I grew up listening to the Cardinals play on KMOX radio out of St. Louis in Louisiana. The station would fade in and out during the broadcasts of those games, but Musial stands out as the player I remember the most.
After so much talk about the Cardinals fans being so great even with visiting players, they booed Ted Lilly pitcher for the Cubs lustily when he was introduced.
The game itself was anti-climatic after Musial left the field and President Obama threw the first pitch of the summer classic.
The last two days were not kind to Albert Pujols, since he struggled to make the second round of the Home Run Derby on Monday night and then made a crucial error in the first inning of the All-Star Game and went 0-for-3 at the plate.
Pujols will be glad to have a couple of days rest before the Cardinals entertain the Diamondbacks on Friday.
He may have had his vision obscured by a base runner passing in front of him, when he booted the ground ball in the first inning. His error led to an unearned run that enabled the the AL All-Stars to take an early 2-0 lead.
The NL All-Stars came back to score three runs in the bottom of the second inning for a 3-2 lead, but Joe Mauer doubled in the tying run in the fifth inning to tie the score at 3-3.
Curtis Granderson tripled in the eighth inning and Adam Jones hit a sacrifice fly to score Granderson and give the AL All-Stars the 4-3 win.
The NL All-Stars only managed a double and four singles in the contest. The two teams combined for only three extra-base hits.
The pitchers were in control most of the game, with the pitchers for both teams only issuing one walk during the game.
Roy Halladay made 35 pitches in the first two innings, but the other AL pitchers pitched the last seven innings on just 73 pitches.
Mark Buehrle made nine pitches in the third inning, Zack Greinke made 10 pitches in the fourth inning, Edwin Jackson threw four pitches in the fifth inning, Felix Hernandez tossed eight pitches in the sixth inning, and Jonathan Paplebon threw 10 pitches in the seventh inning.
Joe Nathan made 19 pitches in the eighth and Mariano Rivera threw 13 in the ninth inning. Halladay, Nathan, and Rivera combined to make 67 pitches, while the pitchers from the third through the seventh inning made only 41 pitches.
The NL has shown that Bud Selig’s idea of giving the home-field advantage in the World Series to the winner would make the All-Star Game more competitive is a bunch of garbage.
It's a sickening feeling for NL fans to see their team go down to defeat for the 13th consecutive time and it makes it even worse knowing the NL team will have only three home games if the World Series goes to seven games.
It's not good for the All-Star Game to be dominated by one league for so many years. It has reached the point where the NL team almost expects the AL to come back and win, even when the NL is ahead.
I will still watch the All-Star Game next year, even though it has become a one-sided contest for the last 13 years.
It would be nice to know the reason the AL wins year after year.
I have heard it has something to do with the DH, but it could just be a cycle since the NL won every year from 1963 to 1982 except when the AL won in 1971. Since the DH originated in 1973 the idea that the DH kept the NL from winning can be thrown out.
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