Wednesday, July 16, 2003

[RED SOX] All-Stars

I may have to reconsider my disdain for "This Time, It Counts!" That was a pretty good game last night, although I think the biggest improvement was that Fox toned their act down. There were no over-the-top ceremonies, no chatting with Joe Torre and Don Zimmer during the game, and no omni-present Jeter-cam (honestly, when I heard he wasn't in the game, I was sure Fox would put him in the booth or doing interviews in the AL dugout). No Budzilla, either. Fox basically just showed a baseball game, and it went well.

As to whether the game was played differently or was more intense because something was on the line - there's good and bad to that. Nomar only played three inning and got one at-bat, and Tek didn't play at all. I have to admit, it made the game less interesting to me; it must have been even less fun for the folks in Detroit and Tampa who love their team despite everything. I did find it kind of amusing that Soscia, whose fluke team seems less likely to go to the World Series this year than Dusty's Cubs, was apparently much more concerned with winning (versus getting everyone in) than Baker. But Baker's got that reputation, I guess, of being a guy whose main concern is making people happy. Not quite Torre, but give him enough appearances and he could be.

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