Photography by Dirk Hansen, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
If the Cardinals make it to the World Series, they’ll have to play Game 1 and, if necessary, Game 7 on the road. That’s because last night in Minnesota, the American League defeated the National League in the All-Star game by a score of 5–3. And adding insult to injury, Cardinal pitchers are taking much of the blame for the NL’s loss. Redbird hurlers were charged with all five American League runs, and Adam Wainwright is being accused of giving up a key hit on purpose.
Let’s start at the beginning.
Cardinals skipper Mike Matheny, who earned the right to manage the All-Star team by winning the pennant last year, made a controversial decision to start his own ace, Adam Wainwright, over Clayton Kershaw of the Dodgers. Kershaw is widely considered the best pitcher on the planet, and he would seem to be having a better season than Wainwright, by a narrow margin.
In my humble opinion, Matheny didn’t do anything wrong. Wainwright might be having the best year of his career. If Kershaw is No. 1, Wainwright is No. 1A. He was a deserving choice. Can you really blame Matheny for going with his own guy? If the Dodgers wanted Kershaw to start, they should have beaten the Cardinals in the NLCS last year. Then Don Mattingly would have been in charge.
So that’s my take, but many people disagreed.
If you paid any attention at all to national media coverage of the All-Star festivities, you know that the whole event was basically one giant Derek Jeter love fest. The Yankees captain is retiring, and the circus big top has been following him wherever he goes this season, a fitting sendoff for one of the best (and unquestionably the most hyped) athletes of his generation.
When Jeter came to the plate to lead off for the American League, he received one of those game-stopping standing ovations. He acknowledged the crowd. Then he acknowledged the crowd again. And again. Out on the mound, Wainwright sat his glove on the ground and led his teammates in joining the applause. Then the famously competitive Wainwright threw Jeter a slower-than-normal fastball right down the middle.
Jeter smacked a double. Mike Trout followed with a triple, and Miguel Cabrera hit a home run. Just like that, the American League had piled on three first-inning runs.
Shortly after coming out of the game, Wainwright was interviewed in the dugout. “I was going to give him a couple pipe shots. He deserved it,” Wainwright said. “I didn’t know he was going to hit a double or I would have changed my mind.”
Immediately, Twitter exploded. Critics accused Wainwright of throwing Jeter a batting-practice pitch so the future Hall of Famer could have a nice moment. Doesn’t Waino know this game counts? Doesn’t he know this isn’t the WWE? Where’s his competitive spirit? What about the integrity of the game? Worse, some people interpreted Wainwright’s comment to mean that he thought Jeter, in the twilight of his career, was a charity case, a guy who couldn’t get a hit unless it was given to him.
The social-media forest fire spread so quickly that just a few innings later, Wainwright felt it necessary to go back on the air with the FOX commentators to clarify his comments. By “pipe shot,” he just meant that he wanted to throw a strike. After the game, he backtracked and apologized some more. But it was too late. Pipegate raged on.
In my humble opinion, Wainwright didn’t do anything wrong. This was Jeter’s moment. The guy had just gotten a huge standing ovation. What did fans want Wainwright to do? Throw at Jeter’s head to back him off the plate? Embarrass him with a curveball in his final All-Star game? I mean, it’s the stinkin’ All-Star game.
The real culprit here is Bud Selig. Back in 2002, the All-Star game was played in Selig’s town of Milwaukee, and it ended in a disgraceful tie. To save face, the league declared that from then on, the game would “count.” It would determine home-field advantage for the World Series.
This is, of course, ludicrous. Look at how the All-Star game is played. The best players start, then are removed in the fourth inning. Every team sends someone. Starting pitchers leave after one inning. Everybody is smiling and laughing and joking. This is an exhibition game. It doesn’t really count, no matter what Selig says. What Wainwright did might not have been in the spirit of competition, but it was in the spirit of fun, which is the exact spirit the All-Star game is supposed to have.
So that’s my take, but many disagree.
Despite all the criticism, though, Wainwright was not the game’s losing pitcher. That was reserved for his Cardinal teammate, Pat Neshek. Coming into the game, the unlikely Neshek had received almost as much attention as Jeter.
Neshek's story had everything. There was the fact that he was the hometown kid: He grew up not too far from Target Field, where the game was being played and where Neshek’s brother is a member of the grounds crew. There was tragedy: Neshek’s infant son died in 2012. And there was triumph: He was the underdog, having fought through years of injuries and inconsistencies to make his first All-Star team at age 33. He has a 0.70 ERA for the Cardinals this year, after barely making the team out of spring training. He and his wife now have another son, and the little guy is thriving. Plus, Neshek is just an all-around likeable guy, a fan of the game who asks other players for their autographs. He has an amazing collection of baseball cards.
But on Tuesday, Neshek didn’t get his fairytale ending. In the fifth inning, with the game tied, he could only get one out while surrendering three hits and being charged with two runs.
In my humble opinion, that doesn’t take anything away from all Neshek has overcome and accomplished. Others may disagree.
