2007 Major League Baseball All Star Game

The 2007 Major League Baseball All Star Game was today. I've missed parts (or occasionally all) of many of the past several All Star games because the game almost always conflicts with the SIAM Annual Meeting, which I often attend. Today I was able to watch the entire game, though I was occasionally distracted while trying to get work done during commercials and sneaking in some work during a couple of batters. I also felt like crap today because I've been really sick for the past several days, though I am somewhat better than yesterday, so I have some hope that I'll be reasonably ok tomorrow. We'll see how that goes.

In terms of the actual game, the American League won again. The AL has been superior to the NL for a while now, as evidenced by its major advantage in interleague games and the fact that the NL hasn't won an All-Star game since 1996 (there was a tie in 2002). In today's game, Ichiro hit the first inside-the-park homerun in All Star game history. In fact, he made is safely home standing up, because the ball took a really messed-up bounce off of the wall. Ichiro, who got two other hits and was named the game's MVP, is one of the most exciting games in the Majors to watch. There are rumors that he will soon sign a 5-year contract extension with the Mariners worth $90-100 million.

In the pregame introductions, the reserves for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim were booed pretty loudly, so I knew what was going to happen when the Dodger players were introduced (the game was in San Francisco). Last last reserve before the Dodger players to be announced was Carlos ("El Caballo") Lee of the Houston Astros, who could be overheard to mutter "Oh shit." in the direction of the Dodger players. As expected, the Dodger reserves were booed especially lustily by the crowd. Dodger Russell Martin, the starting catcher in the game, was also booed quite lustily, but a few cheers were mixed in. Angel starter Vladimir Guerrero was mostly cheered, in contrast to the lesser-known Angels on the team. Unsurprisingly, Barry Bonds of the Giants got the biggest cheer of the night by far.