MLB may have finally evolved the All-Star Game to the point where it no longer knows what it is for. The ceremony is lavish, the staging immaculate, the production values high enough to make an emperor blush. But beneath the glitter, the game itself can feel like an afterthought, a moving backdrop for the spectacle that surrounds it. P.T. Barnum would have admired the scale. I’m not sure he would have loved the baseball.
No announcers or brightly-colored anythings or disgraced former ballplayers intruded on that, which was nice. But, the fact they were really close to being able to should be taken into account by Netflix. This is the first year of a three-year contract to broadcast the event.
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It’s going to be a battle. Three teams are pretty obvious playoff contenders.
Read moreAdvertisements What has been a great season for the Philadelphia Phillies took a turn Thursday as Bryce Harper limped off the field at the end of a 7-4 loss to the Marlins…just an inning after Kyle Schwarber left the game with groin tightness. Their impact is impossible to ignore on a team with some quality players, but only one who
Read moreAdvertisements Good news for the Phillies: they beat Miami even with designated hitter Bryce Harper hitting .169 and neither he nor Nick Castellanos had a home run. Bad news: Castellanos is a .194 career postseason hitter (fun fact: Castellanos ended the season with no errors in right field). Schwarber hit 47 home runs to lead the club and nine players
Read moreEven with a hideous bullpen ERA and the 12 blown saves that went with it, Philadelphia still managed to finish just two games below .500 which is kind of amazing.
Read moreOffensively they have a few weapons that are capable of mass destruction… or of jamming when you need them most.
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How good is the Rockies’ signing of Nolan Arenado? The best player out of the big three to sign this week did the right thing by himself, his team and their fans.
Read moreSure the Dodgers cleared room for Bryce Harper. But is Harper going to L.A. the best thing for the Dodgers? For Harper? For Major League Baseball?
Read moreAdvertisements So, somewhere in the neighborhood of 80 games ago, one wag (that’s old-timer for smart-alec punk) dismissed the entire National League East except Washington, who was guaranteed to “sleep walk through the division.” Little problem with that. Washington has been asleep alright, but not winning at any particularly rapid pace and has been far behind just about everyone in
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