The NFL Pro Bowl Game was the most-watched of all of the All-Star Games this year with 8.0 million viewers on ESPN while NBA All-Star Game on TNT in February averaged 7.6 million viewers while the NHL All-Star Game pulled 1.6 million viewers on NBCSN.
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Kicking off Major League Baseball’s All-Star festivities on Sunday was the MLB All-Star Futures game, putting some of the best young talent in the minor leagues on display.
Eric Hosmer and Salvador Perez helped the American League secure home-field advantage in the World Series by beating the National League 4-2 at the All-Star Game in San Diego.
As much as Tuesday felt like a celebration of the Royals’ magical ride from last season, everything went wrong for their World Series opponent, the Mets. “Everyone put this high expectation on us, and we lived up to it”.
First baseman Anthony Rizzo also had a hit for the Cubs, who sent seven players to the midsummer classic. Griffey was the MVP, going 3 for 3 and falling a triple short of the cycle. But, that was all the Hall of Famer needed. In the top of the fourth, the NL struck back on an RBI single by the Marlins’ MarcellOzuna to make the score 4-2. The Nationals’ Stephen Strasburg also is having reunion; he played for San Diego State.
I think about Pedro Martinez in Fenway Park in 1999, mowing through the NL lineup, and Tony Gwynn, before that game, driving Red Sox legend Ted Williams around the stadium in the cart.
That was the highlight for the NL Central-leading Cubs, whose fan base was pumped up by a fast start and dreams of the team’s first title since 1908. “You go as far as you can west and as far as you can east, there’s Cubs fans, and anywhere in-between”. The American League’s starting infield featured not a single player older than 26; the National League’s outfield had a 23- and 25-year-old.
“You don’t win the World Championship without having a good team”, Collins said.
“Hopefully this is something we can all rally upon for the second half and find a way to use that home-field advantage”, Hosmer said, according to the Associated Press’ Ronald Blum. The other Royal to win the award was Bo Jackson, in 1989, where Jackson famously hit his monstrous home run off of San Francisco Giants pitcher Rick Reuschel to lead off the game. The Home Run Derby Monday night was insane.
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Of course, San Diego has been cruel to the Cubs. I’ve been to two of them (Atlanta in 2000, Chicago in 2003), and both experiences were a lot of fun. Not just as a leader within the locker room but with the bat as well. The way so many players like Bryant and Jake Arrieta, or Sale and Jose Quintana, involve their dads and kids remind us how many households still revolve around the game, a pastime that isn’t just America’s, and all the relationships baseball enhances.
