MLB 2021

[tepista]

is it bad that i'm thinking if the heart transplant was the box that WASN'T checked that this would be hilarious?

[Dr. Medulla]

is it bad that i'm thinking if the heart transplant was the box that WASN'T checked that this would be hilarious?

Or the kid looking bummed because he's getting a photo with, like, Wil Meyers.

[tepista]

that's a screengrab from TBS, so don't blame this one on Matt Vagisil

[Dr. Medulla]

that's a screengrab from TBS, so don't blame this one on Matt Vagisil

But he is worrying about his chances for the prom knowing there's competition.

[tepista]

https://www.si.com/mlb/2021/07/11/four- ... -star-game

someone was gonna Asian Hate Ohtani at the All Star game!

[Dr. Medulla]

https://www.si.com/mlb/2021/07/11/four- ... -star-game

someone was gonna Asian Hate Ohtani at the All Star game!

See: Biden is coming for your guns.

[tepista]

you only win the beer shotgun challenge if you keep it down.

[Dr. Medulla]

you only win the beer shotgun challenge if you keep it down.

Hey, buddy, people don't pay to see umpires puke. They pay to see Dylan Bundy puke.

[Flex]

Back from the all star game, what a blast. Once in a lifetime experience, I'll write a more thorough post tomorrow when I've had time to dwell a little more on it.

Addendum: me and the missus before the game started.

[JennyB]

How fun! We were watching a little and were pleased to see the cheers for Aranado. Great seats - looking forward to hearing the full report!

[Flex]

Okay, so today I'm coming off basically a 4-day high of gorging myself on baseball.

Saturday
Saturday I ran the ASG 5k in downtown denver - got greeted at the finish line by a by a bunch of baseball mascots which was lol. The crowd was cool because everyone was wearing different jerseys and team gear and so forth, it's neat to see fans of all these different teams congregate in one spot. Talked to a Mookie Betts fan for a bit and admired someone with a shirt on that was just Ohtani's head plastered all over it.

Then we hit the expo at the convention center. I remember a version of this from when the ASG was in Denver in '98 - I went as a kid then - but I think it was a paid ticket back then and this time it was free, though it requires timed entry to get in so crowds were never bad. Free means a lot more sponsored shit than I remember - get a clorox bleach e-baseball card of yourself and shit like that - and plenty of opportunities to buy merch - but also lots of interactive games for kids and some stuff for folks of all ages like batting cages and so forth. Didn't do that stuff since the lines were all long but checked out the Cooperstown exhibitions as well as some excellent exhibits put out by the Negro League Hall of Fame. They had sections in the expo on the importance of black and latino ballplayers and women in the game. Really interesting stuff. I love Cooperstown and the history has obviously always been a draw for me and to get access to all this stuff for free was really cool. Also got to see the World Series trophy (and, actually, all the baseball awards and trophies) which was impressive.

Best part was that I got autographs from Fred Lynn and Luis Tiant in an autograph book and then had them both sign a Sox hat I was wearing (which then precipitated me going and buying new ASG Red Sox hat, naturally). Got to say hi to both. Freddy was great, really friendly and cheerful. Luis was like that last time I met him - doesn't say much but doesn't object to anything either. Snapped photos and thanked them for being here and moved on. They both spent a lot of time talking to and interacting with kids who came up I noticed, which I respect.

Got to meet Vinny Castilla in front of the World's Largest Baseball, which was really cool. I loved him growing up, one of my favorite Rockies for sure.

Spent the rest of the day walking around the downtown Denver area getting closer to Coors Field. Saturday was still relatively quiet in terms of street festivities - Sunday through Tuesday there were street fairs and whatnot celebrating the game all around the stadium - but got to walk around and see it all being set up and check out some of the ASG-themed street art and installations they had scattered around. Really cool to see the downtown turned into an homage to baseball.

Sunday
Last minute some friends told me they were going to the Futures/Celeb softball double header at Coors so I grabbed a ticket (they were very cheap for this day, good tip for anyone who has an ASG coming up - this is a really affordable way to get in on the action in the stadium) and went downtown early to poke around more. Hit the Hall of Legends exhibit at the newly opened Rockies-affiliated hotel next to Coors. Modest entry fee but had really interesting items - Ted Williams' jersey, Babe Ruth's bat, Jackie Robinson's glove and so forth. The centerpiece of the exhibit was the mint condition 1952 Mickey Mantle rookie card which is famously valuable. Fun to geek out examining that - brought me back to my young kid days collecting baseball cards (never for profit, but loved baseball cards as a kid). Really interesting exhibit. Then just poked around the immediate area which is newly opened pedestrian promenade that connects into Coors (sorta like Yawkey Way at Fenway and other pedestrian areas around urban ballparks). Newly opened as in like opened 4 before I checked it out. It was great. They have giant outdoor screens to watch games, cool news sportsbars and restaurants and its all integrated into the old Union Pacific railroad buildings. Great sense of place.

Met up with my friends and we got in the stadium. Hotter than fuck and we were in the bleachers. Unfortunately, the Futures Game turned into a bit of a snoozer so we mostly walked around the concourses and hit the in-stadium bars so we could stay in shade/air conditioning. Uh, caught the end of the Euros final at the park's clocktower bar. Started to cool off enough we could get seated in the stands for the celeb game which was surprisingly fun. Todd Helton and Jennie Finch were the team captains (and Finch pitched altho was very clearly just lobbing easy to hit balls to create action) and some old guys like Vinnie Castilla played along with other athletes (who I knew) and celebs (none of whom I knew). Vinnie ripped a home run that almost got out of the actual field, which was great.

One Republic played in between games which was craptacular.

Monday
Took the day off from being in-person, as I had work and dumb shit like that, but the home run derby was a fuckin' blast to watch and I have a bunch of friends who went. Hope a few of you tuned into. For anyone who wants to see young players have fun and bring some life back into the game, this year's HRD definitely did that. They turned off the humidor for the balls at coors so it was display of mashing I don't think we'd ever seen before. That was kinda the theme of the whole weekend I picked up: for all the BS talk about the ASG "mattering" for home field advantage and whatnot, this year was dominated by new, exciting players and the attitude from both the people on the field and in the stands was fun and celebratory (especially after the year off from COVID). It felt like an injection of exactly what's been missing in baseball.

Tuesday
Rolled into the stadium in time to catch AL practice and walk around. Again, just a cool mix of people: local fans, visitors, some corporate nerds, and just a lot of people who were excited to have baseball back in this big game and be able to see it. It was funny hearing different teams and players get cheers and boos. Everyone (rightly) loves Ohtani. I dunno how the game played on tv, but in person it was just a fun game of ball being played. No one performed like they didn't care but no one went crazy either. It was, like, just a good time being had by all. I think the average age of the ASG participants and number of newcomers is at some low and high watermarks respectively so it really felt like the next generation stepping up and setting the tone of the game, which was wonderful to see.

I guess my big takeaway is that when you get to interact in person with the event and what surrounds it, the enthusiasm for the game itself really comes through - probably more so than when ESPN and Fox and so forth layer on their bullshit on television. For me, coming out of the COVID year, with the Sox doing well, and having the opportunity to really engage in a big prestige MLB event that stoked my passion for the game being played as it is now as well as reconnecting to its past, it's made me more passionate about the sport as a whole than I've been in a long, long time. As I said, I hope anyone who participates in this thread and has a chance to check out an ASG in the coming years (whether it be the game itself, or the stuff going on around it) makes the effort to do so. It really taps into the kind of fun and celebration of the game that I think we've all lamented has felt lacking in some contemporary baseball.

Oh, and the uniforms: I thought they were hideous when I first saw them announced but honestly, in person, they're not so bad. There's some subtlety to the colors that I think gets lost on the TV or computer screen but looks better in real life. In any case, I'm hoping they're so panned they go on sale and I can get a Boegarts one at a discount later this season.

I'll have to look back through my photos, I'm sure I missed some shit but there you have it, more or less.

[Dr. Medulla]

Solid summary—thanks for sharing. Glad you had a blast (send a thank you note to Georgia's governor for making it a reality). Really seems like a reward of sorts after "the recent unpleasantness."

[revbob]

That was a post to make Ratty proud, at least in length.

[tepista]

OK, if anyone ever gets to see the Celebrity game one day in advance of it being on TV, please give me a detailed rundown so I can grift some rubes in a bar. It's OK, you didn't know, but next time.

[JennyB]

Thanks for the summary - so glad you had such a great time. There's something about an ASG weekend, isn't there?