Scenes From McCovey Cove

Although I work less than a mile away from where The 2007 All Star Game is being played, there was zero chance of getting inside the park. I don't have season tickets, I'm not lucky, and I'm far from being rich. But I was able to to walk down to King Street and enjoy some of the atmosphere.

With an overcast sky and rare San Francisco humidity in the air I ambled around AT& T Park with no other agenda than checking out the sights and sounds. But I couldn't help but overhear all the scalpers announcing their prices when passerbys asked- $400, $475, and $600 for one ticket. There is just no way to justify spending that sort of cash on what is only an entertaining exhibition game.

But it is a part of baseball tradition. It’s Ted Williams 1941 game winning home run. It’s Pete Rose crashing into Ray Fosse in 1970. It’s Fred Lynn’s 1983 grand slam. It’s Tori Hunter robbing Barry Bonds of a home run in 2002. It’s all the greats who have played the game since 1933.On a personal level, it’s also the only all star game I watch. The Pro Bowl, with its absence of strategy and policy of light contact, makes a mockery of what football is all about. The NBA is just a bunch of millionaire kids listlessly going up and down the court throwing alley oops to each other. I can’t say much about the NHL because I hardly watch any hockey at all.

So it was cool to get close to the action. To see the street-wide red carpet in front of the park and watch all the boats and ginormous baseballs floating in McCovey Cove and to be at The Place where the entire baseball world has gathered. My original plan was to check of the sights and watch the game in a bar, but all my favorites were just too crowded (The 21st Amendment, MoMo's, and O'Neills). So I hopped on my commuter train and made it home in time to see Griffey put the NL ahead 1-0 in the bottom of the 1st.And right now it's 3-2 AL.

Being a Boston Red Sox fan, it was great to see Big Papi start the game (although he didn't get a hit) and to watch Josh Beckett strike out 2 in his 2 innings. The highlight has been Ichiro's inside the park homerun, which was the first ever in an All Star Game. Now it's 5-2 courtesy of Cleveland's Victor Ramirez, who knocked in Boston's Mike Lowell.So we go to the bottom of the 8th and the Red Sox's closer Jonathan Papelbon will get the chance for the hold. Seattle's Putz (who has a great fastball and a terrible name) will most likely save it for yet another American League victory.

. . . . . a little while later. The NL made it very interesting, loading the bases in the bottom of the 9th, but The American Leaugue continues it's 10 year dominance of The All Star Game. Why does the AL always win? The easy answer is they have more talent, but with free agency players jump leauges every season. I'd have to say it's more akin to a coin flip. Technically you have a 50-50 chance of picking the right side . . . but that doesn't mean you couldn't flip tails ten times in a row.