A Mid-Summer Classic?

It is somewhat approprite the Major League Baseball schedules it's All-Star game to be held the week after Independence Day every year. Both events, at their best, stir the spirit of "Americana" and serve as rites of of passage into the dog days of summer. Much like a large firework display on the Fourth, the MLB All-Star game is much hyped beforehand, pleasant enough during the actual event, and then quickly fades into memory.

This year's mid-summer classic, held last night, was disapointingly forgetful. But isn't that what we expect from this game every year. You can argue that the highest drama of the evening came when Eric Byrnes shoved his dog into McCovey Cove, then fought the urge to go in after him when the pooch began heading out into open water. Even while assuring us that he was a responsible dog owner, Byrnes let the dog drift away while fulfilling his allotted two-minute reporting segment. Who among us wouldn't have preferred that Byrnes drop the mic and dive in to save his faithful four-legged friend? That, my friends, would have made Byrnes. He would have been a huge star. Another missed opportunity.

The game itself was decided largely when Ichiro Suzuki's taylor-made double careened wildly off an advertising billboard on the right field wall and allowed Ichiro to turn the double into an inside-the-park home run. The only other drama of the evening played out in the bottom of the 9th, just after midnight on the East Coast, when the NL suddenly rallied against the "dominant" Mariners closer JJ Putz. I'd never seen Putz pitch live before, but at least last night, there was nothing overly impressive about the guy, despite Fox giving us the "intense stare" close up of Putz as he got the sign from the catcher before each pitch.

The NL rally against Putz and his successor, Francisco Rodriguez, allowed NL manager Tony LaRussa to flex some of his considerable managerial genius. In a one-run gamewith runners in scoring position, LaRussa had slugger Albert Pujols available to pitch hit, but allowed punch-and-judy hitters Orlando Hudson and Aaron Rowand to hit instead. This move came in spite of an earlier in-game interview where LaRussa told a national audience that he was saving the versatile Pujols for a late-game strategic move. Ummm, if this wasn't the time to use Pujols, what excatly was Tony waiting for?

LaRussa, in my opinion, feared going into extra innings, having burned through his pitching staff and position players. Given what happened in the last extra-inning All-Star game, LaRussa probably also feared that Bud Selig's head would have exploded if the NL-ers would have plated a tying run in the 9th. If this would have been a regular season game, there's no way LaRussa doesn't use Pujols in that situation. But, oh right, this one counts. I discounted that entire catch phrase when Ichiro put forth zero effort to try to break up a double play way back in the top of the first. That's your MVP, folks. And that's your MLB All-Star game.

Eric, you chould have gone in after the dog. Kenny Mayne would have.