Wednesday, July 6, 2011

All-Star Snoozefest

It appeared that Justin Upton may have taken slight offense to being excluded from Prince Fielder's Home Run Derby squad that will be representing the National League next week at Chase Field.  So much so that when he smoked a mammoth home run to left-center field in the 3rd inning, Fielder turned his back to Upton as he rounded first base.  With baseball's new rule implemented this year that designates a captain for each team for the Derby, who then gets to choose his 3 participants.  Much like Bruce Bochy did with the All-Star roster, Fielder chose his teammate Rickie Weeks, and two of his "buddies," Matt Kemp and Mike Stanton.  Although Upton admitted to having no hard feelings and being more than happy to be hitting homers in situations and games that actually matter, it had to irk him being passed over, after basically openly campaigning for the opportunity a few days ago.  Fielder said that he would have liked to have had a D-backs representative in the Derby but he said that the players who he chose were his friends and he knows them well.  Apparently Prince thought this year's game was taking place at Miller Park  It will be interesting to see if this situation leads to a tinkering of the rules for the future to try and eliminate some of the bias.  I suppose Prince thought fans in Arizona would like the opportunity to see a few players that represent the cellar-dwellers of the National League showcase their skills on All-Star weekend.  The MLB All-Star game is starting to become more and more of a joke when you consider that Yankees ace C.C. Sabathia, who leads the A.L. in wins with 12, was snubbed as well in favor of guys you've never heard of named Glo Gonzalez, Brandon League, and Chris Perez.  Who you might ask?  Exactly my point.  Standball supporters in the Valley had to wait this many years for the All-Star game and this is the best product the MLB could put out on the field?  Wake me up when the lockouts end.

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