Saturday, April 30, 2016

#103---All-Star Game, 7/13/1999



This was certainly the most memorable All-Star Game of my lifetime, with the famous Ted Williams first pitch meet & greet, then Pedro going all Carl Hubbell in front of the fans. You can see that Martinez fanned Barry Larkin, Larry Walker, Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire, and Jeff Bagwell. Hubbell’s famous strikeout skein was against Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Foxx, Al Simmons, and Joe Cronin--a more illustrious group, no doubt, but one can still make the case that Pedro’s should have also been five Hall of Famers.

I had no recollection that Tony Fernandez had bounced back to be an All-Star; in my mind his career ended with his tumultuous 1997 postseason with Cleveland, but Fernandez was worth over 6 combined bWAR in 1998-1999 back with Toronto. Other surprising all-star names that pop up include Ron Coomer, Jose Offerman, and Kent Bottenfield. And I still couldn’t spell “Guerrero”.

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