As Brian Joura chided me for on The Roundtable Show on Tuesday, I was at the All Star Game. Rather than give a long winded summary, since you can read one anywhere, I wanted to give a few general thoughts on the game. Yes, the intro was fantastic.

–One thing that really impressed me was how much the players seemed to care about the game. Baseball players get a rap of being soft and a bunch of rich slackers, but that was not evident at all. The fans were also into the game, rooting for the AL, but also taking every opportunity to boo the Red Sox. The Sox, to their credit, viewed it as amusing.

– I am sorry the game ended when it did. Baseball Prospectus reported that J.D. Drew was going to come in to pitch if the game went on, since Francona did not want to abuse Kazmir: 

“I used to have a really good knuckleball,” insisted Drew, who hasnʼt pitched since his senior year of high school in Hahira, Georgia. “Iʼve kind of lost it in recent years. It just comes and goes now, but when weʼd been warming up and playing catch before games I used to have a really good knuckler.”

–The fact that the game counts is such a joke. The fans are to blame here as well as MLB. Why can’t we just view it as an exhibition, and not a real game?

–Of all of the players I saw, the one who impressed me the most was Ervin Santana. Before Holliday’s homerun he threw him a 96 and 97 mph fastball, and then an 89 mph slider, then another 97 mph fastball. I am no scout and do not claim expertise here, though I do know a fair amount, but visually he was very impressive even from the first base box seats.

–Bud Selig gave a big squeeze to Sheryl Crow and Sarah Jessica Parker, engendering “Yeah Bud!” chants from the fans. Sheryl Crow and Sarah Jessica Parker were also visually impressive, and yes I can claim expertise in this arena.

–Dustin Pedroia is TINY compared to his contemporaries.

–The coolest thing I saw was probably the B-2 plane flyby. The plane was awesome to see and I was shocked at how slowly it hovered. It is a stealth plane and brought me back to my pre-teen days when I loved military tanks and aircraft. Here is a pic:

–You often get good nuggets from Diamondvision, and chief among them was that Manny Ramirez has 20 grand slams, behind only the Iron Horse. Carlos Zambrano must have seen this nugget, as he light-heartedly brushed Manny back before getting him to ground out.

–The intro was astoudingly well done. Younger fans may not be as impressed with the older players as I was, and though the history of baseball was on display, the emphasis was clearly on the Yankees. I also loved the idea of placing the players at their positions, and then having the current players join them in the field.

–I am a Yankee fan and have always been a Yankee fan. It is clear to me at least based on the reactions in the All Star Game that the most beloved Yankee is not Derek Jeter but Mariano Rivera.