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All-Star Game Thoughts

A pretty uneventful All-Star Game, leading again to the inevitable AL victory. A few thoughts:

- Obama looked all right throwing out the first pitch, but why cut off the ball landing in the catcher's mitt? It must be more of Fox's famous liberal bias. I really liked him in the booth though, as he's much more natural and comfortable than either Buck or McCarver.

- I'm no fan of Buck, of course, but how nerve-wracking must it have been to call a game while simultaneously interviewing the president? Then again, I'm sure the Artie Lange incident was much, much more uncomfortable for him.

- First pitch right before 9 Eastern. NOT a good idea. At least the game ended in two and a half hours.

- I enjoyed the parade of St. Louis legends, but despite it all, it just wasn't right to me that Mark McGwire wasn't there. Come on, couldn't he have shown up and slipped out without talking to the media?

- During the interview with Roy Halladay after he pitched, his microphone suddenly went out. I bet he was saying "trade me to the Phillies! Please! Please! Please!," but we'll never know for sure.

- Funniest moment of the night- the camera finding Bud Selig, having his ear talked off by... George Will. So I guess Will has the ear of the commissioner, or perhaps the commissioner has the ear of Will.

- Second-funniest moment of the night- when the announcers pointed out that Tim Wakefield is the second-oldest first-time All-Star in history, behind only Satchel Paige. Not exactly an analogous situation unless, say, knuckleballers had been segregated for all this time from regular baseball, and, until recently, had to have their own league. The Niekro Leagues.

- "All About the Roosevelts?" Really, Taco Bell? Between that and the witless parody of "Escape (the Pina Colada Song)," it might've been the single biggest multi-commercial whiff by a major advertiser at one event ever.

Posted by Stephen Silver at July 15, 2009 05:02 PM