THE GREEK SAYS ... The American League All Stars beat the National League last night in the Big Apple. The Yankees’ Mariano Rivera running onto the field, only to find it cleared by all of the other players out of reverence for the soon-to-be Hall of Famer was a pretty cool thing to see. The AL won, guaranteeing its representative in the World Series home field advantage. I guess it does give extra meaning to the game, but I’m still on the fence about the fairness of the concept. The whole affair takes me back to my all star experience … It was August of 1981 – that was a strike year and the stoppage forced the game to be postponed almost a month. My family was in Cleveland visiting relatives, one of which had tickets to the game for a client of his. Of course, the lucky client was only in town on the original date. Do I want to go to the All Star Game?!? So there we are, my little brother and I – 17 and 15 – sitting in Cleveland’s old Municipal Stadium watching the summer classic. We had great seats – about 5 rows back on the upper deck just above left field. I was an Orioles fane then and Baltimore’s Ken Singleton was playing left field for the American League. I have a lot of memories from that night. The Giants’ Vida Blue was the winning pitcher. Rollie Fingers – with the handlebar mustache – was the loser. Montreal’s Gary Carter was MVP. The players in that game – Dusty Baker, George Brett, Rod Carew, Bucky Dent, Carlton Fisk, Reggie Jackson, Steve Garvey, Willie Randolph, Mike Schmidt, Ozzie Smith, Dave Winfield, Dave Parker, Pete Rose … an amazing collection of greats all in one game. I don’t think they happen like that anymore. It was a night full of great memories for a kid who had never been to a big-time game before that night. I saw NBC Sports guy Bryant Gumble walking on the concourse. But my biggest memory was my 15-year-old brother buying a beer from the vendor in the stands. We really thought we were pulling one over, coughing up 6 bucks for 10 ounces of watered down beer. Oh, the All Star memories.
Posted on: Wed, 17 Jul 2013 15:07:35 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015