At the ridiculous time of 12:30 today, I sat down to watch the Futures game, just about my favorite event of the All-Star celebration, and was immediately plunged into an I-heart-NY fest, with endless shots of Yankee Stadium new and old, the city, etc. Gary Thorne and Steve Phillips did their usual slick, superficial, blowhard coverage. The USA line-up was never even given thanks to a long commercial break. Thorne started off by calling Carlos Carrasco, the World's starting pitcher, Chris Carrasco. Despite a slobbering introduction of Fernando Martinez, the Mets center field prospect who has spent lots of this season on the DL, many players from both teams got nothing. The guys were too busy yakking with Brian Cashman, as if he didn't get enough air time already, and some front office guy from the Brewers--or cutting away to Erin Andrews in the dugout. Then Peter Gammons, yawn, another fount of misinformation, joined the booth. Little attention was given to most of the players or the game. Instead it was the usual ESPN flavor-of-the-month hype. Maybe sometime ESPN would consider getting someone who actually cares about the minors to be in the booth. Just a thought. I mean, it's an exhibition game. How about putting the players not the talking heads on show?
At 2, I signed off to listen to a live two-hour radio broadcast by the Dalai Lama, who was speaking to the public today at Lehigh University. If I had been able to get tickets for the speech, I would have missed the babbling from NY.
And I did miss almost all of the Phillies game, tuning in just past 4, and just missing Burrell's 3-run homer, followed by a Feliz solo shot, which put the Phils up 6-2 in the 8th. What does Cole Hamels have to do to get a win?! Final: 6-3. It means the Phillies go into the All-Star break in first place in the NL East. Yay, team! Go, Phillies!
