Published: July 17, 2008 05:16 pm            

It was fitting the all-star game was in historic Yankee Stadium

Yankee Stadium had quite a send off on Monday and Tuesday night as the American and National League all-stars put on a show in the Home Run Derby and the All-Star Game.

On Monday night, Texas Ranger Josh Hamilton hit a record 28 first-round home runs on the way to a runner-up finish to Minnesota’s Justin Morneau in the derby.

After the show Hamilton put on, I’m thinking the suits at Major League Baseball should change the derby rules.

Morneau only beat Hamilton because he hit five long balls to Hamilton’s three in the finals.

A better way to determine a champion is by total home runs.

The team that only wins the fourth quarter doesn’t win a football or basketball game, does it?

It makes sense to adopt that system, but because it makes sense, it will never happen in professional baseball.

Hamilton should have hit 25 homers in the first round to set the record and then swing and miss a couple of times to conserve energy.

His 71-year-old pitcher ended up throwing 80 pitches on the night, which is not much less than the cutoff point for young starting pitchers who are a third of his age.

Maybe Hamilton should have called out to the bullpen for a teammate to pitch in the finals.

Then came Tuesday night’s all-star game.

When I got back home from Cleburne’s summer league volleyball matches, I found out the all-star game was still tied in the 11th inning.

Both teams squandered several scoring chances in extra innings until Texas Ranger Michael Young broke the tie in the bottom of the 15th with an RBI single off Philadelphia closer Brad Lidge.

Lidge, as any Houston Astros fan undoubtedly remembers, gave up a monster home run to St. Louis Cardinals slugger Albert Pujols a couple years back and never was the same.

This year he has turned it around for the Phillies, only to come up short in the heat of battle again.

The game ended up lasting nearly five hours and set an all-time record for length of an all-star game.

It was only fitting that the two events happened in historic Yankee Stadium, which has seen a perfect game in the World Series, called shots by Babe Ruth and several other iconic memories that will be remembered forever.

We may see two days like these sometime in the future, but it might be about the time we see Halley’s Comet.

That might also be when Pujols’ home run ball off Lidge streaks across the night sky again.



Matt Tasler can be reached at 817-558-2855, ext. 2334

        

• Click to discuss this story with other readers on our forums.