UPDATE May 3, 2008: I did not write anything for this game, as I had surgery this day, and was really loopy and laid out on the sofa. I’m going to stick in an old wire story for this game. (I put the old format 2001 archives into Movable Type’s Blog software in May of 2008, hence this update text).
SEATTLE (TICKER) — Cal Ripken is no stranger to dramatic moments on a national stage. Derek Jeter is getting pretty used to them, too.
Participating in his 19th and final All-Star Game, Ripken homered in his first at-bat and Jeter added a solo shot as the American League posted its fifth straight win over the punchless National League, a 4-1 triumph at Safeco Field.
Honored Monday and following the sixth inning, Ripken provided the most memorable moment of the 72nd mid-summer classic by leading off the third inning against Los Angeles righthander Chan Ho Park with a line drive over the left-field wall.
Ripken, who will turn 41 on August 24, became the oldest player to homer in an All-Star Game. Stan Musial was 39 when he hit one in 1960.
The blast was reminiscent of his home run on September 6, 1995 — the day he etched his name into baseball immortality by breaking Lou Gehrig’s consecutive games played streak.
The 47,364 fans at Safeco Field demanded a curtain call and Ripken obliged. For his efforts, Ripken was honored with the Most Valuable Player award for the second time in his career, having also won in 1991. He is the only American League player to win the award twice.
“I must have had a shot of adrenaline or long case of the goose bumps, I’m not sure what coming to the plate,” Ripken said. “I went up there and said `God, it’s hard to see.’
“The ovation, people standing up, and I came out and tried to acknowledge them quickly because I didn’t want the game to be delayed for that. I got back in and just saw the first pitch, swung at it, and put a nice swing on it. I felt like I was flying around the bases.”
Ripken’s fellow All-Stars also felt the enormity of the moment.
“It was just one of those things for the fans and for Cal,” Mariners second baseman Bret Boone said. “It was pretty fitting, Cal hits a home run. That’s a pretty special moment.”
“It’s like a dream come true,” Chicago Cubs right fielder Sammy Sosa said. “Everybody was clapping and after that he comes up with the home run. It doesn’t get much better than that as a human being. … He is the man.”
Jeter, the shortstop of the New York Yankees, made sure Ripken’s moment would stand up. After the NL crept within 2-1 with a run in the top of the sixth, Jeter opened the bottom of the inning with a long home run over the center-field wall off Chicago Cubs righthander Jon Lieber. It was his only at-bat in the contest.
“I told him I think it took Hank Aaron 10 or 12 years to hit his first home run in an All-Star Game,” AL manager Joe Torre said. “He said he was going to swing 3-0, he didn’t care where it was.”
Last year’s All-Star and World Series MVP, Jeter went 3-for-3 in the 2000 game and hit .409 in the Fall Classic. Ripken often is credited with paving the way for bigger, more offensive-minded shortstops such as Jeter and Alex Rodriguez, the AL’s elected starter at the position.
“It’s fun, anytime you can play in an All-Star Game it is pretty exciting,” Jeter said. “And to do something good makes it even more special.”
Chicago’s Magglio Ordonez followed Jeter’s blast with a home run to right-center field. It marked just the fifth time in All-Star history that there have been back-to-back home runs.
Winless since 1996, the NL managed just three hits, none over the final 3 2/3 innings. The record for fewest hits is two by the NL in 1990.
“We didn’t put any hits together and guys were not seeing the ball very well in the shadows and were complaining about it a bit,” NL manager Bobby Valentine said. “When you have just one at-bat to adjust, it’s a tough thing for the hitters and their pitchers made really good pitches.”
The game featured a six-minute ceremony after the fifth inning in which Commissioner Bud Selig paid tribute to both Ripken and fellow legend Tony Gwynn of the San Diego Padres. The retiring superstars received the Commissioner’s Historic Achievement Award in the unprecedented stoppage.
“What a wonderful experience,” said Gwynn, who was an honorary NL player and in uniform. “It turned out great. … You want to say thank you because it’s really the outpouring that has been unbelievable. I’m sure as we go along it is going to get tougher.”
“I always thought the All-Star Game was a special time to celebrate baseball,” Ripken added. “To have things go so great in the game, hit a home run, it’s been special. It’s a great feeling.”
The delay nearly cost the AL its lead as Toronto setup man Paul Quantrill, making his first All-Star appearance, ran into immediate trouble following the break.
San Francisco’s Jeff Kent doubled into the right-field corner and one out later, Houston’s Lance Berkman singled off the glove of Jeter to put runners on the corners.
Torre, the New York Yankees’ manager, called on his own Mike Stanton, who surrendered a sacrifice fly to San Diego’s Ryan Klesko to halve the deficit.
After a broken bat by pinch hitter Vladimir Guerrero hit and knocked over NL honorary third base coach Tommy Lasorda in a lighthearted moment, Stanton got the Montreal Expos slugger on a flyout to left field.
Seattle ace Freddy Garcia tossed a perfect third inning to get the win and Mariners closer Kazuhiro Sasaki notched the save. It was fitting as nearly all the All-Star festivities served as a celebration of baseball in Seattle. The Mariners had four starters and eight players in uniform, much to the delight of the 47,364 fans.
“I’m just relieved that everything went OK and that it came out OK,” said Sasaki through an interpreter. “The way the game went, we were able to come out with a win and that was a great experience.”
“I was really nervous,” Garcia said. “My first All-Star game and I win it with only seven pitches. It was pretty emotional.”
AL starter Roger Clemens was dominant over two innings. Making his second career All-Star start, Clemens retired all six batters he faced, including New York Mets catcher Mike Piazza.
Clemens and Piazza had not faced each other since Game Two of the 2000 World Series, a game that saw Clemens throw a broken bat in the direction of the All-Star backstop.
NL starter Randy Johnson of the Arizona Diamondbacks, a late replacement for teammate Curt Schilling, was nearly as dominant. The former Mariner surrendered a leadoff single to Seattle rookie sensation Ichiro Suzuki in the first but little else.
The three-time Cy Young Award winner struck out Alex Rodriguez of Texas and Manny Ramirez of Boston in the first and Seattle’s Edgar Martinez to cap a perfect second.
It was the fourth career All-Star start for Johnson, who has allowed just a run and four hits with 11 strikeouts in 11 innings.
Andy Pettitte of the Yankees allowed a leadoff single in the fourth but retired sluggers Todd Helton, Barry Bonds and Sosa in order to escape further trouble. Atlanta’s John Burkett tossed a perfect bottom of the fourth to keep the game at 1-0.
Minnesota’s Joe Mays took over in the fifth for the AL, which took advantage of two-base error by Kent to tack on a run in the bottom of the frame.
With Colorado’s Mike Hampton pitching, Seattle first baseman John Olerud grounded a ball up the middle that Kent threw away. Hampton retired the next two batters on grounders to shortstop but Ivan Rodriguez of Texas came through with a single up the middle that scored pinch runner Jason Giambi for a 2-0 lead.
After Stanton worked through the jam in the sixth, Seattle’s Jeff Nelson, a late addition to the AL squad, held the NL in check in the seventh. Anaheim Angels closer Troy Percival fired a hitless eighth before giving way to Sasaki.

A nice Saturday afternoon win, although I watched most of the game in the evening, thanks to my TiVo. :)
It was nice to see Andres Galarraga & Gabe Kapler come through with pinch hit RBI’s – both are in a major slump – the 40 year old now bench warmer is probably in his final days with the Rangers. I’d like for him to gracefully retire. I like the guy, I really like the guy, but it doesn’t seem like he has any gas left in the tank. I’d like to see him retire, so we can have some great going away stuff for him.
Anyway, this game was one I thought was going to slip away until the aforementioned pinch hits. Nice to see that, but we also got a decent pitching performance by Doug Davis, who continues to pitch well. Our bullpen gave up nothing in the final three frames. Actually, I thought we were going to get destroyed by Bobby Jones, but he fell apart in the seventh, giving us our lead and the win.
Nice game to come back from – and apart from the 3 spot given up in the second inning, our pitching was pretty damn good!

I started watching this game, and saw the first few innings. I stopped watching after the top of the fourth, as I promised my wife we’d watch a movie. In the middle of the movie, I peeked in to the score, and it was 8-2! When I left, it was 2-0.
Oh well, guess I saw the best parts. :) Mike Young, who is rapidly heading for my fav Ranger player of the year got another home run on the West Coast in front of family. Someone start bringing them to every game we play, please! :)

14-2? Is this score backwards? Seems like it should be 14-2 the other way.
I’ll take it. There isn’t much to say except that the nine run inning was beautiful! :) I’ll just let the log of that inning speak for itself…
TEXAS 4TH: Kapler reached on infield single. Lamb doubled to right, Kapler scored. Haselman doubled to right center, Lamb scored. M Young reached on infield single, Haselman to third. Brian Fuentes relieved Dennis Stark. Catalanotto hit by pitch, M Young to second. Ledee walked, Haselman scored, M Young to third, Catalanotto to second. A Rodriguez homered to left, M Young, Catalanotto and Ledee scored. R Palmeiro hit by pitch. Sierra homered to left center, R Palmeiro scored. Kapler flied out to right. Lamb singled to center. Haselman grounded into double play, shortstop to second to first, Lamb out at second. (9 Runs, 7 Hits, 0 Errors) SEATTLE 1, TEXAS 14.

My annual trip out to the Ballpark for the July 4th fireworks show was not disappointing. The fireworks show was one of the better ones I’ve seen at the Ballpark – and the show on the field was great, too!
We beat the Mariners who are what, about 200-3 this year? It was a great feeling, the crowd was really into it, especially when Raffy jacked a home run, as well as Mike Lamb’s home run (first of the year). Game felt great, and Rob Bell looked pretty good this game. He’s looked pretty uneven in his Ranger appearances so far this year, but this one looked good – probably the reason we traded for him was for pitching like this.
However, it wasn’t a complete sail – in the 9th inning, we had Zim in to close, and when they started the inning, I said out loud “7 batters till Ichiro hits a home run”. Had to explain it to my wife, and said something like “Well, it’s a save situation, and Zim will be in. Ichiro has two BIG home runs off Zim this year”. Sure enough, the inning got to Ichiro. Narron did something interesting, and pulled Zim to get to Venafro who got the job done.
Talk radio went nuts the next day over that move, but I agreed with it – Zim had already been burnt by Ichiro twice, might as well play for the win, instead of the heart attack. :)

The second half of the season started pretty much like the first half went. Darren Oliver pitched pretty mediocre in this game. He seemed more like last year than he did this year, although he wasn’t TOTALLY awful. Ryan Glynn pitched in relief to do nothing to endear himself to the Rangers; turns out he was put on waivers and then assigned to AAA when no one else claimed him. I suspect he won’t be here next year, or will be given a shot in spring training, but that’s about it.
On the positive side, Arod & Pudge (I refuse to call him IRod) hit back to back jacks in the fourth – but that was the extent of the scoring for us. Yeah, we scored two more, but they weren’t “exciting” runs. :)