Acee: Many great players, not a great all-star game
Maybe if Giancarlo Stanton had stayed and played (and if the pitchers had not actually pitched but thrown batting practice) the All-Star Game could have matched the excitement of the Home Run Derby.
Tuesday night started like Monday ended, with balls flying out of Petco Park. But the game lost air after the second inning. It was well-played, for sure, at times. It just lacked the sizzle we long to see in this event.
2016 All-Star Game at PetCo Park, July 12
Certainly, the deflated denouement won’t alter the fact San Diego did #ASG2016 right.
We are wonderful hosts. We’re the Playboy Mansion of cities. You throw a party here, it pretty much kicks tail.
It’s just the games played in our stadiums that often fall short.
However, no one should let the slow leak to a 4-2 American League victory alter the reality that this All-Star game was a thrill to witness.
There was so much excellence inside Petco Park. Truly, we are amidst one of baseball’s golden ages.
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And it’s not just awesome players. It’s overwhelmingly young awesome players. The bulk of these guys are so young they could still be perennial all-stars the next time San Diego hosts this exhibition.
“Guys are coming in and able to develop into superstars really quickly,” said Texas Rangers pitcher and Rancho Bernardo High alum Cole Hamels, who worked a scoreless third inning in his fourth all-star game at age 32. “… Guys are coming in focused on developing a high level of play, and you’re seeing it. And you’re going to see it for a good long time, because they’re going to be around a long time.”
The memory from this Midsummer Classic might be David Ortiz walking off to an ovation and hugs in his All-Star farewell. But the message is that this is a young man’s game now more than ever.
Remember when this midseason showcase was essentially a veteran’s convention? No more. It’s a bunch of studs who evidently left diapers straight for a diamond.
Outside of the 40-year-old Big Papi, no American League starter was older than 26. The National League had two starters in their 30s, 29-year-old Buster Posey and six players 26 or younger. Anthony Rizzo was playing in his fourth All-Star game – at 26.
The All-Star Game in San Diego
“It’s special to have this many young guys in the All-Star game,” said 24-year-old Kris Bryant, formerly of the University of San Diego and now the Chicago Cubs’ third baseman and the guy whose 410-foot rocket into the left field stands gave the National League a 1-0 lead in the first inning.
That two Kansas City Royals who combined to put the American league ahead for good in the second inning – Eric Hosmer’s solo home run to left tying the game, and Salvador Perez’s two-run blast two batters later making it 3-1 – was instructional as well.
Both are 26-years-old and both have only ever been Royals. Hosmer, named the game’s MVP after adding an RBI single in the third inning, was the third overall pick in the 2008 draft. In 2006, Perez was a signing out of Venezuela. (The Royals’ other All-Star, Kelvin Herrera, was also an international signing in ’06.)
Yes, it is possible, as the Padres are finally attempting in earnest, to draft/sign and develop players and keep them long enough to win.
The Royals are the defending World Series champions and have been to two straight Series, and they will enter this season’s second half once again in the playoff mix.
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The Baltimore Orioles lead the American League East, and three of the five All-Stars representing them here were homegrown. The Boston Red Sox hold the top AL wild card spot, and half of their six of All-Stars were originally their draft picks.
In all, 29 of the 72 players on the rosters Tuesday night were drafted or signed by the team they were here representing.
We can boo the Dodgers and Giants all we want. It’s even cool that the Petco Park crowd did so Tuesday night.
But applaud those two teams who are again battling it out atop the NL West. Three of the Giants’ four All-Stars were originally their draft picks. All three of the Dodgers’ All-Stars were homegrown.
Someday, maybe, we won’t have to relish the former San Diegans who go on to shine playing baseball elsewhere.
We saw on Tuesday in our ballpark what was possible and what many other major-league cities will be enjoying for a long time.
