Phone call...

Dang..I had this all written up, but Howry had to get out of it...how inconsiderate...eh well, here it is anyway...

"Hello, this is Lou. Oh hi Bud. Yeah. Well, I did put a representative team on the field. Now Bud, that's not nice...Well, I know I could've put in Marmol with the bases loaded and two outs in the 8th. How was _I_ supposed to know Jeff would walk Ramon Martinez. The guy has one hit during the Bush administration. I know. And Howry? Well, it wasn't a save situation and you know how those closers are...yeah....they get all goofy..that's right...Howry's had such a good season and with Wright coming to the plate, I really liked that righty-righty matchup. Yes I know Marmol and Wood are both righties too." C'mon Bud, now you're just being unreasonable...ok...next time I won't hand them the game...yeah...ok...love to the family...you too."

Would've been funny...for a minute anyway...

ASG overall impressions...

Very good game. Excellent pitching and in most cases defense. Shows that baseball doesn't have to be an offensive game to make it fun. I had a great time watching the game, but I think I paced about 1.5 miles throughout. My legs were actually sore from pacing...

The players, even from teams not in contention seemed to play it out and wanted to win. That's the thing, Selig. I think the players probably didn't like the outcome in Milwaukee either. It doesn't have to count to make it a good game. Overall, it was a very well played and exciting game. I personally wish the outcome had been different, but I'm sure there are just as many who were happy with it.

That's a minute. Now we get back to real baseball. THESE games count...

More All Star Game minutes...

So Fukudome sucked. Not a really big surprise of late. Soto aquitted himself well - the two stolen bases were off Sheets, not Soto. Zambrano was dealing. The pickoff throw in the fourth was freakin' gold - best I've seen this year. Ramirez walked, so not much bang for the buck there, but you can't complain. Dempster was awesome in the bottom of the 9th. Wish he could've done that more last year...:)

Marmol, well, Marmol did well. Can't complain about a scoreless inning...that IS what we're paying him for. I didn't get a chance to really see his stuff because I was pacing back and forth and missed many of his pitches. To be honest, I don't remember much about his specific outing. One of the problems with a late ending game and a full day of activity following. I heard/saw a few swings and misses, so that's a good thing.

As I said before, the Cubs put their best foot forward, and it was NOT because of them that Game 1 will not be at Wrigley. More on that later.

Another minute in the books, another BS exhibition game determines the most important advantage in the most important Series in baseball.

Selig - you screwed up. Change it back and move on.