The American and National League all-stars were announced Sunday. Looking at the line-ups, a few things stand out.1) The absence of Red Sox starter Curt Schilling. At 10-2 this season, he deserves to be going to the All-Star Game. Instead, manager Ozzie Guillen named his own White Sox starter Mark Buerhle to the squad even though he has had spotty outings this season. I may be a White Sox fan, and I love the fact that there are six players on this year's All-Star team, but I have to admit this is a questionable call.
Also among the starters is Mark Redman of Kansas City. His record is 5-4, but every team needs to be represented at the All-Star game and I guess this was the best Ozzie could find from the last place Royals.
2) Other snubs. Detroit and Oakland are both in first place, yet both teams have only one representative going to the summer classic. You could make a strong case for Oakland outfielder Nick Swisher and Tiger pitcher Justin Verlander (who is one of the Final Man Candidates). But Guillen fulfilled his promise to stack the team with White Sox players. As manager of the AL team, that's his perogative. There are six Sox on the team, and if catcher A.J. Pierzinski gets voted in as the Final Man, there will be seven. This is nothing new. Every All-Star manager has chosen his own players to fill out his roster. Yankee manager Joe Torre once had 11 Yankees on his All-Star squad.
3) First-timers. The tide may be turning in major league baseball. While both teams include a high-profile veterans like Albert Pujols, David Ortiz and Alex Rodriguez, there are also a lot of first-time all-stars. It's refreshing to see young talent recognized for their accomplishments by both the fans and players.
The All-Star game takes place at PNC Park in Pittsburgh on Tuesday, July 11th.
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