‘I promised them I would win it’

DENVER – The first Tuesday began with Fernando Tatis Jr., who is without a doubt the most magnetic star in the sport, and digs against Shohei Ohtan, who is without a doubt the most unique talent in baseball history. A quick acknowledgment was followed by two quick balls, then a slider, then a dealer, then another slider. Ohtani got the flight out. Tatis returned to the cemetery in confusion.

“He gave me everything!” Tatis exclaimed. “I thought he was just giving me quick balls. Come on, man – you’re throwing a hundred!”

There has been a dark cloud hanging over Major League Baseball in recent weeks. The lewd discussion of industry issues with foreign agents was followed by horrible allegations of sexual violence against the sport’s highest-paid player, all of endless concern for the future of baseball.

But sometimes the game takes over, and nothing else seems to matter.

Sometimes balls fly, personalities emerge, young stars emerge, and the attack that surrounds these great events takes place. This All-Star game, which the American League won by 5-2 points, provided that. It served as a much-needed break in the difficulties of this sport, perhaps even a recognition that some of them might be too big. It was also a powerful representation of life that normalized in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic shown by the electric forces that filled the Coors Field over the past two nights.

“Baseball is back,” Tatis declared. “Real energy, real atmosphere.”

This All-Star game and the events surrounding it had a lot of winners, no more than fans.

Here are five more.

Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

Vlad Jr. broke this list simply with his glove.

Vladdy Jr. made a glove from this iconic photo for ASG

(through @MLB) pic.twitter.com/oQn15N7JRj

ESPN (@espn) July 13, 2021

He then hit a 1-1 slider over Corbin Burnes ’plate and burned the 468-foot home run, the longest in All-Star play in the last 10 years. It was his second hitting ball at 110 mph, and it came 15 years after his father’s All-Star Game Homer, making them the third father-son duo to achieve this feat, along with Bobby and Barry Bonds and parent Ken Griffey. Ken Griffey Jr. At 22 and 119 days old, it made him the youngest player to come from an All-Star game after Johnny Bench. Ultimately, it also won him an MVP.

Guerrero’s teammates, Lourdes Gurriel Jr. and George Springer, told him on Friday that if he goes to the All-Star game, he might as well win the MVP.

“I promised them I’d win it,” Guerrero said in Spanish, “and luckily I’ll bring it back.”

Shohei Ohtani

Star Week doubled as a celebration of Ohtan’s unprecedented first half. Cameras followed him wherever he went. The guys played his attacks. Media members crowded around the well and just waited for him to leave. Ohtani led the stars full of the event, and somehow she wasn’t disappointed.

On Monday, he participated in an epic show with Juan Soto and collected 28 home uses – 15 of which traveled more than 475 feet and six reached 500. Ohtani eventually lost in the third tiebreaker, then slept until 10.30am. , arrived at the ball field a few hours later, hit the cages and stepped on the field at about 5.30pm to start the pre – departure warm – up.

At the top of the first, Ohtani took a basic hit from him. At the bottom of the first, he retired in order to retire Fernando Tatis Jr., Max Muncy and Nolan Arenado, the latter of whom saw consecutive 100 mph fast balls.

By the end of the night, Ohtani was suitably the winner of the game.

“It was definitely more fun than nervous,” Ohtani said through his interpreter. “I definitely want to go back to the All-Star game.”

The list of Ohtan’s milestones is already daunting. He is the first player to be selected as the All-Star pitcher and batsman, hitting 20 home runs and hitting 80 strokes in the same season, combining 10 starts with 10 home runs and 10 stolen bases in the same season, reaching 32 home runs and 12 stolen bases in the All-Star During the Star Break, constantly and further. Babe Ruth is the only close comparison, and not even Bambino himself does Ohtan’s two-way ability.

His excellence is almost indescribable, but Freddie Freeman competently tried to capture it:

“I don’t even understand how the brain can reverse the flop,‘ I have to get three starts, and then I have to go run for myself. “I don’t understand it in a big league ball game. Whenever he’s on the field, you’re just amazed that he has the energy, the mental energy to handle it. I watch the guys compose. -Design that goes on in the games – he designs the game and then has to hit He has literally 12 hours a day every day, which is amazing because then he throws so many fields, then you have To take care of your arm the next day, you have to get all the lactic acid from your body, and then you have to go to DH at night “Every day I’m amazed. I’m really. I’m just happy that someone is doing it. I don’t know if anyone will ever do it like Shohei, but at least that door has opened that maybe we’ll at least let people try a little more.”

Nolan Arenado

The Nolan Arenado shirts adorned Coors Field over the past two nights, a constant reminder of what was lost on the first day of February when the poorly maintained Colorado Rockies game series split its tennis player with the St. Louis Cardinals.

This week, however, Arenado had dressed up guys with his former teammate Trevor Store, and for a moment it felt like nothing had changed.

“It’s like he never left,” Story said Monday afternoon. An hour later, Arenado acted as Story’s jumper in the Home Run Derby, keeping him hydrated and pumping the crowd during intervals. The following afternoon, Arenado, who returned to Coors Field for the second time this month, was presented with fierce Applause.

A special moment when Nolan Arenado is introduced in Colorado, where he was a 5x All-Star before he was traded to the Cardinals

(through @MLB)pic.twitter.com/m7mosOJyRG

ESPN (@espn) July 14, 2021

“He needed it,” said his former teammate, Rockies founder German Marquez, in Spanish.

Arenado called it “one of the better things I’ve ever had in my life, in my career. I’m very grateful for that.”

Arenado grew and became a star in Denver. For eight years, from 21 to 2013 to 29 in 2020, he established himself as the game’s biggest third founder. He was a great defender, a fierce batsman, a proud presence. And yet part of him was unsure how it would be appreciated.

“I think we can all understand that,” Arenado said. “Sometimes when you work and do a good job, sometimes it’s not noticed. Sometimes you want to be appreciated for what you do. And it’s in everyday life. It can be anything. You do something with someone, you want them to say thank you in a way. Not that I want them to say thank you, but the fact that they did it means a lot. “

Derby finalists

to be afraid

Pete Alonso surpasses Trey Mancin in the final to win the Home Run Derbys in a row.

The Home Run Derby came to Pete Alonso and Trey Mancin, two finalists who brought pure joy for vastly different reasons.

Mancini was the inspiration. He spent the 2020 season every other week in chemotherapy recovering from stage three colon cancer, fought his way back, lost his beloved friend’s brain cancer along the way, earned an invitation to a home race and almost won everything.

“I think it can be an example of you being able to get back to a normal life, even if you sometimes have this thing dependent on you,” Mancini said. “That’s the message I really wanted to meet.”

Alonso was a force of nature. He became self-confident all night – landing in Gatorade, jumping into the audience during timeouts, constantly head-to-head in New York hip-hop and waving the brilliant bat that contained his life story. Alonso owned the event and became the third all-time back-to-back Derby winner. He later declared himself “the best power striker on the planet.”

Who could argue?

Liam Hendriks

Hendriks didn’t know he was still in the microphone as he navigated through the ninth inning. He could no longer hear the FOX broadcast, so he thought he was clear. And so he composed in the usual way – which meant a lot of cursing on national television.

Hendriks ’ninth inning was an event. He shuffled the boxing ball for fun and worked around a couple of hits to complete the game. ESPN’s Marly Riverana pointed out: The winner of the All-Star game was a Japanese two-way player. The MVP was 22 years old from the Dominican Republic. And the savings went to a 32-year-old from Australia.

It came after my short-sighted comments on Shohei Ohtan’s understanding of English, an event that had been postponed because of voting laws that allegedly blocked minorities – and it was perfect.