O/T - All Star game

[bbcard1]

Best, coolest sporting event I ever went to was an all star game (1989). I could care less about the world series thing one way or the other.

[vintagetoppsguy]

First off, congrats to the NL. Now, here’s my rant. Douche bags like Brian Wilson and Prince Fielder are what’s wrong with baseball today. If Wilson wants to look like an Al Qaeda terrorist, he should be treated like one. If Fielder wants to cover his body in tattoos, put him in prison like the thug he is.

Please don’t give me this crap about them just expressing themselves or marching to the beat of their own drum. That’s BS! They have absolutely no respect for the game or the history of the game. You would have never seen Mantle, Mays, Aaron, Musial, etc with a mohawk and/or scraggly beard and tattoos all over their body.

And what’s up with Wilson flashing gang signs after his save? I’ve got a hand sign for Wilson and I only have to use one finger. If you’re a Giants of Brewers fan, you should be ashamed of these two idiots. They should be removed them from the gene pool.

[quinnsryche]

WOW! (see previous post)

[ls7plus]

Originally Posted by vintagetoppsguy

First off, congrats to the NL. Now, here’s my rant. Douche bags like Brian Wilson and Prince Fielder are what’s wrong with baseball today. If Wilson wants to look like an Al Qaeda terrorist, he should be treated like one. If Fielder wants to cover his body in tattoos, put him in prison like the thug he is.

Please don’t give me this crap about them just expressing themselves or marching to the beat of their own drum. That’s BS! They have absolutely no respect for the game or the history of the game. You would have never seen Mantle, Mays, Aaron, Musial, etc with a mohawk and/or scraggly beard and tattoos all over their body.

And what’s up with Wilson flashing gang signs after his save? I’ve got a hand sign for Wilson and I only have to use one finger. If you’re a Giants of Brewers fan, you should be ashamed of these two idiots. They should be removed them from the gene pool.

Loved your post, David--you sound like me when I'm at my most cantankerous best! Times have just changed quite a bit from when we grew up, I guess. The game started to become much more about "me, me, me" to the players with the advent of free agency, and the fans, without whom there is no commercial enterprise or professional sports at all, were in large part left behind, with little to nothing to say as to how players were to conduct themselves on the field. Personally I don't mind their demonstrations of individuality as much as I used to. I'd love to have Jose Reyes or Andrew McCutcheon for our Detroit Tigers, simply because these guys can really play. My wife almost fainted when I told her I really liked their dread locks!

I do agree with Brian that if I'm pitching and some hip, homerun hitting dude styled his way around the bases after hitting one off me, he'd better enjoy it just that one time, and be real loose the next time he came to bat. He'd also better expect to hit the dirt, because he would definitely be going down! The hitter has every right to conduct his own celebration, and the pitcher the right and means to insist on being treated in a respectful manner. Oftentimes who wins these confrontations comes down to matchups. I never saw Bob Gibson, tough as he was, throw at Willie Horton, though the latter would dig quite a foothold in the batters box during the '68 World Series. Horton had fought in the golden glooves when he was just 15, and earlier in his career Earl Wilson(all 6'3'' and 220+ lbs of him), then with the Red Sox threw at him in an attempt to move him off the plate. Horton walked halfway out to the mound and told Wilson, "Man, you can be moved just like a mountain," meaning broken up into little pieces and carried off. Horton had no further trouble with Wilson after that.

All the best,

Larry

[vintagetoppsguy]

Thanks, Larry. I think you’re one of the few that actually understood my post. Some wanted to make it an issue about tattoos or something else. It wasn’t meant to be about tattoos or anything else - it was only meant to be about respect (or lack of) for the game. Tattoos have been around for centuries, yet you never saw Musial with them all over his arms and/or neck. Piercings have been around for centuries, yet you never saw Mays with a ring trough his nose, lip, eyebrow, etc. Mohawks have been around for centuries, yet Aaron never sported one. Scraggly beards have been around for centuries, yet Brooks Robinson never looked like ZZ Top. Why? Because they had too much respect for themselves and the game. There is very little respect for the game nowadays and it shows in the player’s appearances.

Another thing that bothers me is these players (like Jeter) that are selected, but choose not to play. I may be wrong, but I don’t think Mays ever refused to play in an All-Star game – nor Ted Williams, Musial, Spahn, etc. Then again, those guys new something about serving, because they had all served their country – not like the douche bags of today that have lost all respect for the game.

[ErikV]

Larry,

While there may be some truth to free agency bringing about change
to baseball, I disagree that free agency was the evolution of the "me,
me, me" ballplayer.

I recently watched Ken Burns 10th Inning. In it, Burns brought up a
excellent point, one that I support. It was right after the 1994 strike
that Cal Ripken broke Lou Gehrig's consecutive games played streak.
The attention and praise Ripken got was unprescented. With the
creation of ESPN and the internet, Ripken's personal achievement
was the story. Fans embraced it. If you look back, that one event
was the turning point to baseball becoming what it is today. Look
at the way Mark McGwire, Barry Bonds and any pitcher who throws
a perfect game get glorified in the eyes of fans and the media. It's
a far cry from what Roger Maris got in 1961.

Today's players seem to thrive for the media attention and spotlight.
The more extravagent the look (tattoos, hairdo, beard, etc) it makes
them [B]stand out[B]. I don't like it. Not one bit. Someone mentioned
on an earlier post that baseball is no longer the great game it once
was, it's now liken to professional wrestling, just another form of
entertainment, using baseball as it's medium.

ErikV

[FourStrikes]

...Fear the beard???

[dwr11]

Originally Posted by bbcard1

Best, coolest sporting event I ever went to was an all star game (1989). I could care less about the world series thing one way or the other.

I was at the same game. When Bo hit the bomb off of Reuschel to lead off the game the place went crazy!

[Touch'EmAll]

bbcard1 and dwr11, Yes, the 1989 All Star game was epic:

Bo Jackson, Bo Jackson, Bo Jackson. Lead off HR in first brought all fans off their seats.......then......."THE" throw - from the warning track all the way to the plate, on the fly, for a perfect strike to nab the runner at home, awesome, best throw I have ever seen!

Also, yes, the Brian Wilson thing is already old - get real dude, loose the idiot look.

The Angels young reliever did get clocked at 100 mph, gave up a hit though. And NL starter Halladay was quite impressive.

[tbob]

No way the NL steals 3 bases in one inning on Joe Mauer! The AL lost this game before it was even played. No Verlander, Sabbathia, King Felix, Beckett, Jeter, Rodriguez, Morneau, etc.
Congrats to the NL and enjoy the victory, things will be different next year

[barrysloate]

It used to be (I know, things aren't what they used to be) that a player took it as a responsibility to play in the All-Star Game. You might have a few aches and pains but if you were picked to play, you willed yourself to do it. Now the players concoct excuses why they won't be attending, and subs have to be found to take their place. And that player is typically a marginal AS at best. So maybe the game has lost much of its luster.

[Anthony S.]

Wilson isn't flashing a gang sign, he's making a cross with his arms and looking up toward heaven, ie at his dad, who died when Wilson was in high school. His dad was in the Air Force, which is why Wilson funded a couple of Air Force Academy scholarships starting this year. http://www.nbcbayarea.com/blogs/the-...122865134.html

For what it's worth, he also gave out a 1000 gloves this past weekend to needy kids (his idea) and conducted a Q and A period with the kids afterwards. Sorry you don't approve of his facial hair.

[asoriano]

Originally Posted by Anthony S.

Wilson isn't flashing a gang sign, he's making a cross with his arms and looking up toward heaven, ie at his dad, who died when Wilson was in high school. His dad was in the Air Force, which is why Wilson funded a couple of Air Force Academy scholarships starting this year. http://www.nbcbayarea.com/blogs/the-...122865134.html

For what it's worth, he also gave out a 1000 gloves this past weekend to needy kids (his idea) and conducted a Q and A period with the kids afterwards. Sorry you don't approve of his facial hair.

+1

My thoughts exactly.

[vintagetoppsguy]

Originally Posted by Anthony S.

Wilson isn't flashing a gang sign, he's making a cross with his arms and looking up toward heaven, ie at his dad, who died when Wilson was in high school. His dad was in the Air Force, which is why Wilson funded a couple of Air Force Academy scholarships starting this year. http://www.nbcbayarea.com/blogs/the-...122865134.html

For what it's worth, he also gave out a 1000 gloves this past weekend to needy kids (his idea) and conducted a Q and A period with the kids afterwards. Sorry you don't approve of his facial hair.

I didn't know that about his dad, but another board member sent me a PM and told me it was also a tribute to his dad. It looked more like an "X" to me, but I suppose it could have been a cross. I'm sorry that he lost his dad so early in life. However, here is the bottom line. Closing games is Wilson’s JOB. That’s what he gets paid to do. Every time I do something good at my job, I don’t make hand signs and/or pay tribute to anybody. I may get a pat on the back, but I’m only doing my job. And another thing, if I showed up to my job looking like Brian Wilson, I really think I would be (and should be) fired. His appearance is not professional – not at most companies and certainly not for Major League Baseball.

As far as Fielder goes, do you really think he could get a decent job in the real world with all those tattoos? Not hardly.

[ErikV]

I posted this in the watercooler section of the board
yesterday and got a couple of responses. I guess I'll
chime in here as well.

Every year around this time I get a bit conflicted about the
All-Star break. With a 4-day Fanfest and the Home Run Derby,
the All-Star Game itself is now just a backdrop to baseball
seasons' half-way point. The baseball establishment says the
game is an exhibition for the fans, but as a purist, I'm almost
sickened by the entire spectacle.

My 11 year old son is captivated by All-Star week and as a
way to bond with him, I watched the start of the Home Run
Derby yesterday. The ESPN pre-contest show focused on the
homerun in baseball. In interviewing former players like Johnny
Bench and Joe Torre these former stars commented how back in
their playing days one wouldn't dare admire watching a homerun
or strut around the bases after hitting a homerun. In essence,
former players would be showing up the pitcher by doing this.

All of this has changed. Now, with a sense of entitlement,
homeruns are hit and you have to watch players egos blow up
until they're done celebrating. I think that's why Barry Bonds
was so hated. Ozzie Guillen summed up today's view pretty
well during the pre-contest by saying each player who hits a
homerun should be able to watch "their" homerun without
consequence.

Long forgotten are the days when players would take great
pride playing in an All-Star Game. Now, players such as Derek
Jeter refused to play in the All-Star Game so he could give
himself extra time to recover from his recent stint in the disabled
list!

Due to the All-Star Game getting out of just being a just a big
game of graba$$, the Commissioner had to act a few years back
and put some incentive back into the game, so the All-Star Games
"really counts."

I don't really care anymore who wins the All-Star Game, nor who
plays in it. I think the whole thing is redicilious and the joke is
on the fans. Thanks for letting me vent.

ErikV