 9th and 10th innings, with the Burt League All-Stars edging the Bancroft stars 6-5.

Jeffrey Verkade, the Cairo second baseman who tied the game with a two-run triple in the bottom of the 9th, tried to explain the experience in a post-game interview with the Baseball News Network.

“I will admit I was nervous out there,” said Verkade, who won Player of the Game honors. “To share a field with such incredible players is always a humbling experience. But after the first couple pitches, you just have to ignore the talent out there and focus on your game.”

It’s a chance, in other words, to measure yourself against the very best in the game.

If that, indeed, is the real import of the All-Star game – to watch, to play beside, to compete against the best the sport has to offer – then the Bancroft infield came up several meters short.

No, make that kilometers.

Consider with me the 9th inning of the game, which the Bancroft All-Stars entered leading 5-3.

Manager Mark Bruner, who earned the task of leading the Bancroft team by virtue of his Mumbai Metro Stars’ first-place standing at the break, brought in his own closer, Rafael Cruz, to lock down the win. Not an unreasonable move when you consider that Cruz has 23 saves and a 3.83 FIP so far this season.

Except Bruner didn’t count on Little League-level miscues by his infield subverting his pitcher’s best efforts.

Cruz coaxed a routine groundball from the first batter, Cairo right fielder Bob Hernández, that third baseman Carlos Soto of Beirut promptly booted. Man on first.

The next batter struck out swinging on four pitches. Should have been out two, but wasn’t. One out, man still on first.

Batter three in the inning, center fielder Jin-guo Long of Baghdad, tapped a ball back to Cruz, who threw to the shortstop covering second for the force on Hernández. Should have been the end of the inning, but wasn’t. Two outs, Long on first.

That brought up left fielder Rich Ayers, of Istanbul. Cruz took the count to 1-2 before inducing a high pop fly to shortstop Baltasar Frontiero of Jerusalem. Easy inning-ender, right? A play any high school – nah, primary school – infielder could make. Right?

Well, no. Baltasar camped under the ball and then, unbelievably, it clanked off the heel of his glove for the second error of the inning. Should have been the end of the inning … again … but wasn’t. Runners on first and second.

Enter Verkade. The man who was nervous about playing with the best strode to the plate where he battled Cruz relentlessly, taking a strike, then a ball, then fouling two pitches off, taking another ball, then fouling another into the stands.

And then … well, then Cruz hung a curveball that Verkade treated as an All-Star should: he crushed a screaming line drive triple to deep right center, scoring both runners and tying the game.

The rest was really a formality. Sure, Cruz got the third out of the inning … several batters later than necessary … and then Bruner let him return for the 10th in vain hopes that his Bancroft squad could rally and get him the win.

Instead, a physically and psychologically drained Cruz struggled and ultimately yielded a game-winning single to Bob Hernández, who’d started all the trouble in the 9th with that grounder to third.

Afterwards, Cruz sat in front of his locker, accepting reassurances from teammates and trying to make sense of what had happened.

“I guess I shouldn’t care,” Cruz said. “It’s just an All-Star Game. But that’s what’s kind of sticking in my craw here. It’s an All-Star game. These are the best of my peers, and I feel like I let them down. It was my moment in the spotlight, and I couldn’t get it done. That’s hard.”

And that, dear readers, is why All-Star games matter. They're a chance for the best to compete against the best.

Even if they don’t always play that way.
Last edited by HoosierVic on Mon May 06, 2019 2:07 pm, edited 2 times in total.

bschr682
Ex-GM
Posts: 8038
Joined: Wed Jun 16, 2010 11:24 am
Has thanked: 306 times
Been thanked: 383 times

Re: What Is It About An All-Star Game?

Post by bschr682 » Sat Apr 27, 2019 11:14 am

Oh Baltasar...
GM Vancouver Mounties

usnspecialist
Ex-GM
Posts: 6652
Joined: Wed Jul 05, 2017 9:39 am
Location: Manama, Bahrain
Has thanked: 207 times
Been thanked: 776 times

Re: What Is It About An All-Star Game?

Post by usnspecialist » Sat Apr 27, 2019 11:55 am

bschr682 wrote:
Sat Apr 27, 2019 11:14 am
Oh Baltasar...
i remember him!!
Randy Weigand

Havana Sugar Kings/San Fernando Bears: 32-50 (1608-1481)
Des Moines Kernels: 52-

League Champion- 34
JL Champion- 34
FL Champion- 36, 37
JL Southern- 34
FL Pacific- 37, 39
Wild Card- 33, 35, 36, 40, 43

Image

Post Reply Previous topicNext topic

Return to “GBC Features”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 3 guests