THERE'S NO TIES IN BASEBALL!: As I've said before, I've for months been looking forward to watching commissioner Bud Selig being booed in his hometown of Milwaukee at the All-Star Game. While Selig was conspicuously absent from the pregame festivities, we all got our wish when Selig made the nonsensical decision to call the game after the 11th inning, leading to something that's supposed to never, ever, happen in baseball- a tie. With all the horrible stuff Selig has done to the game in the past decade, this may be the most inexplicable- what's wrong with the pitchers pitching four or five innings? The two pitchers in the game at the time (Freddy Garcia and Vincente Padilla) are both starting pitchers, who normally pitch six innings or more. And worst of all, after such a big deal was made about the All-Star MVP Award being renamed for Ted Williams, the first annual Ted Williams Award was given to... no one. The history books will now record 2002 as the year there was no All-Star Game winner and no All-Star MVP- let's hope it's not also the year there was no World Series.
But until the shameful ending, it was a standout game- the "30 Greatest Moments" was outstanding and I found almost nothing to disagree with (the omission of the Pine Tar Game is the only real problem I had). And I hope the amazing catch by Torii Hunter in the 1st inning that robbed Barry Bonds of a home run is remembered as the arrival of a brand new baseball superstar.
I hope to eventually have the chance to visit Miller Park, as it looks like quite an improvement over the old Milwaukee County Stadium (which I used to visit almost annually). But if I do go, I'll definitely call ahead, just to make sure Bud's not there.