****Official 2016 All-Star Game Thread****

[Dinny Bossa Nova]

Go AL.

Beat The Cubs.

Dinny

[KChiefs1]

Originally Posted by Why Not?

Just got back from strolling around downtown SD in full Royals gear. Proud as a mother****er. It was excellent!

That would be so much fun to do tonight. Did you get a lot of comments?


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[Why Not?]

[QUOTE=KChiefs1;12313246]That would be so much fun to do tonight. Did you get a lot of comments?


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It was a lot of fun. Few comments. Lots of what seemed like jealous looks. Lol

[Pasta Little Brioni]

Tag was still on the jersey eh

[C3HIEF3S]

Hey, if they don't want to change the WS home field advantage format then I am totally fine with the AL getting it nearly every year.

[Anyong Bluth]

Originally Posted by KChiefs1

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I can actually understand Salvy 90% of the time, but tonight I don't know if I picked up one word he said.

[KChiefs1]

Originally Posted by KChiefs1

First teammates to drive in all of the winning team's runs in an All-Star Game.

[siberian khatru]

Here's our @nydnsports back page. @royals @mets #terrycollins @apse_sportmedia #erichosmer https://t.co/fDLxispHpL pic.twitter.com/1Izgn1QBGq

— Back Page Guy NYDN (@BackPageGuyNYDN) July 13, 2016

[Why Not?]

Originally Posted by siberian khatru

Here's our @nydnsports back page. @royals @mets #terrycollins @apse_sportmedia #erichosmer https://t.co/fDLxispHpL pic.twitter.com/1Izgn1QBGq

— Back Page Guy NYDN (@BackPageGuyNYDN) July 13, 2016

Such a great headline

[KChiefs1]

http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/page/...ional-league-2

Jayson Stark
ESPN Senior Writer

SAN DIEGO -- We've seen this movie before. It was supposed to be Big Papi's night. It was supposed to be the Chicago Cubs' night. We had our All-Star scripts and our All-Star storylines written in our heads. And then ...

As usual, when it was time to hit the big stage Tuesday night, it turned into the Kansas City Royals' show.

It turned into Eric Hosmer's magical All-Star evening. It turned into Salvador Perez's magical All-Star evening. It may have been July, not October, but it all felt very familiar -- two men who have spent so much time on the big stage doing what they've now done so many times.

Hosmer sliced a second-inning homer to left field in the first All-Star at-bat of his life. Two batters later, Perez became the first catcher in Royals history to make an All-Star Game home run trot, bopping a towering two-run bomb to left off his friend, Johnny Cueto. An inning later, Hosmer would single in yet another run, on his way to an All-Star MVP award.

And that was the story of the 2016 All-Star Game: Royals 4, National League 2. And it all made perfect sense -- other than the fact that a team that hit two home runs in the entire World Series changed the All-Star Game with two home runs in the same inning.

"Wow. Crazy," Perez said, with a smile as wide as Coronado Beach, as that news was delivered to his locker. "That's why baseball is crazy. You know that. But crazy good. Yessir."

Crazy good. Yessir. The Royals are full of crazy goodness, every time they need it most. So here is more of the craziness they sprung on the world, on the way to handing home-field advantage to whoever the heck the American League representative in the World Series may turn out to be:


Denis Poroy/Getty Images
• Never once, in the six seasons and 575 games they had started together as big league teammates, had Hosmer and Perez homered in the same inning of any game -- regular season or postseason. So of course they both went deep in the very first inning in which they both batted in an All-Star Game.

• And who gave up those two homers? Didn't it make perfect, crazy-good sense that it would be Cueto, their teammate on the World Series Express last fall? Only once, in 86 previous All-Star Games, had any player hit a home run off a pitcher he had played with the year before. (The lone instance: Alfonso Soriano homered off Roger Clemens in the 2004 Midsummer Classic.) Then Hosmer and Perez did it in a span of three hitters in this game. Yeah, right. Of course they did.

• And no catcher had ever hit an All-Star home run against a pitcher he'd caught the year before. But you can't say "never" anymore, thanks to Perez's homer. ("Never?" Perez gulped when we passed along that bulletin, then let out a giant laugh. "That's why we're tight, boys.")

• And oh, by the way, this was all very strange on Cueto's end, too. He hadn't given up two home runs in the same inning of a regular-season game since July 8, 2014. That was 70 starts ago.

• Meanwhile, just one other time before this had any set of teammates homered in the same inning of the same All-Star Game, according to research by Elias Sports Bureau. You have to go back more than four decades to find the last time it happened, to Steve Garvey and Jim Wynn hitting long balls off Vida Blue in 1975.

• And finally, how rare is it for two teammates to drive in all the runs for the winning team in any All-Star Game? So rare, according Elias research, that it had never happened before.

But Hosmer and Perez know all about what it takes to do stuff that had never been done. Or stuff that people kept telling them couldn't be done. It's the specialty of their house. And on this night, it was the American League that reaped the benefits, not just the long-suffering citizens of Kansas City.

"I enjoyed that," said AL starter Chris Sale, who had fallen behind, 1-0, on a Kris Bryant homer, before Hosmer and Perez took over. "Because the last time I faced them, those same guys took me deep. So it was nice to see that for me and not against me."

The only two teammates who had even homered in the same game in any of the previous 40 All-Star Games were David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez, of the 2004 Red Sox. And it's an excellent bet that Hosmer and Perez won't approach the same orbit as the 1,080 career homers Ortiz and Manny would go on to mash in their careers.

But in their own way, Hosmer and Perez have become the faces of this generation of Royals, much the same way that Papi and Manny were the faces of the curse-busting Red Sox. So for these two men to share this moment, on this night, left both of them with a singular All-Star glow that is going to take a long, long time to fade.

"Couldn't have worked out any better," Hosmer said. "Salvy and I go way back. A lot of you guys know we have been playing this game together for a long time. And to share that experience and have the games we did tonight was really special."

Moments after uttering those words, Hosmer strolled across the clubhouse to his locker, the MVP trophy tucked under his arm. Perez looked up in mid-interview and lurched toward his All-Star co-star, to deliver a high-five and a hug, saying: "What's up, my MVP?"

"Hoz is the best," Perez said, after that little hug break was over. "We play together a lot. And I feel so happy for him and for his family. And now he's MVP, so that's exciting."

Their team has had a frustrating first half, thanks to an onslaught of injuries and rotation issues. But if you've had a tough time looking past the standings, you might have missed something: Both Hosmer and Perez have used that October glory for fuel. They're both headed for the best offensive seasons of their careers. So what they did on this night, on this stage, came as no surprise to their hitting coach.

"It's no surprise to me, because they've done it the last two years," Dale Sveum said. "For them, this might be a much smaller stage.

"This is kind of their setting," the Royals' hitting coach went on. "And I've seen it the last two years. They're just special people when it comes to that stage."

No Royal had hit a home run in an All-Star Game since Bo Jackson in 1989. And before this night, only Bo would know what it took to be an All-Star MVP. But not anymore. Because Hosmer and Perez would turn this into yet one more night when this generation of Royals rose up to rewrite the history of their franchise.

It might not be enough to propel back toward another ride on the parade floats. But no matter where this journey leads them, Eric Hosmer and Salvador Perez will always have the memories of this crazy-good evening playing on the DVRs in their brains.

Crazy good. Yessir.

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[KChiefs1]

http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/po...-all-star-game

Ten things you may have missed during the All-Star Game

SAN DIEGO -- For the first couple of innings, it looked like we'd have a high-scoring, back-and-forth All-Star Game, but the pitchers dug in. The National League had its chances, but the American League bullpen held on for the 4-2 victory. Here are 10 things from the game:

1. The anticlimactic Jose Fernandez-David Ortiz showdown. Before the game, Fernandez had said he'd groove fastballs to Ortiz, maybe even take a little bit off his high-powered heater. "I told him yesterday that I am going to throw him three fastballs down the middle,” Fernandez said. “I want to watch him hit a home run."

Instead, when Ortiz stepped up with one out in the third inning, Fernandez started him with an 80-mph changeup. Ortiz, leading the majors in OBP and slugging at age 40, took it for a ball. You're not going to outsmart the old man.

Ortiz planned to homer in second AB. "My boy told me he wasn't going to throw me nothing but fastballs and the first pitch was a changeup"

— Evan Drellich (@EvanDrellich) July 13, 2016

Fernandez then fired three straight 95-mph fastballs, one outside for a ball, the next two fouled off. Maybe he wanted to see Ortiz hit a home run, but the competitive juices took over, and he threw another changeup for ball, a 96-mph fastball that Ortiz again fouled back and then a 3-2 curveball that was inside.

Ortiz pointed to Fernandez as he walked to first base, where he was removed for a pinch-runner. The AL players greeted Ortiz with hugs on the field, his 10th All-Star Game over after two plate appearances. The walk did start a rally, however, as Xander Bogaerts doubled and Eric Hosmer followed with an RBI single to give the AL a 4-1 lead.

Anyway, I have to agree with my colleague here. Why did Ortiz's night end before the shadows covered the infield?

Enjoyed the hugfest, but why is David Ortiz only playing 3 innings -- & getting 2 PA -- in THIS All Star Game. Give this man the stage.

— Jayson Stark (@jaysonst) July 13, 2016

2. Hello, old friend. Johnny Cueto helped the Kansas City Royals win the World Series, but former teammates Eric Hosmer and Salvador Perez greeted him with home runs in the second inning, giving the AL a 3-1 lead. Both hit 1-1 pitches out to left field -- Hosmer hit a cutter, Perez a 93-mph two-seamer -- to become the first teammates to homer in the same All-Star Game since Ortiz and Manny Ramirez of the Boston Red Sox did it in 2004, and only the second pair to homer in the same inning, after the Los Angeles Dodgers' Steve Garvey and Jimmy Wynn went back-to-back off Vida Blue in 1975.

Eric Hosmer: 1st @Royals player with an All-Star Game HR since Bo Jackson in 1989.

— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) July 13, 2016

3. Will Harris versus Aledmys Diaz with the game on the line. The game's crucial late-inning matchup came in the top of the eighth. With the AL up 4-2, the NL loaded the bases with two outs against Andrew Miller after two hits and a walk, and Terry Collins sent Aledmys Diaz up to pinch-hit for Corey Seager. That made sense: Get the right-handed Diaz in there to face southpaw Miller. Ned Yost countered with Astros closer Will Harris. So Harris, claimed off waivers less than two years ago, was facing Diaz, who was removed from the Cardinals' 40-man roster last summer (meaning any team could have claimed him), with World Series home-field advantage still up for grabs. You can't predict baseball.

Diaz struck out looking on a 3-2 pitch.

4. Ned's master plan works. If the Royals miss the playoffs and I'm an AL team heading to the postseason, I'm firing my manager on the last day of the season and hiring Ned Yost. (This is a joke.)

Anyway, Yost laid out his game plan on Monday, telling us the order he'd use his five starting pitchers, and then he'd go to his bullpen. It worked. Kelvin Herrera pitched the sixth, Dellin Betances the seventh, Miller and Harris the eighth, and Orioles closer Zach Britton finished it off, working around a leadoff single by Daniel Murphy to get Paul Goldschmidt on a comebacker to the mound and Nolan Arenado on a 5-4-3 double play.

Eric Hosmer, Salvador Perez, Kelvin Herrera, and Ned Yost excelling on a national stage. Feels like October.

— Rany Jazayerli (@jazayerli) July 13, 2016

5. Kris Bryant is officially 0-for-6 against Chris Sale with six strikeouts. By official, we mean during the regular season. Bryant swung at the first pitch from Sale in the bottom of the first and crushed a 410-foot home run to left field. As ESPN's Jesse Rogers reported, Bryant's father, Mike, actually ran into Sale in San Diego on Sunday and told him to quit striking out his son. You weren't supposed to listen, Chris.

6. Cole Hamels pitches scoreless inning with eight stitches in his chin. I'm not here to pass judgment, but sounds like Hamels, who is from San Diego, may have had a fun night:

Cole Hamels needed eight stitches in his chin after he tripped coming out of bathroom in his hotel room at 5 am. "Now I can sleep," he said.

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) July 13, 2016

7. Check those baseballs! Commissioner Rob Manfred said earlier Tuesday that there's nothing different about the baseball this year despite the huge increase in home runs, but the All-Star balls certainly were different … and pretty cool, with blue-and-gold laces:

JBJ singled, and this ball has the scuff marks to prove it.

Own it: https://t.co/Lt2LxMqb7z #ASG pic.twitter.com/ASikUOvOce

— MLB (@MLB) July 13, 2016

8. Francisco Lindor's socks. The players love to bring out their glow-in-the-dark shoes for the All-Star Game, but I liked Lindor's bright red knee-high socks with “All-Star Game” stitched onto them. You can sort of see them here:

FRANKIE! @Indians' star @Lindor12BC is getting ready for tonight's #ASG! #BaseballisFun https://t.co/v8TFeBn2dP

— #BaseballisFun (@MLBONFOX) July 12, 2016

9. The CarGo-Altuve exchange After collecting his first All-Star Game hit in the third inning, Carlos Gonzalez set off an entertaining sequence with fellow Venezuelan Jose Altuve by sliding into second softly with his spikes high before getting up and throwing fake punches at Altuve’s stomach.

.@CarGo5, comin' in hot!#ASG⭐️ pic.twitter.com/Zx7wNZGeqL

— Colorado Rockies (@Rockies) July 13, 2016

10. Fernando Rodney shoots the arrow. He usually does it only when he closes out a game, but Rodney -- whom the Padres just traded to the Marlins -- saluted the Padres fans with an arrow after he was removed after getting the first two outs in the eighth.

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[KChiefs1]

All-Star Game TV rating in KC 18.8, highest among US markets. St, Louis next, 10.4, Chicago 10.2, Boston 10.2


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[KChiefs1]

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[KChiefs1]

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[KChiefs1]

Eric Hosmer homered so hard he tattooed his bat with the ball

Kansas City Royals first baseman Eric Hosmer was named All-Star Game MVP after homering, singling and driving in two runs in the American League's 4-2 win over the National League on Tuesday night.

How hard did Hosmer hit that second-inning homer? Hard enough to tattoo his bat with the ink from the baseball:

Hosmer's bat headed to the Hall of Fame after the All-Star Game.

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[Prison Bitch]

Originally Posted by KChiefs1

All-Star Game TV rating in KC 18.8, highest among US markets. St, Louis next, 10.4, Chicago 10.2, Boston 10.2


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Cards BFIB?