All Star Game Diary

I have few rules in life, but one of them is this:  Any time the All Star Game is happening less than 50 miles from where I live and I can't go because the cheapest tickets were over $300 on Stubhub, I have to keep a running diary.  I have pretty low expectations for this All Star Game.  Hopefully I'll be wrong.  Here's what transpired:

8:06- Candice Glover finishes the national anthem.  Solid job.

8:09- Joe Buck is talking.  Tim McCarver is doing his last All Star Game for Fox.  Can he take Joe Buck with him?

8:10- Tom Seaver is wearing a hideous orange National League jersey to throw out the first pitch.  I'm all for Tom Seaver throwing out the first pitch, but he should but wearing a Mets jersey.

8:12- Fox shows Seaver's pitch from a terrible camera angle.  The pitch would have been down and away from a right handed batter.  It was respectable, but certainly not as good as this.

8:16- They show Torii Hunter in the clubhouse before the game.  I'm looking forward to his son playing football at Notre Dame.  They also show Mariano Rivera speaking in the clubhouse.  More on him later.

8:19- The game finally starts.  This game should start no later than 7:40.  Mike Trout doubles on the first pitch against Matt Harvey.  As good as Harvey has been this year, Clayton Kershaw has been better.  But the game is at Citi Field, so whatever.

8:21- Harvey hits Robinson Cano right on the knee.  That's not good.  If this wasn't the All Star Game, that would definitely merit retaliation.

8:23- Miguel Cabrera has 95 RBIs already?  He's hitting .365 with 30 home runs?  Wow.

8:25- Down goes Miguel Cabrera on strikes.  Robinson Cano is leaving the game for Dustin Pedroia.  I'm going to excuse Jim Leyland for this early substitution.  I hope Cano is okay.

8:29- After getting Chris Davis to fly out, Harvey gets Jose Bautista swinging.  He better come back for the second inning.

8:32- Max Scherzer has two different color eyes and he's starting for the American League.  Brandon Phillips is leading off for the National League.

8:34- Chris Sale is warming up in the bullpen for the AL.  Why?

8:36- Quick inning for Scherzer.

8:39- Harvey is back out for the second inning.  Good.  I just looked up the box score for the first All Star Game of my life.  There were ten pitchers used in the game.  Between the two teams.  Dave Winfield, Ryne Sandberg, Dale Murphy, and Ozzie Smith played the entire game.

8:42- Erin Andrews just interviewed Tom Seaver.  So I just looked up the 1967 All Star Game, which was finished by Tom Seaver.  The game went 15 innings and the AL used five pitchers.  There were ten players that played the entire game.

8:45- Harvey finishes a second scoreless inning.  He's probably done.  I would like for him to pitch another inning, but I can live with two.  The problem is that everybody else is only going to go one inning.

8:48- Chris Sale is in to start the second inning for the AL.  That's ridiculous.  Max Scherzer threw 12 pitches.  He could go another inning.

8:49- Erin Andrews is on TV again.  It doesn't really matter who she's talking to.

8:51- I wasn't sure what the first All Star Game that I remembered was, but I checked baseball-reference.com and it was definitely the 1991 All Star Game.  I remember an All Star Game in the SkyDome, but I don't remember the 1990 All Star Game at Wrigley Field.  The nonsense had already started by 1991.  Only two players played the whole game (future New York Mets legends Bobby Bonilla and Roberto Alomar) and 14 pitchers were used.

8:52- I chuckle at the thought of Bobby Bonilla being on the Mets' payroll until 2035.  No, really, I'm not joking.

8:55- The best left handed pitcher in baseball is in the game.

8:59- X-rays were negative on Robinson Cano.  Here's George Costanza's reaction.

9:01- 1-2-3 inning for Kershaw.  One Bugs Bunny curveball that was fouled off by Pedroia.  He's had that pitch since he came up, but he had been throwing more sliders the last couple of years.  This year it seems like he's gone back to the curve a little bit more.

9:04- Jim Leyland sends Chris Sale back out for another inning.  His arm is probably going to fall off after the game.

9:08- Ken Rosenthal interviews Robinson Cano and tells him he's the one Yankee that can't get hurt.  But it's going to be okay, Alex Rodriguez is coming back soon.

9:09- Sorry, Yankee fans.  That was mean.  We can all agree that Alex Rodriguez just needs to go away.

9:10- They show a shorter version of this commercial featuring the Phillie Phanatic and the best mascot in baseball, Mr. Met.  Really good.

9:13- Patrick Corbin is in for the National League.  The good news is Clayton Kershaw won't get hurt.  The bad news is Clayton Kershaw is out of the game.

9:14- Miguel Cabrera leads off with a double.  This is what happens when you take Kershaw out.

9:15- Chris Davis is up.  I really want him to hit 74 home runs.  Obviously that won't happen.  But he's right, we just need to agree that the real home run record is 61.

9:18- Sacrifice fly by Jose Bautista to give the AL a 1-0 lead.  This is what happens when you take Kershaw out.

9:19- Joe Buck says Jim Leyland is managing to win this game.  We'll see.

9:21- I just went through Paul Pierce's #THANKYOUBOSTON album on Facebook and liked all 44 pictures.  Lots of good pictures, but this was probably my favorite:

Thank you, Paul Pierce.

9:23- Vin Scully is talking about the Golden Age of New York Baseball (1947-1958).  Yes!  I wish Vin was calling this game instead of Joe Buck.  I know that's not going to happen (Vin doesn't travel east of Denver anymore), but let's find somebody better than Joe Buck.  Shouldn't be too difficult.

9:25- They're talking about how long it would take to ride the subway between the old stadiums in New York.  I wish I could travel back in time to the 1950s and go to baseball games at Ebbets Field, old Yankee Stadium (as in pre-renovation Yankee Stadium), and the Polo Grounds.

9:27- Andrew McCutchen pinch runs for Carlos Beltran and steals second.  Why are starters coming out of the game in the fourth inning?  And Felix Hernandez is pitching, but I'll give Chris Sale credit for going two and putting up an astronomical pitch count.  Those 24 pitches might ruin the rest of his career.

9:30- David Wright grounds out to end the inning with a runner at third.  The AL still leads 1-0.

9:38- With runners on the corners for the AL, a fan ran out on the field.  I tried to find the Seinfeld clip of George in the bodysuit on the phone with Jerry after running onto the field in Yankee Stadium, but I couldn't find it on Youtube.

9:40- J.J. Hardy grounds into a fielder's choice to give the AL a 2-0 lead.

9:52- The NL has made a bunch of changes.  We're more than halfway through the game now, so I can live with this.  The AL still hasn't taken out any position player other than Cano.  As Christopher "Mad Dog" Russo might say, excellent job out of Jim Leyland in that scenario.

9:53- They're interviewing Jason Grilli.  It's nice that's the Pirates are having a good season and he's doing well, but I don't really care about this.

10:01- Grant Balfour is pitching for the AL.  I'm excited that an Aussie's in, but come on, Matt Moore threw nine pitches.  He should pitch another inning.

10:02- Balfour walks Michael Cuddyer on four pitches.

10:08- After a bad start, Balfour gets out of the inning without any further trouble.

10:11- It's the Midsummer Classic, I have to drink a Summer Ale.

10:12- Aroldis Chapman is in for the NL.  I saw him hit 104 on the radar gun on Friday night in Atlanta.

10:15- Chapman just got a double play, but he's only throwing mid to high 90s right now.  Is he okay?

10:17- There we go, 101.  Adam Jones just struck out to end the top of the seventh.  He started the game.  Leyland has let his starters play.

10:24- Nice play by Manny Machado to throw out Paul Goldschmidt leading off the inning.

10:25- Mike Trout, David Wright, and Michael Cuddyer are the only starters still in the game.

10:26- Speaking of David Wright, he just singled for the second hit of the game for the NL.

10:27- Greg Holland is coming out after pitching a third of an inning.  Leyland has done a good job with the position players, but his use of his pitchers has been pretty ridiculous.

10:29- Big shift on for the left handed hitting Dominic Brown.  Come on, Dominic, get the tying run on base.  Lay down a bunt down that third base line.

10:30- Nope.  Dominic Brown goes down on strikes and Jim Leyland makes another pitching change.

10:34- Buster Posey strikes out to end the inning.  I'm rooting for the NL, but it's hard not to enjoy Buster Posey striking out.

10:39- Mariano Rivera might come in for the 8th inning because Leyland is worried about the NL taking the lead in the 8th and then not having to hit in the 9th.  Come on AL, score some runs.  Rivera should pitch the 9th.

10:44- RBI double for Jason Kipnis.  Can we get Rivera in the 9th please?

10:46- We're going to the bottom of the 8th.  It looks like Rivera is coming in.  This is wrong.  Rivera should finish the game.  Neil Diamond, the greatest songwriter/performer of this or any generation, is singing Sweet Caroline.  That's extra time for somebody else to warm up.  Come on, Leyland.

10:51- Nuts.  The greatest baseball player I have ever seen is taking the mound one inning too early.  Great reception for Rivera from the other players and the fans.  There have been so many things wrong with baseball for the last 25 years.  Mariano Rivera has been one of the things that was good about baseball.  Great pitcher, great person.  Baseball won't be the same without him.

10:56- Jean Segura grounds out for Rivera's first out.

10:58- Allen Craig lines out.

11:01- Carlos Gomez grounds out to end the inning.  Game over, right?  No, it's not?  In my mind it is.  I'm ending the diary here.  The American League wins 3-0.  Mariano Rivera gets the save.  That's the way it should end.

Wimbledon

All this traveling has cut into my blogging time.  And I have a lot of blogging to do.  It was two weeks ago now that I went to Wimbledon.  That was only the second day of my England trip.  So I have to finish that trip and I have three new baseball stadiums that I visited to blog about.  Let's start with my second day in England, my day at Wimbledon.

I got up early on Monday to go to Wimbledon.  I'm certainly not much of a tennis fan, but I always liked Wimbledon.  Pete Sampras, start of summer, and I like sports played on grass.  In The Ultimate Top-Ten Rankings of the Best in Sports, Christopher "Mad Dog" Russo ranked Wimbledon number 7 on his list of the Top-Ten Sports Venues of All Time.  (By the way, I have the book signed by both Mad Dog and Mike Francesa.  I miss Mike and the Mad Dog.  I can't believe it's been five years.)  With this Wimbledon trip, I've now been to six of his top ten venues:  Oriole Park (number 9), Wimbledon, Fenway Park (number 6), Notre Dame Stadium (number 4), Madison Square Garden (number 3), and old Yankee Stadium (number 1).  In case you're wondering, the ones I haven't been to are Cameron Indoor Stadium (number 10), the Orange Bowl (number 8), Augusta National (number 5), and Lambeau Field (number 2).  Cameron Indoor would be great.  Maybe I'll get there for a Notre Dame-Duke game now that we're in the ACC.  I'm too late on the Orange Bowl, but maybe I'll get to the Rose Bowl someday.  I would go to Augusta National if I was in the area at the same time the Masters was going on (like I did for Wimbledon, although getting to Wimbledon was much higher on my list than getting to the Masters).  And Lambeau Field is the only NFL stadium that I would make a point of going to.  I'll have to go some season when the Packers have a home game the day before Columbus Day (they're in Baltimore this year).

Me at Court 18

Anyway, I did some research on tickets.  The prices on Stubhub were outrageously high.  So I went to find out if I could just get tickets from Ticketmaster or something.  Nope.  Apparently there's some kind of lottery system (they call it a ballot).  But the good news is you can get tickets the day of the event by getting on the queue.  You just have to get there really early if you want to be in when the matches start at 11:30.  They sell tickets for Centre Court, Court 1, Court 2, and grounds passes.  The prices vary by day and I went on the most expensive day.  Centre Court is the most expensive and grounds passes are the cheapest.  With a grounds pass, you can walk around and get into all the courts except for Centre Court, Court 1, and Court 2.  People camp out overnight to be at the beginning of the queue get tickets for Centre Court or Court 1.

The queue at Wimbledon

I got on the queue a little before 7:00 in the morning.  It reminded me a little bit of waiting to get in at Boardy Barn, but with less drinking.  They don't let anybody in until 10:30 (I think), so I didn't move for a while.  But I enjoyed it.  It was relaxing to sit in the grass with great weather and just listen to music and read.  Eventually, I bought a grounds pass for 20 pounds and got in a little before noon.  I got to see about seven hours of tennis for 20 pounds.  Not bad.  When I got in, I walked around for a little bit.  I didn't really know where to go, so I just walked around and watched parts of matches where there was room to stand near one of the smaller courts.  After doing that for about 45 minutes, I got fish and chips for lunch.  Then I made my way to Court 18.  If you ever go to Wimbledon and get a grounds pass, I strongly recommend going to Court 18.  After the three biggest courts, the next big courts are Court 3, Court 12, Court 14, and Court 18.  So you can get some good matches on any of those courts.  The good thing about Court 18 is that there's plenty of room to stand.  So you can wait on the queue for Court 3, 12, 14, or wherever else or you can stand and watch at Court 18.  So I watched the end of one match at Court 18.  As I was about to leave, they announced that the next match was going to be Sloane Stephens and Monica Puig.  I knew Sloane Stephens was American, so I decided to stay (I found out later that Puig is Puerto Rican).  I stood for the first set, which Puig won.  Then I sat down and Stephens won the next two sets to win the match.

Sloane Stephens vs. Monica Puig

After that, I had a Magners, but apparently  I missed out on Pimms (alcohol and lemonade), which is a big thing at Wimbledon.  Then I went to Court 3 and watched a mixed doubles match.  I had to wait about 20 minutes to get in, but then one match ended and a lot of people left.  I was rooting for the two Brits in the match I saw, but they lost in three sets.  Then I went to Court 12 and watched the first set of another mixed doubles match.  After that, I walked around for a little bit and then I was ready to leave.  I had been there for over 12 hours and spent about 7 of those hours watching tennis.

Mixed doubles on Court 3

It was definitely worth going to Wimbledon.  I enjoyed it, but I have a couple of suggestions for making it better (I'm sure big tennis fans will probably hate these suggestions).  First, what's the deal with the scoring for the games?  I understand how it works, but it makes no sense.  It should just be that each game is played to four (instead of this 15, 30, 40, game nonsense) and you have to win by two.  Second, I just find the whole atmosphere weird.  For example, I think there was some home court advantage for Andy Murray, but it should be a much bigger home court advantage.  None of this polite applauding when Murray's opponent gets a point.  They should boo whoever Andy Murray is playing.  And why does it have to be so quiet when they're playing?  When Andy Murray's opponent is serving, fans should go nuts like when the road team is on offense in a college football game.

Anyway, I probably won't ever get to Wimbledon again, but if I ever go to England again, I would definitely try to schedule that trip so that I could get back to Wimbledon.  If it's the only time I ever get to Wimbledon, it was fun.  I might have to go to the US Open at the end of the summer to compare.

England Day 1

I arrived at Heathrow around 8:00 in the morning last Sunday.  I got to my hotel around 10:00.  I didn't sleep much on the flight, so that was all I wanted to do, but I couldn't get into my room until 2:00.  So the first thing I did was go to mass.  There was a Catholic Church a half mile from my hotel.  I was surprised by how well attended it was.  More thoughts on the Catholic Church in England later.

Our Lady Queen of Victories in London

After mass, I went to the Churchill War Rooms.  I think I've written about my love for Churchill before.  He might be the greatest political hero of all time.  I'm excluding somebody like John Paul II (more religious than political) so it's Churchill or an American for me.  The Revolution had plenty of heroes.  The greatest is Washington of course, but I see him as more of a military hero than a political hero (he was both, but I admire him most for leading the Continental Army during the war).  Next is Lincoln.  I have Lincoln as the greatest American political hero ever, but his heroism is pretty much limited to the US.  The next one is Franklin Roosevelt, but you can't put him ahead of Churchill.  You just can't.  If you like his domestic policies, Roosevelt is going to be at or near the top of your list of American heroes, but Churchill is the greatest political hero of World War II.  The last American political hero is Ronald Reagan.  He's the greatest hero of the Cold War.  Reagan was significant (more on that later), but I'm giving the nod to Churchill.  The Soviet Union was an Evil Empire, but they never attacked us like Germany attacked the British.  It's a miracle that Britain survived and Churchill is the biggest reason for that.  Churchill's resolve was incredible.  I've said it before, but if not for the British after the French surrendered, it might have been too late for the Americans to save the day.  If the roles had been reversed between Britain and France and Germany had defeated Britain first before turning their attention to the French, the French would have surrendered in about five minutes and Europe would have been controlled by Hitler and Stalin.  Thank God for Churchill and the Brits.  America has been attacked before, but I can't imagine anything like the Battle of Britain.

The world will forever owe a debt of gratitude to Winston Churchill.

Anyway, it was amazing to be in the war rooms underground where Churchill ran the government during the war.  Of course the US was in the war, but it didn't take place in the US, with the obvious exception of Pearl Harbor.  Besides the war rooms, there was also a Churchill Museum.  Lots of good stuff in there.  There was a video that showed his travels during the war. He traveled over 100,000 miles.  I sat down to watch the video and started nodding off, but I got up and powered through.  There are lots of things about Churchill that I love, but one of my favorite things about him is that he's an honorary citizen of the United States.  Here's the list of honorary US citizens:  Winston Churchill, Raoul Wallenberg (google him), William Penn, Hannah Callowhill Penn, Mother Teresa, the Marquis de La Fayette, and Casimir Pulaski.  Pretty awesome list.

Churchill's honorary passport

I didn't have anything else planned for the day and I was tired.  But when I left the war rooms, I heard somebody say that we were right by where they did beach volleyball during the Olympics.  I checked that out and then just kept walking around.  I passed 10 Downing Street, Parliament, Westminster Abbey, and lots of statues.  The two statues that I saw that day that I particularly liked were Abraham Lincoln (I don't have an explanation for a Lincoln statue in London) and Winston Churchill.

The greatest president of the United States.  In London.

Parliament

After a good deal of walking, I took the tube back to my hotel.  I was done.  The lack of sleep and the time change did a number on me, but it was still a really good day.  Passing out early that night wasn't a bad thing as I set my alarm for 5:18 the next morning.  I was originally going to set it for 5:15, but I wanted the extra three minutes of sleep. So I was planning on waking up for Monday at 12:18 in the morning east coast time.  I'll explain why in my next post.

Thoughts Before Leaving For England

I didn't have a computer when I was in England, so I brought a notebook and now I'm doing some retroactive blogging about the trip.  This is what was going through my mind in the airport before my flight to London.

As I prepared to leave for England on Saturday, I had mixed emotions.  On the one hand, I was very excited.  Pete and Katie were getting married.  And I would get to do some sightseeing in London and go to Wimbledon.  On the other hand, it really set in that I was going to miss my favorite day of the year in the US, the Fourth of July.  Fireworks, barbeques, beer, the John Adams miniseries on HBO, the Nathan's hot dog eating contest.  None of that for me.  Except for beer.  There would be plenty of that, but probably no good American beer.  Before leaving for the airport, I watched the Independence episode of the John Adams miniseries on DVD.  At the end of the episode, they read the Declaration of Independence.  I got emotional thinking about those words and how I was going to be in England instead of the United States on the Fourth of July.

When I got to the airport, I settled the debate on what the best fast food burger is.  It might be a small chain, but I'm giving the decisive victory to Shake Shack.  I had only had it before at Citi Field and it's been a while since I've had it there (the line is always so long).  I had it at the airport and their burger is definitely better than In-N-Out and Five Guys.  Shake Shack needs to expand.  Then I went to Buffalo Wild Wings and said my emotional good bye to Sam Adams Summer Ale.  It would be more than a week until I had my next Summer Ale.  I'd have to make the most of this trip.

NBA Draft Diary

In my first job as a writer with the esteemed periodical The Alvernian from 2004-2012, many of my columns borrowed ideas from Bill Simmons.  Tonight, with Simmons working the draft, I’m blatantly stealing his draft diary.  I plan on making fun of him as much as possible.  This is being billed as the worst draft since 2000.  But the big news today is the possible Celtics-Nets trade.  I don’t know if I’m emotionally ready for that trade.

My thoughts on the trade on Friday morning:  I am totally fine with trading Kevin Garnett.  He’s one of my favorite Celtics ever, but he was only a Celtic for six years.  He’ll have his number retired, but he didn’t need to end his career with the Celtics.  As for Paul Pierce, this hurts.  If he had stayed long enough, he would have broken Havlicek’s franchise scoring record.  I have him ranked behind only Bill Russell, Larry Bird, John Havlicek, and Bob Cousy on the list of greatest Celtics ever.  I wanted him to finish his career with the Celtics.  As much as it hurts, I think it’s a good basketball decision.  Bill Simmons doesn’t like taking on Gerald Wallace’s contract.  The Celtics aren’t going to be good for the next three years, so I don’t care about that.  In my diary, I brought up the Patrick Ewing trade that destroyed the Knicks for a decade.  This might seem similar in that both trades involved trading aging superstars, but it’s different.  The Knicks got no long-term value.  This trade for the Celtics was all about long-term value.  Sure, the players they got won’t be as good as Pierce and Garnett, but they weren’t winning another championship with Pierce and Garnett anyway.  So instead of just hanging on to Pierce and Garnett until they retire, the Celtics got three first round picks and perhaps some value in Marshon Brooks (I mentioned Reggie Evans in the diary, but now it sounds like the Celtics are getting Marshon Brooks instead).  The 2014 pick from the Nets won’t be a lottery pick, but 2016 or 2018 might be lottery picks.  The Celtics need to think about winning championships.  That wasn’t going to happen in the next three years with Pierce, Garnett, and Doc Rivers.  Maybe the four draft picks they got for those guys will help them win a championship in the future.

Anyway, I’m joined this evening by my dad, who I’ve been watching drafts with since the early 1990s.  He’s also a Celtics fan.  I got home from my friends’ baseball game at 7:29, so by the time I got settled in, it was time for the draft to start.  Here we go:

7:41- David Stern comes out to announce the first pick.  He pauses and eggs on the crowd.  The first pick is Anthony Bennett.  Bill Simmons makes a noise to express his disbelief.

7:43- Shane Battier is interviewing the draft picks?  Well, he was the guy who confused Craig Sager by using the word “archaic” in his draft interview in 2001.  Battier is definitely one of the five smartest people in the Barclays Center tonight, so I guess it’s a good choice.  I learned from the interview that Anthony Bennett is Canadian.  I don’t really know anything else about him.  He doesn’t look Canadian.

I was expecting Anthony Bennett to look like this.

7:44- They showed a replay of Bill Simmons’s reaction.  For some reason, they didn’t include the audio.

7:46- The Magic take Victor Oladipo.  Jay Bilas tells us he had 12 and a half deflections per game this year.  Is that possible?  Nobody kept track of that stat two years ago.  I like this pick.

7:49- Battier interviews Victor Oladipo.  My only thought while watching this is that if he turns out to be good, he definitely won’t stay with the Magic.  Nobody good stays with the Magic.

7:51- Otto Porter for the Wizards?

7:52- David Stern tells the crowd he can’t hear them.  They boo and he gives the thumbs up.  The Wizards take Porter.  My Georgetown brother is not high on Porter.  I saw him in the tournament.  He was a non-factor against Florida Gulf Coast.  That’s the type of player you’re looking for with the third pick of the draft.

7:54- Jay Bilas mentions the Reggie Cleveland All Stars, one of my favorite Bill Simmons gimmicks ever.

7:56- My dad mentions that the Bobcats have had 8 losing seasons in their 9 years.  He sounds surprised.  I’m surprised too.  It feels more like 10 losing seasons in their 9 years.

7:58- Stern gets booed again.  Is Adam Silver going to get booed like this next year?  It just won’t be the same.

7:59- Cody Zeller?  Really?  I lived in the same dorm as his brother, so I’ll root for him.  I liked him in college, but he just seems to me like one of those good college players that isn’t a good NBA player.

8:01- Jay Bilas is talking about how athletic Cody Zeller is.  This is shocking because…how can I put this?  It’s shocking because he’s not on the Reggie Cleveland All Stars.

8:04- On SportsCenter, they show people outside a courthouse chanting “innocent” for Aaron Hernandez.  This is America and you are innocent until proven guilty, but I have a strong feeling that he will be proven guilty.  I’m just waiting for the Jets to show interest in Aaron Hernandez to get some headlines.

8:07- The Suns take Alex Len.  I had never heard of this guy until a week ago.  He wasn’t first, second, or third team All ACC.  Should you be the fifth pick of the draft if you can’t make third team All ACC?  I say no.  But the fact that he’s from Ukraine makes me think of this:  Ukraine is game to you!

8:10- I wouldn’t have taken Nerlens Noel number 1 either.  Can you picture a guy named Nerlens being a great player?  I heard some stories about him being pretty shady.   So I understand teams passing him up, but if you take him now, you might get a guy that’s angry about sliding this far (like Pierce in 1998).  So I’d be pretty excited about drafting him from here on out.

8:12- The Pelicans take Noel.  Rece Davis notes his hair, which is pretty awesome.

8:13- Bill Simmons said he’d be terrified of going to the rim if he was playing the Pelicans.  I’m going to disagree.  Noel and Anthony Davis might be a combined 14 feet tall, but their combined weight should probably be closer to 500 pounds than 400 pounds at that height.

8:15- John Calipari is on TV.  How long until he leaves Kentucky followed by Kentucky being put on probation, forfeiting victories, and/or losing scholarships?

8:16- The Kings take Ben McLemore.

8:19- In his interview with Shane Battier, McLemore mentions his brother, who’s locked up right now.  Well, that’s nice.

8:20- They show Trey Burke.  I can’t tell you how much I despise Michigan.

8:23- Andy Katz tells us Nerlens Noel is going to Philadelphia.

8:24- Kentavious Caldwell-Pope was drafted by Detroit.  His name is too long.  If I was a play-by-play guy, I’d pick one of those last names and go with it.  I’d also refuse to call Ron Artest (probably number 2 on my list of least favorite players) by that ridiculous name he changed his name to.

8:25- Bilas on Kentavious:  “He’s a shooter, and a jump shooter.”  Thanks Bilas, I thought for a second he was one of the many set shooters in the draft.

8:29- Simmons makes his noise of disbelief again when he hears that Jrue Holliday is in the Noel trade.

8:31- Trey Burke goes to Minnesota.  Now I have reason to root against the Timberwolves.  If only Kevin McHale was still around to trade Kevin Love to the Celtics.

8:36- Portland takes C.J. McCollum.  Bill Simmons just called this his favorite draft ever.

8:37- Bilas on McCollum:  “He’s not just a shooter, he’s a scorer.”  So C.J. McCollum is not 2012-13 Stephen Jackson, who was just a shooter.

8:43- Philadelphia takes Michael Carter-Williams.  I despise Syracuse, but not as much as I despise Michigan.  Again, I would pick one of his last names and go with it.

8:49- Oklahoma City is on the clock because they traded James Harden and his beard.

8:50- Oklahoma City takes Steven Adams, who’s from New Zealand.  I would be a lot more excited if he was Australian.  My dad says he didn’t do much against Notre Dame.  I watched that game and have no memory of Steven Adams.  A check of the box score shows he had 8 points and 4 rebounds against a not particularly good Notre Dame defense.  Yep, totally worth giving up James Harden for Steven Adams and the other random crap Oklahoma City got.

8:56- Chris Broussard says Dwight Howard’s top two choices are Dallas and Houston.  I’d be really happy if I was a Laker fan right now.

8:58- Dallas takes Kelly Olynyk.  We get the ominous “Kelly is not here” from David Stern.  My dad says the Celtics wanted him.  I say I didn’t want him and of course this happens less than a minute later…

8:59- Andy Katz tells us that the Olynyk is going to the Celtics.

9:03- I remember watching Gonzaga and being very underwhelmed by Kelly Olynyk.  It’s time to start drinking.  And the Jazz are on the clock.  Who’s the best white guy available?

9:04- I’m drinking Sam Adams Summer Ale (of course I am).  The Jazz took a guy named Shabazz Muhammad instead of a white guy.  Too bad he’s not white because he would have been the greatest Reggie Cleveland All Star of all time.

9:08- Bill Simmons says his dad loved the Kelly Olynyk pick.  I couldn’t be less excited.

9:11- Milwaukee took Giannis Antetokounmpo.  He’s from Greece.  Fran Fraschilla likes the pick.  Bill Simmons says he looked like a Greek Paul George going against an 8^th grade CYO team.  I would have been a lot more excited about the Celtics taking this guy instead of Kelly Olynyk.  The only problem is that his name is way too difficult to say.

9:14- Andy Katz says the Celtics are picking for Dallas or Atlanta.  Dallas wanted out of this draft.  Good thinking, Dallas.

9:16- Bill Simmons says Andrew Wiggins is the most exciting prospect since Kevin Durant.  If only David Stern was still going to be around to rig the lottery for the Celtics next year.

9:17- The Celtics take Lucas Nogueira for somebody else.  He puts a hat on top of his afro.  We suddenly lost sound as Bill Simmons was commenting on it.  I’m going to say this was no coincidence.  Unfortunately, we will never know what he was saying.

9:23- The Hawks take Dennis Schroeder from Germany.  Fran Fraschilla likes him and compares him to Rajon Rondo.  Are there any foreign players that he doesn’t like?

9:28- The ESPN guys are getting way too intense in their discussion about how to pronounce Dennis Schroeder’s last name.

9:29- The Hawks take their second straight point guard with Shane Larkin.  Bill Simmons makes the predictable David Kahn joke (which I would have made here if he didn’t make it on TV).

9:31- I just googled Barry Larkin just to make sure he went to Michigan.  He did.  His son went to Miami.  This is not my favorite family.

9:32- Andy Katz tells us Shane Larkin is going to Dallas.

9:37- Cleveland takes Sergey Karasev.  He’s from Russia and he’s going back to Russia to play in a game tomorrow.

9:39- Shane Battier interviews Sergey.  Sergey needs some work on his English.

9:44- David Stern announces that the Bulls’ selection, Tony Snell, is not here, but Shabazz Muhammad is here and he emerges from backstage.  That was pretty awkward.

9:45- Utah is on the clock again.  Come on Jazz, take a white guy.  Don’t let me down.

9:46- Shane Battier interviews Shabazz Muhammad and says he’s going to Minnesota.  I had no idea about this, but Rece Davis clears up my confusion.  He says he’s going to Minnesota in the Trey Burke trade.  And Utah is not drafting for themselves right now.

9:50- David Stern is going to miss this.  “We’ve had to explain to the international audience that the boo is an American sign of respect.”

9:51- Gorgui Dieng is taken by the Jazz for the Timberwolves and Stern explains that Gorgui graduated from the NBA’s Basketball Without Borders Africa Program.  Okay then.

9:57- Bill Simmons is angry about this Celtics-Nets trade.  I’ll take some more time to think about this.

9:58- The Nets take Mason Plumlee.  I feel like he’s going to be one of those Duke guys that doesn’t turn out to be a good NBA player.

9:59- Bill Simmons compares Plumlee to Greg Stiemsma.  That means that if the Celtics had taken Plumlee, Tommy Heinsohn would have compared him to Bill Russell.

10:04- The Pacers take Solomon Hill.  Jay Bilas compares him to Draymond Green.  I hope that’s a good comparison because I like Draymond Green and possibly after the Nets, the Pacers are the team I want to win the East until the Celtics are good again.

10:06- The Knicks are on the clock.  They show Spike Lee on ESPN.  Boo.

10:10- The Knicks take Tim Hardaway, Jr.  I didn’t need any more reasons to dislike the Knicks, but I got one.

10:12- Spike Lee is being interviewed on ESPN.  I will now light myself on fire.

10:16- The Clippers take Reggie Bullock.  The way Jay Bilas is describing him makes me think he’s like Kawhi Leonard, who is one of my new favorite players.  But Simmons compares him to another Spur, Danny Green.

10:19- Bill Simmons is not happy with Doc Rivers.  He might have quit on the Celtics, but I don’t blame him.  Phil Jackson never stuck around to coach a crappy team.  As important as a coach can be, you need the players.  The Celtics don’t have the players now, but they got a first round pick for a coach.  I’ll take it.

10:21- David Stern announces the Celtics-Mavericks trade.  For a second there, I was worried that he was going to announce the Celtics-Nets trade, even though that can’t be finalized until July 10.  Minnesota takes Andre Roberson for the Warriors.  Rece Davis says he wants David Stern to put his hand to his ear like Hulk Hogan to egg on the crowd.  Rece also makes fun of Roberson’s suit, but I have to say, I miss the 1990s.  That was the Golden Age of ridiculous suits at the NBA Draft.

10:26- I’m switching over to Sam Adams Porch Rocker, another very solid summer beer.  David Stern announces the Timberwolves-Jazz trade.  Then he eggs on the crowd.  Only a few more picks.  The Nuggets take a French guy, Rudy Gobert.  Fran Fraschilla tells us he has the longest wingspan ever recorded at the NBA combine.  I’m starting to make more typos as I continue to drink, but at this point, I’m still correcting them.

10:32- The ESPN guys are talking about the Spurs losing the Finals.  Losing the way they did would have been the most painful thing ever if they hadn’t won four championships during the Tim Duncan Era.

10:35- The Spurs take Livio Jean-Charles from French Guiana.  My dad has never heard of him and he probably pays more attention to the draft than anybody I know.  Fran Fraschilla struggles to say “in perpetuity,” and asks if he said it correctly.  He didn’t, but Rece Davis said he did.

10:38- My dad asks how the Dodgers are doing.  A quick check on the phone shows they’re winning 3-1.  The Dodgers have been depressing for most of the season, but now that they’re finally getting healthy, I’m in on them.

10:40- Andy Katz just explained what’s going on with this 29^th draft pick.  I’m on my third beer right now and I didn’t follow everything he just said.  But the Thunder took Archie Goodwin for somebody else, I think.

10:43- David Stern is about to announce his last draft pick.  His first draft was 1984, the year I was born.  It won’t be the same without him.  This will be his 839^th pick.

10:45- A David Stern draft montage?  Yes!

10:49- Stern gets a standing ovation for his last pick.  Well deserved.  The last pick he announces is Nemanja Nedovic from Serbia for the Suns, but he’s going to the Warriors.  Stern introduces Adam Silver, who gets booed.  Adam Silver brings out David Stern’s first pick, Hakeem Olajuwon, who looks very happy.  They show the picture of Akeem and David Stern shaking hands at the 1984 Draft (Hakeem was Akeem back then), which is amazing.

10:53- Bill Simmons only does the first round in his draft diaries, but I’m going to keep this going.  I probably won’t mention every single player that gets drafted in the second round.

10:54- I go to visitlondon.com and the first category I click on is “Brewery/Distillery.”  I’ll be in London in about 52 hours.

10:58- Chris Broussard says this Celtics-Nets trade is happening.  My sober thoughts will be added to my introduction tomorrow.

10:59- Cleveland just took Allen Crabbe.

11:01- Bill Simmons says Gerald Wallace’s contract is terrible.  Probably true, but he only has three more years.  The Celtics aren’t going to be good for the next three years anyway.  My dad is in favor of the trade.  It sounds like I’ll be rooting for the Nets next year (I’m still a Celtics fan of course, but of the teams that have a legitimate chance of contending, I’ll be rooting for the Nets). 

11:11- Somebody just took Glen Rice, Jr.  This reminds me of how trading Patrick Ewing for Glen Rice destroyed the Knicks back in the day.  My brother Sean was right about that trade.  Everybody wanted the Knicks to get rid of Ewing, but they should have just let his contract expire and taken the cap space.

11:21- Portland just took Jeff Withey.  I like this dude.  He played for a big time program and played some really solid defense.  Alex Len played in a big time conference and I never heard of him.  I’m not predicting that Withey will be a better player than Len, but I like taking Withey at number 40 better than taking Len at number 5.

11:25- Memphis took Jamaal Franklin.  Bill Simmons makes fun of the pick, but I like it.  I was there to see him put up 21 points, 8 rebounds, 5 assists, and 2 steals in the tournament against Oklahoma.  Sure, it’s a small sample size, but he was better than Otto Porter that day.

11:41- Rece Davis talks about the greatest Brazilian one-named athlete name ever:  Fred.  That is pretty awesome.  I jus t googled Fred.  He’s a soccer player.

11:44- The Lakers just took Ryan Kelly.  Bill Simmons says, “He’s now the third best guy on their team.”  Although he’s one phoneme off from having the same name as one of my favorite people in sports, he’s a Laker and hence one of my least favorite people in sports.  The ESPN guys talk about Dwight Howard.  If I’m the Lakers, I just want Dwight Howard gone.  There are good stats, bad team guys.  Dwight Howard is a good stats, good team, but not championship team guys.  If I had a choice between giving Dwight Howard a huge contract and trying to get some cap space for the future, I’d rather have the cap space.

11:46- Erik Murphy was just drafted, leading to Entourage jokes from the ESPn guys.  Entourage would be the worst show that I’ve seen every episode of, but there are at least two MTV reality shows that I’ve seen every episode of.

11:51- Romero Osby was just drafted.  I saw him lose to Jamaal Franklin.  He had 22 points and 8 rebounds against San Diego State.  Good numbers, but he struck me as a good college player, not a good NBA player type of guy.

11:52- Doc Rivers is being interviewed as the coach of the Clippers.  This is a little weird.  While I was in favor of the Doc Rivers trade, I’ll miss him.  It doesn’t really matter who the next coach of the Celtics is.  It matters who the coach of the Celtics is three years from now.  Hopefully they can find somebody close to being as good as Doc Rivers.

11:53- We have a Bill Simmons-Doc Rivers feud.  I’m siding with Doc Rivers.

11:59- Arsalan Kazemi is the first Iranian drafted.  Um, I don’t like Iran.

12:00- Colton Iverson is going to the Celtics.  My dad likes this.  I don’t know anything about him.  Supposedly he’s a good rebounder.  The Celtics have been a bad rebounding team for years.  Now, they’re just going to be a bad team.  But maybe they’ll be a bad team that can rebound with Reggie Evans and Colton Iverson.  So they’ve got that going for them.

12:06- Bill Simmons on Peyton Siva:  “I like this guy.  Why can’t he be an 11^th man?”  Yeah, you like him so much that you expect him to never play meaningful minutes.

12:19- Adam Silver announces two more trades.  I’m not interested in either of these trades.  The Grizzles take Janis Timma from Latvia with the last pick of the draft.  Even Fran Fraschilla doesn’t seem excited about this pick.

12:22- My dad changed the channel in time to see Yasiel Puig hit a 2-run single with the bases loaded and two outs on an 0-2 count.  The Dodgers take a 5-4 lead.

Well, that’s the right time to end this diary.  I enjoyued drinking and writing this.  If you read all of this, thanks for taking all that time.

That Only Took 17 Years

I hate interleague play.  I hate it so much that I came up with a plan for expansion and realignment to solve the problem of having interleague play every day (even if you like interleague play, having it every day is ridiculous).  However, I know it's not going away.  So if you're going to have interleague play, you want some compelling match ups.  I know you're going to have to deal with Mariners-Marlins from time to time, but there are some interleague match ups that are interesting.  You know, like the most common World Series match up ever.  The Dodgers and Yankees have played in the World Series 11 times (the next most common match up is Yankees-Giants at 7).  Four years ago, both teams were playing in their League Championship Series.  If they had both gotten to the World Series, I was planning on going to Game 6.  I had Game 6 in mind for two reasons.  First, it would be cheaper than Game 7.  I had an amount of money that I was willing to pay.  It was less than I was willing to pay to see Notre Dame in the National Championship Game, where I probably would have been willing to pay up to 20% of my annual salary (for a ticket, flights, and accommodations), but still substantial.  It easily would have been the most expensive baseball tickets I ever bought, but I think I could have done it.  And second, unlike Games 1 and 2, somebody would have a chance to win the World Series if the series got that far.  Of course, the Phillies beat the Dodgers and my dream World Series match up didn't happen.

For some reason known only to Major League Baseball scheduling guys, the Dodgers were the only National League team that didn't visit either Yankee Stadium in the first 16 years of interleague play.  The Dodgers and Yankees played in Los Angeles in 2004 and 2010.  So I really wanted to go to the first Dodger-Yankee game at Yankee Stadium since October 1981.  The first game was scheduled for last night.  I bought tickets for last night, not thinking about the fact that the NBA Finals is always Tuesday-Thursday-Saturday.  If the Heat had beaten the Pacers in a short series, last night might have been Game 7 of the Finals.  I was willing to miss Game 6, but I probably would have skipped the baseball game if it had been Game 7.

The forecast didn't look good, but it also didn't look like it was going to rain all night.  It never stopped raining.  My dad and I had just gotten close to Yankee Stadium when the game was cancelled.  Fortunately, we hadn't parked yet, so it was easier than it could have been to get out of the Bronx and go home.  The good news was that we got to watch Game 6 (hopefully more on that to come tomorrow).

I took this picture right after we found out Tuesday night's game was rained out.  You can see the top of the stadium in the background.

The game was rescheduled for 1:05 this afternoon.  The forecast was 75 degrees and sunny, much better than sitting in the rain the night before would have been (although our seats would have been covered by the facade).  Thanks to a half day at school, I was able to go.  I figured traffic wouldn't be bad in the middle of the day.  I was wrong.  Traffic was bad, but we only missed the top of the first.

This is where the old stadium was.

I won't go through all the details of the game, but here are some highlights:
Small crowd, but lots of Dodger fans and people of Asian descent in the building with Ryu and Kuroda pitching.
Some guy named Thomas Neal was DHing and hitting fifth for the Yankees.
Hanley Ramirez had a home run and three other hits.
Yasiel Puig lowered his batting average by going 2 for 5, including this double (I had never seen anything like that before).
Ronald Belisario made two errors on one play (I had seen a team make two errors on the same play, but I'm pretty sure I've never seen a pitcher make two errors on the same play).
Mariano Rivera.

Our view of the game.

This Dodger team has been really frustrating.  Opening Day was amazing.  Clayton Kershaw continues to be great.  Adrian Gonzalez has been solid.  Hyun-Jin Ryu has been pretty good in his first season in the US.  And after game 2 of the split doubleheader (I went to the wrong game), Yasiel Puig is currently hitting .474 in 57 at bats.  Obviously it's a small sample size and he'll come back to earth at some point, but it's not that small of a sample size.  I can't really say anything else positive about the Dodgers.  Ronald Belisario has become my least favorite player (taking over for Juan Uribe, actually we can add Uribe going from horrendous to decent this season to the list of positives).  It was fitting that Belisario made two errors on one play to give the momentum right back to the Yankees after the Dodgers cut the lead to one run.  But there's still time to turn it around.  As George Will (or somebody) once said, everybody is going to win 60 games, everybody is going to lose 60 games, it's the other 42 games that will decide what happens.

While the result wasn't what I hoped for, it was a good day.  Afternoon baseball with dad, great weather, Dodgers at Yankee Stadium for the first time in 32 years.  When I bought the tickets, I was hoping the Dodgers would win by several runs and Mariano Rivera would pitch just to get some work in.  That wasn't going to happen with another game to play latter in the day.  Rivera was only pitching in a save situation or if it was some kind of crazy extra innings game.  As I have said before, Mariano Rivera is the best baseball player I've ever seen.  He came in for the ninth and mowed the Dodgers down.  I don't know if I'm going to another Yankee game this season.  And even if I do, Rivera might not pitch.  So if the Dodgers were going to lose, at least I got to see Mariano Rivera in person one last time.  He is a legend.  Goodbye, Mariano.

Rivera waits to get the ball back after a strikeout.