All-Star Preview Among Other Topics

1. Tonight’s the Home Run Derby. I’m heading down there later to soak up some of the atmosphere and to see if I can get close enough to Clark Street to maybe grab a ball. Albert Pujols has come close to hitting it out of the park in regulation play, so he might have a shot when he’s being grooved pitches. That being said, I’m a little worried about him heading into this competitive batting practice extravaganza.

Pujols had minor surgery on his elbow this year that will eventually need reconstructive surgery. Pujols is in the midst of his best home run hitting season in his already extraordinary career. Would it be cool to see him win the derby in his home stadium? Of course. But I’d much rather see him get to the 50 home run plateau for the first time, which could also propel the Cardinals to their first postseason berth since they want it all in 2006. Colby Rasmus and Ryan Ludwick are both starting to get into grooves. If Pujols goes down, those performances disappear faster than Mark McGwire at a press conference. That’s not to take anything away from either player, but if pitchers can be more careful with them, they’ll make fewer mistakes. Fewer mistakes will equal lower production and it will trickle down through the rest of the already struggling lineup.

Because of this, I’m hoping Ryan Howard wins the derby. He’s a hometown guy who won’t have a negative affect on my team if he gets injured. He’s also a star, which is what the derby is all about (And ESPN whoring it up for sponsors, of course). Fans want to see the stars over the next couple of days, so it would be good for the derby’s future years if Howard won. Unlike last year when a small market guy like Justin Morneau won it. Due to Josh Hamilton’s 28 bombs in the first round, most people think that he, not Morneau, took home the crossed bats at Yankee Stadium. This is one big reason why the National League needs to win the derby this year. The American League guys have almost no star power. The only exception is the Twins’ Joe Mauer, but he’s a guy who hits for average much more than for power. The other AL guys are Tampa’s Carlos Pena, Detroit’s Brandon Inge, and Texas’ Nelson Cruz. That sounds like a solid bench in fantasy baseball, but not a derby lineup. The NL sports Pujols, Howard, Milwaukee’s Prince Fielder, and San Diego’s Adrian Gonzalez. These guys all have star power and the power numbers that scream derby contestants. If one of the AL guys wins it, most fans will have to be reminded of the winner again next year.

My picks are as follows: Albert Pujols, Ryan Howard, Prince Fielder, and Brandon Inge moving to the second round, with Howard and Pujols in the finals, and Howard winning. Howard won it in 2006, he can do it again. Also, someone posted on wikipedia that Greg Maddux won this year’s derby with 89 total home runs. It reminded me of Nike’s “Pitchers Want to be Hitters” commercial campaign.

2. The National League is winning tomorrow night. They’ve been close for the last few years. Last year, if Dan Uggla doesn’t come in to play defense, the NL more than likely wins it. In 2007, Pujols was left in the dugout with the bases juiced in the ninth by his own manager. Pujols bats, NL wins, obviously. The year before that, the all-time leader in saves, Trevor Hoffman, comes in and blows a save. That’s all over now. The NL won the last time the All-Star game was played here in 1966, so they’re going to bring back some of that magic. They have Tim Lincecum starting, so that’s two scoreless innings in the book already. They can use a guy like Johan Santana as a left-handed specialist. They have the game’s best hitter in Pujols. And to close it out, they have the single-season record holder for saves in K-Rod to close it out. Unlike with the Mets defense, if he gets a pop-up for the last out, it’ll be caught.

3. Steve McNair’s death caught everyone by surprise, but what shocked me even more was how some people reacted to the circumstances of his death. Athletes are put on a pedestal and this typically is unfair. Guys cheat on their wives all the time. Does this make it right? Certainly not. But it’s not front page news if your neighbor does it. McNair made a mistake, which I’m sure he’d admit if he were still here. But mistakes happen and to quote the insightful Lenny Leonard of the Simpsons,“That’s why they put erasers on pencils.” Let’s judge McNair not by the last mistake that he couldn’t erase, but by the rest of the story that he did write. He was a very talented quarterback on the field, but more importantly he did a lot of great things off of it. He was known in the Nashville community as well as back home in Mississippi, where he helped raise a lot of money after Hurricane Katrina. For the most part, McNair was a standup guy, so for any and all of the idiots who came out on talk-radio shows declaring that he “had it coming”, just shut up.

4. Also sad but not quite to the extent of McNair’s death, is the fact that Joe Sakic is retiring. Due to various injuries, he only managed to play in 15 games for the Avalanche last season. It was an anti-climatic end to a fantastic and first-ballot Hall of Fame career. I have to admit that I hated Sakic when he scored to knock the Blues out of the Western Conference Finals, as it was the furthest the team had made it since I started watching (the remote I launched at the wall was the proof that I was not a Sakic fan). But he wasn’t a dirty player and he did help someone that I did like at the time, Ray Bourque, win a cup.

Another former Av who decided to hang it up recently was Claude Lemieux. He had been retired for five years before making his return with the Sharks this past season. He’s not a Hall of Famer like Sakic and did make some dirty plays from time to time (some against the Red Wings that I wasn’t completely against…), but he’s what I like about hockey. He’s one of just eight players to ever win the Stanley Cup with three different teams and if you think that’s a coincidence, I’d have to challenge you. Every Cup winner has some grit guys. These are the guys who might only see two or three shifts in the third period, but go out there and will win a team some little battles in the waning minutes. They occasionally come out of no where to score huge goals (Maxime Talbot anyone?). Lemieux is also a part of one of my favorite hockey stories. In a playoff Game 7, Jeff Friesen scored for the Sharks to put them ahead of the Avs in the final minute of a game. Friesen went nuts like he had just won the cup. The Avs came back to tie it before eventually winning the game in overtime. During the handshakes at the end of the series (something else I love about hockey), Lemieux told Friesen,“ I don’t ever want to see you do that again, unless you’re completely sure that it’s over.” Friesen wanted to sucker punch him, but would end up learning from it before eventually winning a cup of his own.

The last thing that I want to mention about hockey is that although I am disappointed that Chris Pronger signed an extension with the Flyers that will likely eat up the rest of his career, I'm not too worried about it. He's in the Eastern Conference now, so the Blues won't have to go through him in the playoffs. It also appears that Ian Cole is leaning even more towards turning pro after the Blues' pro-orientation camp, so the Blues will have two stud defensemen in him and Alex Pietrangelo who are just attempting to make the club. Cutting Jay McKee made it more likely that one of the Blues' youngsters will make the team, but they still have to earn it in camp.

5. Jessica Simpson and Tony Romo broke up last Friday. It was the night before Simpson was set to celebrate her 29th birthday with a Barbie themed party. I guess Romo didn't want to dress up as Ken? I'm sure Cowboys fans will be happy to be rid of the distraction. Now all they have to do is make the playoffs in the league's toughest division.