On a Game with All the Stars
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| The All-Star Game at Not Shea Stadium, 2013 |
Tuesday, July 16, 2013
American League All-Stars vs. National League All-StarsNot Shea Stadium
Major League Baseball
Queens, NY
8:10 PM
Outside the Game:
This likely being the last time that the All Star Game would be in Queens in my lifetime, I decided to take the plunge and get a ticket. The cheapest way to do so was to get one off of Stub Hub, as the alternatives meant getting a season ticket plan that guaranteed a seat, and then being forced into buying an "All-Star Package" that included tickets to Fan Fest and the Home Run Derby, and everything else. I had little interest in all the other fluff, and the upper-deck ticket I snagged from StubHub before leaving for Taiwan was pretty expensive, but it was much less so than every other option, by far.
To recoup this investment, I took a half-day off work that Tuesday to ensure that I'd be there when the gates opened and get my best cost-per-hour at the park. With careful avoidance, I was able to leave for work on time, although there were several scares right before I had to leave. I went home and changed my clothes and headed back out with my game bag for the PATH and subways. It being mid-afternoon, the trains weren't crowded, and there weren't even that many people going to the game on the subways yet. All the doors were going to open at 4:30, and it looked like I'd be getting there at about 4.
The parking lots had just opened, and even still, it was about a quarter filled by the time I arrived. I did a bunch of walking around and taking pictures of the festivities before going in, and the gates did promptly open at 4:30.
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| The mad dash out |
The way home wasn't as bad as I had feared. It was about the same as any early-season game with a big crowd. The express 7 trains were packed to the gills, but it wasn't unbearable. By the time I got to the PATH trains, it was well past midnight, so there was only one train running from 33rd. It wasn't even that crowded, though. By the time I got home, I dumped all my stuff on the kitchen table, went to the bathroom to wash the grime off of an evening spent waiting in the heat, and then trudged off to bed to get not enough sleep for the next day's work.
The Stadium & Fans:
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| Home plate to center field, 2013 All-Star Game |
Not Shea Stadium was still Not Shea Stadium, but they dressed it up quite a lot, and there were more people than usual. In the apple plaza, there were a bunch of contest and merchandise stands set up. Along the third base side of the parking lot, a giant Modell's tent was selling stuff for people who couldn't wait to get inside. Vendors selling programs were lined up at the exit to the subway, in addition to being scattered throughout the outside of the park. Out where the Cirque du Solei usually was located was the "All Star Pre-Party," that you had to have special tickets to get in. From what I could tell, there was a concert stage, and a bunch of activities, including a zip line. I could not have been any less interested. Around the back of the park was closed off with media and VIP tents and all sort of extra things for people better than myself.
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| All-Star Casey |
Once inside, everything was more expensive, there were All-Star signs everywhere, and there were more vendors stuffed into every available space on the promenade. Oh, and there were tons more roving vendors and people in the place, but that was mostly it. The home run apple got an All-Star makeover as well. The Accela Restaurant got turned into extra press space for the game, and there were two extra seating areas wedged into the area behind home plate, protected behind large Plexiglas walls so the inhabitants wouldn't be murdered by foul balls.
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| In case you were wondering |
The networks had at least three basecamps. There was a broadcast booth set up right by Shea Bridge, there was one near the Pepsi Porch, and there was one for the MLB Network on the field down the right field line that stayed constructed until the very last minutes before the game. (It was then re-assembled rather quickly for the post-game as well.)
The crowd turned out to be the largest in Not Shea history, which I suppose makes sense. It at least gave the random guy in the Brewers jersey who you see at every game a reason to be wearing a Brewer's jersey at Not Shea.
But everything about the park seemed the same, to be honest. Just more people.
At the Game with Oogie:
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| Of course I scored it. From a distance, however. |
I was a big old sucker as far as merchandise went. I bought the All-Star game home-run apple, and a T-shirt, and a Matt Harvey All-Star fake-LEGO minifig, and the commemorative smooshed pennies. They saw me coming, let me tell you. The give-away at the door was a crappy "cause wristband," but a Walgreens stand on the promenade gave you free bags to hold your stuff and a pedometer, for some reason. The one thing I didn't buy was the fake-LEGO baseball field sets they were selling for something like $75. A LEGO ballpark was a project I was thinking about for the off season, and this would have been perfect except for two things: 1) the baseplate was just a crappy printed-on field instead of something more substantial, and 2) they didn't have a Mets set for sale at the Mets' stadium. I mean, really.
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| Sucker twice-removed |
But my first stop was the Shake Shack in back, because I knew what level of epicness those lines would get to later. I got my single shack and fries at the jacked-up All-Star prices they justified by throwing in a pair of cheap sunglasses with the meal.
The seat I had bought at StubHub was in the upper deck between third base and left field. It turned out to be in the next-to-last row in the stadium, but to be honest, the view wasn't that bad. Only the furthest corner of left field was obscured from view, so it wasn't awful. The view to the field was fine, and everything didn't seem very far away. I was jammed between some Yankee fans on my left and some Cardinal fans on my right, and Mets fans in front and behind. It was weird seeing Not Shea this filled, and I will say that a big crowd actually adds something important to the park that is not there when it is only half filled.
My night ended with a personal touch. Bud Everything-That-Is-Wrong-With-The-World Selig was in attendance, and after the game, he presented the MVP award to Mariano Rivera and his family. By this time, I was able to get downstairs to watch the presentation. As he was walking off the field, I yelled, "You suck Selig!" as loudly as I could. It was at a quiet moment, and he turned his head a little when I yelled it, so I like to think he heard me.
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| A legend, and some guy in an ill-fitting suit |
And if you are reading this, Bud: You do suck. Stop killing baseball, you useless piece of excrement.
The Game:
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| First pitch, 2013 All-Star Game |
In theory, a tightly fought, low-scoring game is the sort of thing I live for, but with the constant replacements and the lack of overall flow, the game just sort felt kind of dislocated. Also, the fact that the teams were both using the DH in a National League park smacked of Selig's dire intervention and the slippery slope to the abolishment of the last vestige of real baseball we have left in this league that is rapidly become more plastic than it was in the 70s.
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| Tom Terrific |
The pre-game was all very dignified, with Red Sox, Phillies, and Braves players getting booed within an inch of their lives. There seemed to be some confusion on the American League line-up and everyone was shifted down way more than they should have been. There was a tribute to veterans that some sort of voting was done about before the game. They came out after the players were announced, and each one of them received a flag flown at the stadium of their favorite team by the All-Star player from that team, which was nice.
For a game being hosted in NY, this All-Star game had the smallest roster of NY players in decades: two a piece for the Mets and Yankees, and only three of those were starters for their respective teams. (The entire Yankees first-string team being on the Disabled List for most of the season likely had something big to do with it. The only two Mets that deserved to be there were there.)
But one of those Mets was the starting pitcher and sophomore phenom, Matt Harvey. This would mark the first time I would see him pitch in person, and given the negative juju that often brings to Mets' pitchers, I was a tiny bit worried about it.
When Harvey's first pitch in the top of the first was doubled to the gap, I wasn't that worried. Trout was clearly sitting dead red and got his shot in. Bravo, and let's move on. His second pitch decked one of the only other New Yorker's in the game, Robinson Cano. He took his base to make it first and second with no outs, but he was quickly pulled from the game for a pinch-runner. This wasn't going to be a fiasco. Everything was going to be all right. Krusty will come... Krusty will come...
Harvey then got Cabrera, Davis, and Bautista in order, striking two of them out, and then I knew it would be okay. The National League went in order in their half, and let's get used to that sentence for the rest of the night. Harvey neatly took care of the AL in the second, striking out one, and making a perfect All-Star game debut, if you ignore those pesky two first batters.
It was then that the cavalcade of every-inning pitching switches came into play. The Mets' David Wright led off the bottom of the second and ironically grounded out to third. The NL went in order after him. The AL did as well in the third, and the NL went in order again in their half.
The AL got something going in the fourth. Another leadoff double moved over on the following short single. A sacrifice fly got the run in before lumbering David Ortiz hit into a double play to end the half with the AL up, 1-0. Perhaps not up to tying the game, the NL at least broke up the no-hitter with a one-out single by Carlos Beltran, who was replaced by the Pirate's McCutchen at first. The pinch runner promptly stole second, moved to third on a ground out, and then got stranded there.
The AL went back to it in the fifth with another lead-off double followed by a single. Play was then interrupted during the next at-bat by a Yankee fan in a Cano jersey running out onto the field. He was all smiles when he reached second base and playfully raised up his hands as security approached. He stopped smiling as he got leveled by a security guard and roughed up before taken off the field where he was cuffed and charged by the waiting police. The batter grounded to second after the delay, but he got the run in from third before a double-play ended the inning 2-0, American League. The NL went in order, as did the AL in the top of the sixth, and the player replacements started to come fast and furious. The NL mixed it up with a leadoff walk in the bottom of the sixth before going in order, and the AL did the same in the top of the seventh.
With one out in the bottom of the seventh, David Wright got his last at-bat and gave the home crowd what they wanted, with a clean single. This led to a change of pitchers for the AL, a strikeout, and then another pitching change and another strikeout to strand Wright at first. Wright was swapped out after the inning, and my interest in the game waned considerably.
Neil Diamond came out between innings and sang "Sweet Caroline," the Red Sox's standard, for about a half hour. There were verses I never even imagined in that song. The AL seemed energized, as they got back-to-back singles in the top of the eighth before a double-play erased two of the runners. Kipnis then got a double to bring in an insurance run. He then made it to third on a wild pitch before getting stranded there by a strikeout to end the half. Given the offensive production to this point, the AL had an insurmountable 3-0 lead.
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| The greatest |
And then Mo. AL manager Leiland brought Rivera in for the eighth because if the NL inexplicably came back to get the lead in the bottom of the eighth, Leiland would likely reneg on his promise to use Rivera in the game, as the NL might not give them the opportunity to have another pitcher. I found out later than Rivera and the catcher came out alone to warm up, but at the time, I didn't even notice they were alone. They started to play "Enter Sandman," and I was torn between being really annoyed they would play that in our park and being appreciative that the tribute to Rivera was happening. He stood out on the mound acknowledging the crowd for about five minutes before warming up. He eventually got the NL in order.
The most unlikely of events happened in the top of the ninth, as Prince Fielder hit a line drive to right that got past the diving right fielder and let the sweating, huffing, bulky Fielder drag himself around the bases for a triple. Of all the things I saw this evening, that was the statistically least likely, unless he decided to try and steal home. The AL went in order after that, giving him time to catch his breath. The NL started the bottom of the ninth with two strikeouts, but a two-out double by Goldschmidt gave the NL a tiny ray of hope, before Pedro Alvarez snuffed it out by grounding weakly out to second. The AL won, 3-0. And I'm not sure anyone cares.
The Scorecard:
American League vs. National League, 07/16/13. American League wins, 4-0.
In a day full of rip-offs, the scorecard was particularly galling. The "Special Stadium Edition" of program (as opposed to the "Special Collectors Edition," also on sale) was a whopping $15. Granted the program was a bit more beefy than normal, it in no way justified the jacked-up price that much.
It does mark the first time that I even underestimated a scorecard. Usually, I assume that the card is crammed in and will not going to provide enough space for everything, so I immediately start by conserving as much space as possible by trying to get two people on the same line or saving up space for the pitchers in a long game. For once, the All-Star game scorecard actually provided more room than I actually needed, with a plethora of space for position players and fielders. And it was on nice, heavy-weight cardboard.
Thus ends the nice things I'll say about it. They chose to make the background color dark and solid, so it was impossible to write legible notes anywhere in the margin. Also, they printed the scorecard on two sides, so you had to keep going back and forth, but they didn't even print it on two sides so that you could keep the book in one position and just flip the one page. You had to flip over the entire book every half inning, and it made it incredibly hard to quickly check something on the other team's side.
All of that said, there wasn't much really odd scoring-wise that happened in the game outside of all the replacements. I did get to make a note on a fan running out on the field, which I never got to do before. (But it had to be crammed into a blank line above the umpires listing because of the solid background.)
The Accommodations:
I was back at my apartment in Hoboken, early enough to still be exhausted, and late enough to know that I was going to continue to be so the next day.
2013 Stand-Alone Event
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