All-Star Memories

By Michael Coleman

Tuesday's All Star baseball game lasted 15 innings, 4-hours and 50 minutes with an exciting climax.  Michael Young brought home the winning run, for yet another American League win, 3-2.  But you didn't have to wait nearly five hours to see the best highlight.  From my point of view, the highlight was seeing the Hall of Famers assembled on the field while introducing the starters.

  It was great seeing my all-time fave Reggie Jackson among the Hall of Famers like Bob Gibson, Hank Aaron, Jim Palmer and Willie McCovey.  The list is way too long for me to mention.  Seeing these guys reminded me why I view baseball differently today. When they played their money wasn't in the bank, they played like they had to feed their family.  In reality they did, skyrocketing salaries werern't around for most of them.  Palmer and Jackson commanded a pretty penny but they were not the norm.

  MLB got it right in the pre game ceremony.  Imagine my shock that when we interviewed former Oriole and Met Eddie Murray that they had no idea what the pre game plans were.  Murray a non talkative guy in his day, hasn't changed much.  But when I asked him about the love he received from the NY fans, his eyes lit up and he smiled and gave me a great answer. 

  This is what baseball does best, showcase its history and its stars that's why it' so amazing to me that they get it wrong in all of the other phases of the game.