NEW YORK (AP) -Bud Selig might never live down the infamous tied All-Star game.
The 2002 edition was cruising along perfectly. Lots of runs were being scored, the game was close the whole way, the crowd was electric. The two sides were still knotted 7-all after two extra innings, in the commissioner’s hometown no less.
Then both teams ran out of pitchers, at which point Selig – sitting in the crowd where the TV cameras couldn’t possibly miss him – declared the game a draw. It was a startling decision panned by just about everyone.
Including David Letterman, six years later.
“So the winning team gets home-field advantage in the Series,” Letterman said on his show Monday, referring to a rule enacted the following year rewarding home-field advantage in the World Series to the winning league. “Is that enough incentive for the All-Star game?”
“Well, I think so,” Selig replied. “The game had lost its, what I call intensity, because in 1993 Cito Gaston, then the manager of the American League, didn’t put Mike Mussina in in Baltimore. And he got booed. So the managers then decided, ‘We’re going to get everybody in ’cause we don’t want to get booed.’ Well, what happened of course is we ultimately ran out of players in an extra-inning game.”
“In a tie,” Letterman said, laughing.
“You may find it amusing,” Selig said. “I didn’t think it was so amusing at the time.”
Maybe if Clint Hurdle had been around, such a predicament wouldn’t have happened.
The NL manager said Monday that he places plenty of importance on winning the All-Star game. Whether that means pitching starter Cliff Lee two or three innings or leaving hitters on the bench the full nine, so be it.
“We’re not gonna play for a tie,” Hurdle said.
Just what Selig wants to hear.
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MOUTHING OFF: Chase Utley was having a good time on the field during the Home Run Derby. In fact, too good a time. As a participant in the made-for-TV event, Utley was miked for audio. During introductions he forgot about the extra equipment and responded to being booed by the New York fans with an aside:
“Boo,” Utley stage whispered, followed by an expletive loud enough to be picked up by the microphone and played on ESPN – and quickly uploaded to YouTube.
“I do want to apologize,” said Utley, the top NL vote getter. “It was definitely a poor choice of words. I really didn’t mean anything by it. I was just kind of joking around with my buddy over there. So, I do want to apologize.”
Utley was eliminated in the first round of the derby after hitting just five homers.
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NEW YORK (AP) – Reggie Jackson might be as well known for his Hall of Fame-sized ego as he is for knocking mammoth home runs in October.
So there he was Monday night, holding court behind the batting cage amid a sea of All-Stars, media and special guests as this generation’s sluggers prepared for the Home Run Derby, defending his generation of ballplayers against the beefed-up players of today.
“Today they’re bigger. I don’t know if they’re stronger,” Jackson said. “(Willie) Stargell, Rico Carty, (Mickey) Mantle, Lou Gehrig – go back as far as you want. There were some really strong people.
“There’s no one playing today that’s stronger than Jim Rice,” Jackson added.
Jackson hit 563 homers in his career and 18 in the postseason – his three in Game 6 of the 1977 World Series is one of the most replayed moments in Yankee Stadium history.
Introduced as one of the great home run hitters of all time before throwing out the ceremonial first pitch to Yankees captain Derek Jeter, Jackson confidently – how else? – asserted how he’d do in the Home Run Derby.
“I would have won them all. You know that,” he said.
Jackson had his All-Star moment in 1971, when he was with the Oakland Athletics: He hit a monster home run off a light tower above Tiger Stadium.
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PAPI’S POWER: Terry Francona tried not to look when David Ortiz stepped into the batting cage for some impromptu practice before the Home Run Derby, turning his back to deal with a throng of reporters.
He missed quite a show.
The injured designated hitter hit four straight over Yankee Stadium’s short right-field wall, then stepped out of the batter’s box to let somebody else have a turn. When he stepped back to the plate moments later, Ortiz sent four more out of the park before hitting one that dropped about 3 feet short of the 408-foot sign in center.
Smiling like a child, Ortiz sprinted from the cage to the clubhouse without a pause.
Ortiz has been on the disabled list since May 31 with a torn tendon sheath in his left wrist. He was voted into the American League starting lineup for Tuesday night’s All-Star game but was replaced by Milton Bradley of the Texas Rangers.
The Red Sox plan to send Ortiz on a rehab assignment to Triple-A Pawtucket on Thursday. If all goes well, he could return for Boston’s series starting July 25 against the Yankees.
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BYE-BYE BUSCONES: High-powered agent Scott Boras would like to see the Dominican government help put an end to the practice of middlemen, known as buscones, signing young players in Latin America to contracts with the hope of helping the athletes ink deals with major league organizations, some for a share of the money.
“The Dominican government just has to really pass a law where contracts with the kids are unenforceable until they’re 18. And then the buscone world stops,” Boras said.
Recently, Washington Nationals general manager Jim Bowden and special assistant Jose Rijo denied an ESPN.com report they were being investigated in a probe examining an alleged scam involving the skimming of signing bonuses for young Dominican players.
Currently, international players are able to sign with pro teams at 16. For this year’s signing period, big league teams could sign 16-year-old international players who will turn 17 prior to the end of the 2009 minor league season.
On July 2, the Oakland Athletics and prized 16-year-old Dominican pitching prospect Michael Inoa agreed to a minor league contract with a $4.25 million signing bonus.
One of the ways baseball could protect young international prospects is a draft.
“They can correct the buscone situation a lot quicker than Major League Baseball can,” Boras said. “I think we want the citizenry of the Dominican to legislate their own country, you know? I really do.”
But rules for a worldwide amateur draft weren’t included in the latest labor agreement in 2006. Unless the labor agreement is reopened before it expires in 2011, the draft cannot be instituted until 2012.
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LINE ‘EM UP: Clint Hurdle said he consulted with several people when putting together his National League batting order. Oakland GM Billy Beane probably was not one of them.
“You look at the numbers that many of these men have put up,” Hurdle said. “(But) you know, I’m a big fan – I hear about OPS, OBP – I’m a big fan of G-U-T-S. I like guts.”
So much for Beane’s whole Moneyball philosophy, with its importance on on-base plus slugging percentage (OPS) and other relatively obscure statistics.
Hanley Ramirez will lead off for the NL, followed by Chase Utley, Lance Berkman and Albert Pujols at DH batting cleanup. Chipper Jones, Matt Holliday, Ryan Braun, Kosuke Fukudome and Geovany Soto round out the order.
“As I was writing that thing down, as the flow of the pen came together, that one was the one that stuck, and that’s the one that I said, ‘You know what? For me, that’s our best lineup,”’ Hurdle said. “And that’s the one we’re gonna run out there.”
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AP Sports Writer Howie Rumberg contributed to this report.
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