[THE HANGOVER] The One Where We Discuss Crawford’s MVP Performance, Longo’s Helmet And Pena’s Patch
Carl Crawford, Carlos Pena, Evan Longoria, Tim Beckham July 15th. 2009, 7:14am
THE GOOD: Carl Crawford. They weren’t kidding when they said MLB has a new-found respect for defense these days. CC was named MVP of the All-Star game, in large part because of his catch robbing Brad Hawpe of a home run…Home Field. The Rays have bigger things to worry about, but if they can find a way back to the World Series, games 1 and 2 will be at the Trop, along with games 6 and 7 if needed.
THE BAD: No Longo. OK, maybe not playing 3-4 innings was good for his hamstrings, but it still would have been nice to see 1 at bat from Longo and maybe one of his patented grabs between second and third with the glove…No ‘Los. Carlos Pena was one of 8 AL players that did not play in the game.
THE TELLING: But his helmet played on. Roy Halladay apparently forgot to pack a batting helmet and with the game in St. Louis, pitchers were required to hit (Yay DH!). So without a helmet, Halladay grabbed Evan Longoria’s helmet and just removed the logo from the front. From the back, you clearly see that it is Longo’s helmet. Need to borrow a helmet, fine. But don’t disrespect the logo.
SUNBURST PLAYER OF THE GAME:
DEVIL DOGS WEBTOPIA…
- Here is a screengrab of Carlos Pena’s upside-down sleeve patch during the home run derby on Monday night. It was the same on Scott McNulty’s sleeve…At first we thought whoever put the patches on was going for the same effect as the US Flag which is always “flipped” on the right sleeve to simulate direction and moving forward. But a couple of people have noted that the patch on Ben Zobrist’s sleeve was facing backwards. [UniWatch]
- John Romano on Carl Crawford’s game-saving catch. [St. Pete Times]
- Evan Longoria is not expected to miss any time with the Rays because of his infected finger. [Tampa Tribune]
- Sporting News has a short Q&A with Carl Crawford about the all-star game. [Sporting News]
- Tony Graham of the Asbury Park Press spoke with Tim Beckham about the progress he is making in the minor leagues. [Asbury Park Press]
- We usually don’t link to Bleacher Report but this is too funny to pass up. One “writer” calls Joe Maddon, the “worst all-star manager ever” because he didn’t use Tim Wakefield last night…Apparently Nick Colon isn’t aware that Maddon had already extended a courtesy by putting Wakefield on the roster in the first place and maybe Nick is too young to remember the all-star game in which both managers ran out of pitchers in extra innings or maybe Nick forgot that winning matters nowadays. [Bleacher Report]
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I can hardly read that Bleacher Report post. I can somewhat understand being upset Wakefield didn’t pitch, but to bitch about Beckett is ridiculous. You have got to be kidding me? He just pitched Saturday or Sunday, and if Maddon did use him, he would be accused of abusing the Sox’s arms.
I’m sure if you asked Wakefield, he understands and was probably just happy to be there. Sure, I bet he wanted to play, but I’ll bet he understands the situation.
Agreed, the game was tied all the way into the 7th inning, and from there on it was still anyone’s game. I think Wake would have definitely seen some time if the game went into extras like last years game, which very well could have happened.
Damn, I just went back and read through the whole article and the comments, very painful. But at least most of the commenters were on the side of reason, so that’s nice.
Seriously though, that might be the most biased piece of garbage I’ve read all season.
It was Maddon who was getting crap for selecting Wake in the first place and even had to defend selecting him at the press conference after the selections were made. It’s just another case of a Sawx fan thinking it’s their God-Given right to rule MLB.
I think Maddon did a great job, and I don’t think you can argue with the win in a close game. The article from Bleacher Report was a joke, the author was insanely biased and had poor grammar, so it’s impossible to take him seriously. Ok, I don’t think the grammar has anything to do with it, but I’d think people would know the difference between your and you’re these days.
Back on topic, there was no reason Wakefield should have pitched in that game, and I’m pretty sure 100% of the non-Bosox baseball community would agree with that.
[...] One year ago on Rays Index we discussed Carl Crawford’s All-Star MVP performance. [...]
[...] year ago during the All-Star game, Carl Crawford robbed Brad Hawpe of a home run. He would go on to win the All-Star game MVP award based in large [...]