All Star Game Running Diary

We're going to try something new here at RSS: The Yoders' Live Blog! Tonight Mr. Yoder I will join me with our (sometimes witty) commentary for the 2009 All-Star Game, mainly because it isn't exciting enough to just watch on its own. Read along as we try to keep our sanity while replacement players from the Nats and Indians battle it out in the later innings to decide homefield advanatge for the World Series. Tonight's game guest stars some guy named Obama.

8:00 Y1: We start with a typical St. Louis baseball montage. Not surprised to see the Jack Buck tribute as well, a nice touch. FOX is off to a shockingly good start...oh wait, it's Chris Rose. Fastest jinx in history!

8:02 Y1: Over/under on the acutal start and finish of the game? 8:57 and 2:46, I think they just finished the HR derby 30 minutes ago. Footage of Obama mingling in the locker rooms, Ichiro's face is particularly priceless, some sort of mix between a kid at Christmas and a Beatles groupie.

8:07 Y2: Time to meet the AL All Star Reserves, is there a class these guys take to teach them how to take off their cap when their name is introduced? Can I have one guy at least add in some personality here? Where is Shaq and Lebron when you need them?

8:12 Y1: Bonus points if anyone else thought of Jim "the Anvil" Neidhart when Ryan Franklin was introduced.

8:16 Y2: "Here we go St. Louis" - I can't wait for a night of Joe Buck cheerleading for Albert Pujols, which is no different than any Cardinals game Buck has broadcast on FOX. This may be a short night for me.

8:21 Y2: I always thought the "all the living presidents" moments are highly underrated as being pretty cool. This is a nice segment, shocked that Uncle Bud could pull off something like this.

8:27 Y1: I think I'm going to serve.gov to start an organization to shorten the HR derby.

8:30 Y2: So Michael Strahan has his own FOX sitcom now? I wonder how many episodes until Terry Bradshaw gets introduced as the unbalanced next door neighbor.

8:36: FOX is dumping Hank Hill for a show centered on Cleveland Brown? Sure, he's good on Family Guy in a supporting role, but this is like making David Eckstein World Series MVP, oh wait...

8:38: Stan Musial deserves his due as one of the most underrated players ever, in any sport, but doesn't it seem like MLB is constantly trying to relive the Ted Williams moment at Boston's ASG?

8:40: Where did the pitch go FOX? Are you *&^#@ kidding me? So much for transparency in this administration, (easy now I voted for the guy). Politics aside, W threw it over the plate after 9/11, Obama comes out and we can't even get a pic of the pitch? I guess somebody learned something after he bowled a 37 during the campaign.

8:45: Apparently the AL has won 11 straight All-Star Games, sooner or later AL fans are going to get the SEC Superiority Complex.

8:50: After a Super Bowl worthy pregame we finally have the first pitch. Ichiro shoots one foul down the RF line and then gets a single.

8:54: Jeter gets hit by a fastball and the benches clear! Sorry, I was getting excited for a minute, thought it counted this time.

8:58: Oh no! Our hero Albert boots one in the 1st to bring home Jeter. Is that Joe Buck fighting back tears in the booth? (And no, I'm not JUST a bitter Cubs fan)

9:00: Replay catches Josh Hamilton doing a head-first slide into 1st Base, at least the Rangers are out of it as usual... wait, they're only 1.5 games back? Is he insane or just full of too much heart?

9:03: McCarver's assesment: Roy Halladay - I-Beam! Imagine the conversation... Phillies Fan: "Hey, did you hear we might be trading for your I-Beam?" Jays Fan: "Do you mean Joe Inglett?"

9:14: Lincecum works through a clean 2nd, by the way... where was Mark McGwire in all of the St. Louis baseball retrospectives? Glad to see he is slowly being erased from everyone's memories.

9:17: Obama joins Buck and McCarver in the booth. There's going to be more softballs here than in the Celebrity All-Star Game last night (remember to tip your waitress). Great to have such an honest and knowledgable sports fan in the WH though.

9:19: We finally see Obama's pitch didn't reach the plate, at least it didn't miss far-left, ha ha ha. Ok, I promise that's the last political joke...hopefully.

9:27: Obama gets a B for his booth performance, solid baseball knowledge and seemed very natural talking sports. I think he would make a better analyst than Tim McCarver, too bad he has that whole running the country thing to do. Oh, and the NL takes a 3-2 lead.

9:30: I'm dying to see Joe Maddon come out of the dugout and ask the umps if there are any illegal substances in Frankin's beard. There's gotta be some vaseline or a nail file in there somewhere.

9:33: Somehow Buck gets Pujols confused with Prince Fielder for the final out of the 3rd. I know Prince is a vegetarian now, but it would take Richard Simmons to get him to Pujols' weight.

9:38: FOX is contractually obligated to mention that Mark Buehrle is a quick worker, maybe that means we'll end tonight's game before 2 AM. By the way, does anyone know the other American Legends Domino's Pizza flavors? I'm beginning to think a war might break out between Memphis and LA if I see any more of those commercials.

9:45: Too bad the SportsCentury on Kiko Calero never materialized. According to Wikipedia, he now pitches for the Florida Marlins.

9:50: Raul Ibanez is the oldest position player to debut as an All-Star since Babe Ruth. Ever think you would hear Raul Ibanez in the same sentence as Babe Ruth? Neither did Raul Ibanez.

9:54: I see Adam Sandler is coming out with another supposed comedy. The last funny thing he did was having Bob Barker kick the crap out of him in Happy Gilmore.

9:58: I know the 7 people out there anticipating the Carl Crawford v Yadier Molina showdown are perched on the edges of their seats, too bad Ichiro spoils the fun with a foul ball. Still 3-2 NL as we haven't seen a lot of on-field action.

10:01: So evidently Jeter cried when Chris Webber called timeout at Michigan against UNC. We've officially hit a dead air portion of the ballgame, and not just because the Nats' rep is in.

10:06: Mauer drives in Jeter with a double down the LF line to tie the game at 3. Mauer is every bit the player that Pujols is, but gets half the recognition. Buck also does a good job of helping us forget Pujols' first inning error.

10:11: Edwin Jackson works a 1-2-3 5th inning as we are still tied at 3. I'm really praying against extra innings tonight, but I'm getting the feeling that's where we are headed... also secretly hoping both teams run out of pitchers again so we can see Bud Selig's "I can't believe I'm still in charge" face.

10:14: Old foes Michael Young and Trevor Hoffman square off in the ASG again. Good idea to bring Hoffman in for the 6th so that he doesn't blow another ASG Save. The all-time saves leader gets redemption as Young grounds into a 4-6-3 DP. And yes, I had to Wikipedia what year it was that happened (2006). And yes, I just used Wikipedia as a verb.

10:18: Good to see some of the starters still in as we're in the 6th, in 2002 Manny and Sosa would be in their hotel rooms by now. Also, currently immersed in the longest Taco Bell Ad/rap video in history. I live literally 100 yards from a Taco Bell, but that didn't move me.

10:22: We see a random bald man in the audience who looks like he may be part of some sort of Naked Gun-like coup. My bet for the part of Reggie Jackson is Nelson Cruz. Only Enrico Palazzo could help this ASG right now, this game is registering as a Thrashers-Coyotes game in January on the excitement scale.

10:26: I think it would be much more entertaining to expose the worst teams by having one of their worst players be their representative and then forcing them to play. Wouldn't it be more appropriate for Austin Kearns (.198 BA, 3HR, 16RBI) to represent the Nationals?

10:34: Carl Crawford robs Brad Hawpe of a Home Run to start the bottom of the 7th to show that this game still has some life. Next up Tejada blasts one to the warning track off Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon.

10:44: Curtis Granderson awakes me from my slumber with a 1 out triple over the head of Justin Upton off of Padres closer Heath Bell. Upton didn't exactly play that ball very well. Thank goodness the NL winner's World Series hopes ride on this game.

10:49: Adam Jones from the O's scores Granderson on the most exciting play in baseball: a sac fly, to give the AL a 4-3 lead. This is the equivalent of Rudy Gay sinking an ASG last-second jumper to give the Lakers home court advantage in the NBA Finals, in case you couldn't tell, I'm not a fan of the idea.

11:00: Finally our first shot of Uncle Bud! No doubt updating his Twitter via cell phone. 2 out hits from Adrian Gonzalez and Orlando Hudson put runners on the corners for hometown hero Ryan Howard.

11:05: Howard swings and misses on a nasty Nathan pitch. Good job out of the Minny closer as the AL clings to a 4-3 lead, the excitement is so thick I think I am going to go to bed soon.

11:10: K-Rod is just glad that Luis Castillo isn't there to drop any pop ups as he gets through a clean top of the 9th. Let's see if the NL can rally to avoid their 12th consecutive All-Star loss.

11:15: Testing the blog jinx by saying there is a better chance of the Nats winning the World Series this year than there is a chance that Rivera blows this save.

11:17: Bartlett with a nice pick and throw from short to get Upton at first. 1 away.

11:20: Hawpe goes down looking to a nasty off-speed pitch at the knees. Miguel Tejada is now the NL's last hope. Evidently he has won an ASG MVP for the NL and the AL MVP, it's taken 3 hours to have our first interesting stat.

11:21: Tejada flies out to short right to end the game. Final Score AL 4 NL 3 as Rivera gets his record 4th ASG Save.

Well, Y2 fell asleep an inning ago so it looks like its up to me to close up shop for our first ever live blog. Thanks to the big guy upstairs that the game somehow clocked in at 2 and a half hours. I have to say that tonight really lacked any sort of memorable moments aside from the pregame festivities, Obama in the booth, and maybe Crawford's catch, oh and of course our first ever live blogging experience!

We hope you've enjoyed our running commentary tonight. Leave a comment and let us know what you think about the live blog and if you have any suggestions on what we should live blog next. (As long as it isn't an episode of Hell's Kitchen, we'll be cool). Happy trails from RSS.