MLB Capsules - All-Star game: Cano wins HR Derby, beating Gonzalez
PHOENIX (AP) — Robinson Cano outslugged Adrian Gonzalez to win the All-Star Home Run Derby that turned into a Yankees-Red Sox showdown, even through his Boston rival made the biggest splash at Chase Field.
Batting last, Cano defeated Gonzalez 12-11 in the finals Monday night after they each hit 20 home runs through two rounds.
Again highlighting the dangers of trying to catch a ball at a big league ballpark, a fan standing on a table above the pool deck fell over earlier trying to catch a Prince Fielder homer. The fan was grabbed by his brother before going all the way over, where he could have fallen about 20 feet, and was dangling by his feet when he was pulled back up.
Last week, a 39-year-old fan, Shannon Stone, died while trying to catch a ball thrown into the stands at a Rangers game in Arlington, Texas.
Jackson urges All-Stars to speak out against law
PHOENIX (AP) — The Rev. Jesse Jackson is urging baseball’s All-Stars to speak out against the Arizona immigration law, saying they should follow the example set by Jackie Robinson when he broke the game’s color barrier more than a half-century ago.
The sport’s national spotlight returned this week to the Sonoran Desert for the first time since Luis Gonzalez’s ninth-inning single off Mariano Rivera won Game 7 of the 2001 World Series for the Diamondbacks, landing the All-Stars — those who didn’t drop out — in the hot debate over the law known as SB 1070.
Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig ignored calls by some to move Tuesday’s game.
“It’s obviously too late for them to withdraw from the scene,” Jackson said Monday during a telephone interview with The Associated Press. “I think they should play, and they should speak out, which would be of value.”
As players got ready to gather on the air-conditioned diamond under the Chase Field roof, most of them declined to discuss the law. Enacted last year, it requires immigrants to obtain or carry registration papers and calls for police, while enforcing other laws, to question people’s immigration status if there is a reasonable suspicion they’re in the country illegally.
Major provisions were blocked last July by U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton, a decision upheld in April in a 2-1 vote by the 9th U.S. Circuit court of Appeals. Gov. Jan Brewer intends to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the injunction.
Boston slugger David Ortiz was one of the few players willing to talk about the law.
“I’m an immigrant. I definitely would never agree with any treating of immigrants bad — the wrong way,” said Ortiz, who is from the Dominican Republic.
Still, he won’t get involved with protests.
“I’m not here for that,” Ortiz said.
Ortiz captained the AL team in Monday night’s Home Run Derby. Sharon Robinson, daughter of the late Jackie Robinson, was on the field before the event for a “Breaking Barriers” presentation.
More typical during player availabilities at the cactus-filled Arizona Biltmore grounds was the response from New York Mets outfielder Carlos Beltran, who will be the National League’s designated hitter.
“It’s something that doesn’t have to do anything with sport,” he said. “It’s something that affects a certain part of the population.”
Somos America, a Phoenix-based Hispanic civil rights group, asked fans, players and coaches to wear a white ribbon showing solidarity against the law.
“Baseball was on the cutting edge of changing the culture with the admission of Jackie Robinson to the game. It changed the American culture in fundamental ways beyond the baseball field,” Jackson said. “Some players or some players’ families could be disadvantaged or apprehended by that law in Arizona, so it’s very risky. I would hope now that they are there, they would at least speak out clearly that that law is in conflict with national law on immigration. States don’t set immigration policy.
“Baseball players cannot negotiate away their dignity. I’m glad Jackie Robinson spoke up for dignity beyond the baseball field, and I’d glad Ortiz has spoken up for dignity.”
Sixteen players picked as All-Stars dropped out: four are on the disabled list, Alex Rodriguez had knee surgery Monday, and Ryan Braun and Placido Polanco missed a half-dozen games or more heading into the break. Six pitchers were knocked off the rosters because they started for their clubs Sunday, and Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera and David Price said their bodies needed the rest following minor injuries.
“I think it’s too bad that Jeter in particular is not here, because of what he accomplished over the weekend,” said Philadelphia Phillies chairman Bill Giles, referring to Jeter’s 3,000th hit Saturday. “I think it is a bit of a problem and baseball should study it.”
Philadelphia’s Roy Halladay will start for the National League, following Vida Blue, Roger Clemens and Randy Johnson as the fourth pitcher to make an All-Star start for both leagues. Halladay, 11-3 with a 2.45 ERA, started the 2009 All-Star game while with the Toronto Blue Jays. The Los Angeles Angels’ Jered Weaver, 11-4 with a 1.86 ERA, starts for AL.
While the temperature outside Chase Field has been as high as 118 this month, an 8,000-ton cooling system keeps it in the 70s inside the ballpark. It was 99 outside and 73 inside for the start of the Home Run Derby, where left-handed hitters hoped to make a splash — in the right-field swimming pool.
With the roof closed, as it’s been for all games since June 17, there’s no fear of haboobs. Those are the massive dust storms, such as the mile-high wall of brown that blew through Phoenix last week.
The AL won 12 straight All-Star games played to a decision before Brian McCann’s three-run double in the seventh off Matt Thornton boosted the NL to a 3-1 victory last year in Anaheim. It was the first time the NL won since the All-Star game started determining home-field advantage for the World Series in 2003, and the San Francisco Giants went on to beat the Texas Rangers in five games for the title.
“Home field can be a very important component in winning the world championship,” Weaver said. “So I think it’s a great thing for the best players in the world to go out there and compete and work for that home-field advantage.”
-- RONALD BLUM
Halladay, Weaver get starting All-Star nods
PHOENIX (AP) — Pitching has again become the dominant force in baseball over the past couple of years, the hitters not standing much of a chance against all those arms.
With so many good pitchers out there, the managers for Tuesday’s All-Star game almost couldn’t go wrong.
They certainly won’t get many complaints for choosing Philadelphia Phillies ace of aces Roy Halladay and Los Angeles Angels star Jered Weaver.
In an All-Star game missing some of its luster, these two reluctant, go-about-their-business studs seem like a perfect fit.
“When you talk about the great pitchers in our game today, the elite pitchers, or a pitcher that you would want to start in a game that you would have to win, Roy’s name is always at the top of the list with just the incredible career that he’s had,” said San Francisco Giants manager Bruce Bochy, skipper of the NL team. “He’s doing it again this year. This was really an easy one for me that he would start this game.”
Picking Weaver wasn’t exactly a tough decision for AL manager Ron Washington.
The lanky right-hander is having a superb season with an 11-4 record and a majors-best 1.86 ERA, but also had some of his competition for the starting nod get knocked out of the picture.
Major League Baseball doesn’t allow pitchers who started on Sunday to participate in the Midsummer Classic, which meant Detroit’s Justin Verlander, Seattle’s Felix Hernandez, Tampa Bay’s James Shields and the Yankees’ CC Sabathia were ineligible.
Still, the numbers Weaver has put up would have made him a strong candidate regardless of who the competition was.
The 29-year-old was an All-Star last season and has been even better this year, posting the lowest ERA ever by an Angels starter before the break.
Weaver has lasted at least seven innings during a nine-game stretch without a loss while winning five straight and has thrown four of his eight career complete games this season to become the first Angels pitcher to start an All-Star game since Mark Langston in 1993.
“I’ve never competed against a more competitive pitcher and a pitcher that will do anything it takes to make sure that he keeps his team in the ballgame,” AL and Texas Rangers manager Ron Washington said.
Weaver is making his second appearance, but Halladay, one of the best pitchers of a generation, has made a habit of playing in the Midsummer Classic.
A two-time Cy Young Award winner, Halladay has made the All-Star team eight of the past nine years and will join Vida Blue, Roger Clemens and Randy Johnson as the only pitchers to start the game for both leagues after doing it with Toronto in 2009.
Even on a Phillies staff that includes Cliff Lee, Roy Oswalt and Cole Hamels, Halladay has established himself as The Man, a dominating pitcher with no-hitter-in-the-waiting stuff.
The 34-year-old threw the second no-hitter in postseason history — with Don Larsen — in his first career playoff game against Cincinnati in last season’s NL division series and has been nearly as dominant the first half of this season.
Halladay is 11-3 this season with a 2.45 ERA and 138 strikeouts, second-best in the NL. He became the first pitcher since 1991 to open a game with 18 strikes against the Mets on April 30, a start after matching his career high with 14 strikeouts against San Diego.
“You’ve got to be good, you’ve got to be having a good season and he’s the best in the game, so if anybody’s deserving of that (starting), it’s him,” said Lee, who joined Halladay on the NL team. “There’s a few guys that were worthy of that spot, but I think Halladay is the best pitcher in baseball and I think 99 percent of the people in here would agree with that. It’s an honor for him and I expect him to give us a chance to win.”
This year’s All-Star game lost some of its star power when 16 players backed out, including Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter, Ryan Braun and Jose Reyes, just to name a few. One of the biggest names in baseball, Cardinals slugger Albert Pujols, also didn’t get in because of a broken wrist.
There’s still plenty of stars left, from the NL’s Prince Fielder and Matt Holliday to Josh Hamilton and Adrian Gonzalez for the AL, but the game has a little less shine than it once did.
Halladay and Weaver won’t treat it any different.
Halladay has the perfect build — 6-foot-6, 230 pounds — to be a dominating pitcher and an ultra-competitive drive to make himself one of the best pitchers in the game.
Weaver has plenty of leverage, too, along with hard-to-figure delivery and a simmering intensity behind that surfer-dude image of his.
On the worldwide stage of the All-Star game, neither one is about to ease up, whether they’re facing A-Rod or the 16th replacement player on the roster.
“Obviously, (we’re) having some success as far as pitching goes, but you never know what you’re going to run into on any given night in a given lineup, so you can’t take anything for granted,” Weaver said.
Bochy and Washington certainly didn’t take anything for granted by picking these two.
-- JOHN MARSHALL
Hamilton plans to reach out, help Stone family
PHOENIX (AP) — Josh Hamilton patiently, even graciously, answered question after question on Monday about the tragic death of a fan who fell from the stands trying to catch a ball the Texas Rangers star tossed toward him.
He talked about reaching out to the family of Shannon Stone, the firefighter who tumbled to his death Thursday night as his 6-year-old son looked on.
“I haven’t thought it all the way through yet,” Hamilton said. “Obviously, I want it to be personal, face to face. I’d love to know what kind of man Mr. Stone was and just meet his wife and his little boy and see where it goes from there.
“The memorial fund, my wife and I plan to do something with that and try to do everything possible.”
But he knows he can never do enough.
“Nothing we can do is going to bring him back,” Hamilton said. “But the organization can take care of the family and see that everything is going in the right direction.”
Two nights after Stone’s death, Hamilton hit the game-winning, ninth-inning home run for the Rangers, a release of sorts for a man who recovered from drug addiction and lives with an abundance of Christian faith.
“It helps me handle life,” Hamilton said, “and this is life, this tragedy. There’s things that happen that you have no control over and you don’t understand them and you will never understand them until you stand in front of your maker.”
He was simply tossing the ball toward a fan that he noticed had a young boy with him.
“Just a random act of kindness turned tragic,” Hamilton said. “It just lets you know how quickly life can change, just in a blink of an eye, that quick.”
Hamilton said that, despite a heavy heart, he came to Arizona to put on a show.
“Life has to go on,” he said. “I still have obviously some feelings about the Stone family and everything that happened, but at the same time I have the joy as far as being here, and the fans want to see me play the game, so I’ll do the best I can to excite and entertain to the best of my ability.”
BELTRAN WANTS TO WIN: Carlos Beltran left no doubt about his desire to play for a winner, and he would be willing to approve a trade to a contending team if the New York Mets want to deal him before the July 31 non-waiver deadline.
“The Mets know,” the NL All-Star said. “I have made clear to them, that I’m willing to listen if they want to trade me. All I want to be is on a team where I have a chance to go to the playoffs.”
Would the Boston Red Sox be a good destination?
“They’re in first place,” he said. “It’s a no-brainer.”
KEEPING SCORE: San Francisco’s ever-quotable Brian Wilson has a simple reason he keeps score the old-fashioned way, in a scorebook, during Giants games. He’s bored.
“Sometimes the baseball games we play, it gets kind of monotonous,” the bearded closer extraordinaire said. “Zero-zero, 1-1. It helps you focus on the hitters, what they’ve been doing that day. Is this guy struggling, is that guy hot. What’s he looking for? I have trouble sitting down, so that keeps me focused and not going nuts.”
Wilson says he doesn’t know why he’s so off-the-wall quotable, then started talking about his “orca” socks.
He was asked if the socks were an ode to the whale.
“Think about one name back when you were kids. Who was the most famous orca?” Wilson said. “I was thinking Shamu. ... No, there’s no ode. I saw the socks, thought they were sweet and I bought them.”
FUTURES BAT: Oakland’s minor leaguer Grant Green isn’t a star yet, but his bat already is headed to the Hall of Fame.
The 23-year-old infielder, the A’s 2009 first-round pick who plays for Double-A Midland, had a pinch-hit double to drive in two runs in the fifth inning, then started a three-run rally with another double in the eighth to lead the U.S. team to a 6-4 victory over the World squad on Sunday night.
The Hall of Fame announced Monday that it was acquiring a bat.
LAST PICK: Arizona catcher Miguel Montero said he was more than surprised when manager Kirk Gibson told him on Sunday that he would be on the NL All-Star team.
“I was in the stadium (in St. Louis) when they asked me to go into the manager’s office,” Montero said. “He said, ‘Hey, congratulations, you’re going to the All-Star Game.’ I went, ‘Oh my God. Are you for real, man? Are you playing with me?”’
Montero said his teammates didn’t know until he told them.
“I told my guys, ‘Hey, I’m going to the All-Star Game.”’
Montero joins Justin Upton as the two home team representatives for the game on Tuesday night.
-- BOB BAUM
As Jeter stays away, hurt stars show up in Arizona
PHOENIX (AP) — Much is being made of the big names absent from this year’s All-Star game, yet some who are hurt came anyway to show their support.
Take Jose Reyes of the New York Mets, who says he has been hurt three of the four times he has made the All-Star team, but has come to the game each time. Or Philadelphia’s Shane Victorino. He withdrew because of injury but felt a special obligation to show up because he was the final player chosen for the NL team out five in an online vote by fans.
Several other All-Star selections who won’t play made the trip, some of them injured, some ineligible because they pitched on Sunday.
But some of the biggest names are no-shows, most notably Derek Jeter of the New York Yankees, who has had a calf injury but was well enough to go 5 for 5 and get his 3,000th hit with a dramatic home run on Saturday. Jeter decided not to make the cross-country trip to the desert.
“I think it’s too bad that Jeter in particular is not here, because of what he accomplished over the weekend,” Philadelphia Phillies chairman Bill Giles, the honorary NL president, said at a Monday news conference, “and I think it is a bit of a problem and baseball should study it.”
Boston’s David Ortiz said people should cut Jeter some slack.
“He always said yes to the All-Star game,” the Boston slugger said of his Yankees rival. “I think he has the right to, whenever he needs a break you know, to pull himself together, especially coming off an injury. I think people need to respect that.”
The Yankees’ Mariano Rivera also skipped the game because of a triceps injury. But Reyes, from that other New York team, didn’t let a hamstring injury prevent him from coming to Arizona to at least witness the festivities.
“Every time I’ve had the opportunity to come here I’m going to come, no matter what happens,” Reyes said. “Like I said, three of the last four years in the All-Star game I’ve been injured, but I still come here.”
Victorino sprained a ligament in his right thumb on July 4 and went on the 15-day DL last week, just as fans were making him their choice out of the final five listed to make the NL squad.
“My trainers and I talked about staying in Philly and getting my finger better and trying to get back healthy,” Victorino said, “but I’m like ‘Well, I can do the same things here that I can do in Philly so I’d like to come and be with my teammates, being around players that are deserving. One, I got voted in and I want to tip my hat to the fans and say thank you and represent the National League.”
But he said each situation is different. Alex Rodriguez just had arthroscopic knee surgery, so obviously he can’t come.
“Derek Jeter just got 3,000 hits. I’m sure he has a lot on his plate,” Victorino said.
One big-name player who wanted to come but wasn’t selected is St. Louis slugger Albert Pujols, who came back from a broken wrist a month ahead of schedule, Teammate Matt Holliday, an NL starter, said the early return from injury may have surprised those who pick the team. Had he not been injured, Pujols undoubtedly would have been on the team, Holliday said.
“I don’t know who makes those decisions and how they’re factored in,” he said, “but it’s kind of weird not having what I would consider the best player here.”
Holliday said he would never miss the game.
“Even if I was hurting, I would come,” he said. “just to be a part of the experience.”
-- BOB BAUM
Lineups set
PHOENIX (AP) — Philadelphia’s Roy Halladay will start for the National League in Tuesday night’s All-Star game against the Los Angeles Angels’ Jered Weaver.
The NL batting order has Milwaukee’s Rickie Weeks leading off and playing second base, followed by designated hitter Carlos Beltran of the Mets, Dodgers center fielder Matt Kemp, Milwaukee first baseman Prince Fielder, Atlanta catcher Brian McCann, St. Louis right fielder Lance Berkman, Cardinals left fielder Matt Holliday, Colorado shortstop Troy Tulowitzki and Cincinnati third baseman Scott Rolen.
The AL has Yankees center fielder Curtis Granderson leading off, followed by Cleveland shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera, Boston first baseman Adrian Gonzalez, Toronto right fielder Jose Bautista, Texas left fielder Josh Hamilton, Rangers third baseman Adrian Beltre, Boston designated hitter David Ortiz, Yankees second baseman Robinson Cano and Detroit catcher Alex Avila.
Halladay, 11-3 with a 2.45 ERA, started the 2009 All-Star game while with the Toronto Blue Jays and will be the fourth pitcher to make an All-Star start for both leagues, following Vida Blue, Roger Clemens and Randy Johnson. Halladay is the first Philadelphia pitcher to start since Curt Schilling in 1999.
Weaver, 11-4 with a 1.86 ERA, is the fifth Angels pitcher to start, following Ken McBride (1963), Dean Chance (1964), Nolan Ryan (1979) and Mark Langston (1993).
-- RONALD BLUM
Arizona sheriff calls off All-Star Game chain gang
PHOENIX (AP) — An Arizona sheriff known for his crime raids in the Phoenix area says he is calling off his plan to have jail chain gangs pick up trash outside Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game.
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio told the Arizona Republic on Monday that he wants the focus to be on the children and the national pastime instead of his chain gang.
The sheriff had planned to have three chain gangs decked out in striped jail garb posted around Chase Field during Tuesday’s game. One was to be made up entirely of undocumented immigrants convicted of drunken driving.
Arpaio regularly uses his chain gangs to draw publicity for his tough-on-crime message.
The sheriff also placed chain gangs near the 2008 Super Bowl.
