Maggs loses HR derby, wins Tigers fans’ hearts
posted in 2007 season, All-Star Game |and other All-Star notes… and I swear I didn’t steal Ian’s headline! Great minds think alike!
If you read the blog comments or forums, the scare associated with the home run derby is that it messes up swings. Whether it really does or not — evidence both ways — nobody wanted to see Maggs come in with the best average in the majors and come out a hacking mess.
He obliged Tigers fans by showing off how well he can line drive the ball to the outfield. That’s a bit short for the home run derby, of course. He finished with two homers and 10 outs. He was eliminated first.
But the swing is fine.
I didn’t actually watch the home run derby. I didn’t watch after his two home runs. I didn’t watch before. I lucked into the timing of seeing him walk up to the plate, so I actually did catch his few minutes on screen. Of course, it was a split screen with Barry Bonds, so ESPN hardly acknowledged Maggs while they nattered on, bothering Bonds about one thing or another. I wonder if his passive-aggressive act draws it out of the media. In any case, the obsession is old and shouldn’t have been allowed to take away from Tigers fans enjoying our guy in the HR derby.
Leyland announces lineup
Jim Leyland started Dan Haren of Justin Verlander, a move I think makes good sense. Haren is having a heck of a season and had a pretty good one last year too. More run support, he’d easily match the best in the AL for record, which means nothing. So Leyland picked the right guy. He also put the Tigers batters at the bottom of the order. Apparently he doesn’t want to appear to be playing favorites. Well, “half jokingly” as the term used. I think maybe he thinks of himself as host of the AL and is letting other players get the first thrills. Really, who knows.
Maggs deserved to be higher. Still, I don’t think it’s a big deal or anything. It’s just the All-Star game, even if we like to pretend “it counts.”
From Who? to All-Star
Admit it. When the Tigers traded for Placido Polanco, you said “Who?” I think baseball fans were still saying that long after we learned just who is he and how good he is. The PA Sportsticker baseball writer follows the “Polly” storyline from Philly to Detroit to San Francisco.
It appears Polanco will play in the game after being injured Saturday. That’s a good sign. Not just for Polly or for our viewing habits, but especially for when the Tigers take on Seattle after the break.
Sphere It
[...] the old form. It looked to be less spread out and less closed. Of course it was hard to see on the split screen because it was important for ESPN to show us Barry Bonds head (make jokes about its size and [...]
I have to admit, I was relieved to see Maggs get eliminated from the home run early as well. I would rather have seen Thames entered in it (I know, he wasn’t an all star, but whatever) than Maggs.
I was very disappointed that they had Bonds on air while Maggs was hitting. What a self centered jerk, I could hardly listen to him talk. If Maggs wasn’t hitting I would have considered fast forwarding it.
I haven’t watched a derby in years, and there was no way I could have watched that last night without TiVO. I started watching the 2.5 hour show (started at
last night at 9:30. By 10:30 I was only about 5 minutes away from catching up to it. Bilfer mentioned the other day that it was excruciating to sit though live, I was surprised by that, but I now understand.
I have to disagree with your statement about the trade for Polanco when it happened. I was very happy about it, and I knew that Polanco was a very nice player who would help the club, although he has turned out to be even better than I expected. Of course, growing up here in the UP, the only games we got on tv at the time were Cubs (WGN) and Braves (TBS). I have always followed the Braves as a 2nd team (similar to you and the A’s), so I knew the NL East.
Without fantasy baseball, the NL would be a foreign country. Heck, with it, it still sorta is. I’ll watch the Cubs for my NL fix, generally. But I know a fan from Wisconsin who inherited the “Milwaukee Braves” from his grandmother, which I think is a pretty cool story.
Kurt, there are only so many headlines to choose from. We traffic in the same clever sandbox.
I remember when I first saw the Polanco deal on the ESPN crawl while on vacation. My first reaction was, “That’s all they got?” I knew Polanco was good, but as the SportsTicker article mentions, I thought he was a utility player. I just thought a closer of Urbina’s caliber would be in such high demand that the Tigers would fetch two high-end prospects.
Man, did I get that wrong.
I’m not positive, but I think my reaction to the PP trade was, “Aw man, they’re screwing Infante out of second base”. I had no problem with dumping Angry Ugie, though.
I liked his numbers when I looked at them and thought it was a good trade, but before the trade I didn’t know much about him at all
I had, but only because of fantasy baseball. There’s actually a kind of funny story behind that, but I think we all know that fantasy baseball stories are never really funny.