Congratulations to the Newest HOF Members!

Derek Jeter and Larry Walker are the two newest members of the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY.  I count myself fortunate to have not just watched both of them play but to have watched them in person.  I saw Walker on a number of occasions at Busch Stadium II in downtown St. Louis and that's where I also watched Jeter play with the New York Yankees against the Cardinals on June 11th, 2005.

#2 Derek Jeter - "The Captain"

Jeter's selection was a given.  The only question I have is who didn't vote for him?  Jeter was one vote away from unanimous selection.  As I write this the identity of the Hall of Fame elector is unknown and what that voter was thinking is even more difficult to comprehend.  Jeter had a career with almost 35 hundred hits in over 11 thousand at bats and a lifetime .310 batting average.  The image of Jeter to the left is from a trip I made to the Bronx two years ago.  The image of him is on the exterior right field wall of Yankee Stadium.  I was standing on River Avenue when I took the photo.

The day I saw Jeter play against the Cardinals in St. Louis he was 2-4 with two RBI and two runs scored.  In the field he handled five chances flawlessly.  Normally I wouldn't remember one players day from 15 years ago, but I remembered he had a good day and went back to look it up.  "The Captain" was not a favorite of mine at the time, but as the years passed he earned my respect and now I am proud to be able to say I saw him in person and believe him to be one of the best to ever play shortstop in the history of the game.

The Yankees beat the Cardinals 5-0 the day I saw Jeter play.  But, he wasn't the only future Hall of Famer on the Field.  Larry Walker also played that day coming into the game as a pinch hitter in the bottom of the 8th for Cardinal outfield So Taguchi.  And who you ask was on the hill for the Yankees when Walker came into the game?  Why none other than HOF reliever Mariano Rivera who was elected unanimously to the Hall last  year.

The match up ended up in Rivera's favor with Walker being called out on strikes that afternoon. As it turns out Rivera got a four out save and another Hall of Famer, Randy Johnson, got the win.

Larry Walker playing for the St. Louis Cardinals

Walker was near the end of his career that afternoon, but he had an illustrious one.  Walker had a lifetime average of .313 in 17 seasons with 383 home runs and 230 stolen bases.  He started his career with the Montreal Expos then moved to Colorado to play for the Rockies and ended it with his last two years in St. Louis.  In 2004 Walker was a trade deadline pickup and he helped the Cardinals to the World Series that year against the Boston Red Sox.  Walker hit .293 in the 2004 post season including six home runs with two of them coming against the Red Sox in the World Series.

Walker retired after the 2005 season and in those two years he became a huge fan favorite in St. Louis.  Walker says he will enter the Hall with a Colorado Rockie hat on his plaque.  Walker will become just the second Canadian to enter the Hall.  He will join former Chicago Cub pitcher Ferguson Jenkins who was inducted in 1991.

Walker and Jeter will be inducted into the Hall of Fame on July 26th along with former Cardinal Ted Simmons and labor leader Marvin Miller who were selected by the Modern Era baseball committe a little over a month ago.

Congratulations to the Hall of Fame class of 2020!

National League All-Star Team

Major League Baseball is back at it again asking its fans to select the All-Star team.  This is a ludicrous idea because most baseball fans can't name many more players than those on the team they support.  Which is why you have moronic selections each year.

I'm no expert, but after watching the game for 55 years, I know who can play and who isn't living up to their hype.  So, with that in mind here are my National League picks for the upcoming All-Star game which will be played in Minneapolis at Target Field on July 15th.

C      Jonathan Lucroy          Milwaukee Brewers
1B     Paul Goldschmidt        Arizona Diamondbacks
2B     Anthony Rendon         Washington Nationals
3B     Todd Frazier               Cincinnati Reds
SS     Troy Tulowitzki           Colorado Rockies
OF     Giancarlo Stanton       Miami Marlins
OF     Yasiel Puig                  Los Angeles Dodgers
OF     Andrew McCutchen    Pittsburgh Pirates

Of these players only\Tulowitzki, Puig and Stanton are currently leading at their positions.

Another Night Another Choke in Colorado

As if it wasn't bad enough that the St. Louis Cardinals blew up on Tuesday night, the same thing happened last night. The Cardinals gave away leads to the Colorado Rockies of 5-0 and 7-4 only to lose 8-7. Once again the hitters did there job racking up 16 hits. But, the bullpen did NOT do it's job and blew up again for a second consecutive night. The goat last night was Jason Motte who blew the save. Actually it was only his first blown save of the year, so I am going easy on him. But, in general the bullpen has been feckless the last several games. And while I was critical of Ryan Franklin yesterday, to be fair he has had only blown 2 saves all year.

Baseball is a marathon not a sprint, so hopefully the Birds will right the ship today when they wrap up their visit to that haunted house called Coors Field. They still have the best talent in the NL Central, but I am starting to question their heart and desire to win.

Bad Times for the Redbirds in Denver

The St. Louis Cardinals had the dubious distinction of giving up 9 runs in the ninth inning last night and losing to the Colorado Rockies 12-9. The Cardinal bats have been quiet much of the season, but broke out last night in a big way and the team actually led 9-2 in the seventh inning.


But then the arson squad...er, bullpen, came in and played giveaway with the Rockies. Well not the entire bullpen. The 6th and 7th innings went well enough as manager Tony LaRussa burned through three pitchers to get six outs. In the 8th and 9th Dennys Reyes and Ryan Franklin couldn't throw strikes and the Rockies teed off on them when they did. Franklin ended the game by hanging a pitch over the plate that was driven out by Seth Smith for a three run dinger.

In fairness to LaRussa, he was playing in Coors Field where a four run lead doesn't mean much. But, why did he take starter Blake Hawksworth out after only five innings when he had a 6-2 lead? And why didn't LaRussa use Mitchell Boggs who was available and who has been pitching fairly well lately? LaRussa's actions at times are hard to comprehend. Again I'll give him the Coors Field angle of being in a place where a lot of runs can be scored in a hurry (as the Rockies proved last night). But, at this rate his relief staff is going to be worn out by September. Let's hope the Cardinal hitters come to life and pick up the slack.

And to top off the bad news from Colorado, Brad Penny attempted to throw yesterday and reported morepain. That stopped the session short and Penny is back in St. Louis looking at medical options.

What a Game

If you didn't see it, the baseball game last night between the Padres and Rockies will go down as one of the best ever. The Rockies ended up coming from behind in the 13th inning and beating San Diego to advance to the National League playoffs.

It was back and forth and nip and tuck all night long in a game that was pressure packed to say the least. The San Diego crew went up over Colorado in the top of the 13th by a count of eight to six. With it's all star closer Trevor Hoffman coming on in relief it appeared as if the Pads were playoff bound. But, Colorado rallied in the bottom of the inning and pulled it out 9-8 with four extra base hits in a row off the previously untouchable Hoffman. Matt Holiday scored the winning run on a sacrifice fly. Some will say the umpire blew the call but no one from San Diego argued it. From the replay I could not tell if Holiday touched the plate or not but I have to believe the Padres would have been raising cain if they thought Holiday was out.

Wow, what a game!