The Big Story – Gambling Becoming an Issue: Are the chickens coming home to roost for pro sports after buddying up to the legal betting industry? It may be just a blip, but in the last week Cleveland Guardians hurler Luis Ortiz and NBA free agent Malik Beasley came under gambling investigations. They joined umpire Pat Hoberg, fired earlier this year for sharing info with a friend who was betting on baseball, and Jontay Porter, banned for life by the NBA for betting on basketball. All happening in the same time period baseball commissioner Rob Manfred caved to the convicted felon in the White House to remove restrictions preventing the Hall of Fame from voting on Pete Rose for his gambling on baseball. And ditto for the banned since 1920 Shoeless Joe Jackson for his role in 1919’s Black Sox scandal. No charges yet for anyone, but all these cases in a year seems an awful lot.
Sports 101: Name the youngest pitcher to start an All-Star game.
News Item – MLB Update at All-Star Break:
The Blue Jays got hot at just the right time to win six straight during consecutive series sweeps of the Red Sox and Yankees to move into first place in the AL East.
Even though I still can’t get used to their being good, it’s Detroit with the best record in the AL at 55-34, just behind L.A.’s best in the majors 56-33.
Forget the record for just catchers. In hitting homers 34 and 35, Cal Raleigh not only set his own personal best but also tied Ken Griffey Jr.’s Mariners record for most homers by the All-Star break.
With each on pace to hit 50 homers again without the help of PEDs, you can make a case that Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani are the best playing-at-the-same-time duo since Willie Mays and Hank Aaron in the 1960s.
Yankees free agent Max Fried led the majors in wins with 11 against two losses. Detroit’s Tarik Skubal was just behind at 10-2 with a 2.04 ERA to Fried’s 2.27.
News Item – Jurrangelo Cijntje: You think the Ohtani hitter-pitcher story is interesting — how about this Seattle Mariners prospect? And not just for being the rare baseball player who’s from the Netherlands. The 22-year-old is a switch pitcher who held hitters to a .165 average while pitching right-handed and .360 while pitching left-handed. He’ll be strutting his stuff at the All-Star Futures game on Saturday in Atlanta.
The Numbers:
12 – players already have struck out at least 100 times with three more at 99.
… Of the Week Awards
Who’s Hot – Michael Busch: He exploded for three homers on July 4, and the fireworks extended through the whole Cubs line-up as it went for a franchise record eight homers during an 11-3 rout of St. Louis.
Who’s Not – Devers Update: It hasn’t been all roses for Rafael Devers since being traded. He hit .239 (17-85) in his first 19 games out west, which included a streak when he was 1-16 with 13 K’s last week. The power numbers were five doubles, two homers and nine RBI as the Giants went 8-11 during his 19 games with SF.
Random Thoughts:
With Pete Alonso closing in on most homers in New York Mets history it amazes me with 252 that Darryl Strawberry is still their all-time leader 35 years after leaving the team.
Sports 101 Answer: The youngest guy to be the ASG starter wasVida Blue.
A Little History – 1971 All-Star Game: The Oakland lefty was just 21 when he started the 1971 All-Star game, a four-homer game, which included a titanic blast over the roof in Tiger Stadium by A’s teammate Reggie Jackson. Despite giving up three runs in his three innings, Blue got the win when the AL rallied for four in the third, leading to a 6-4 win. It was the AL’s first ASG win in nine years and last until 1983.
Final Thought – Good, Bad and Ugly for the Red Sox at July 4:
At 9-4 with a 2.39 ERA and major league leading 151 strikeouts in 120.1 Garrett Crochet has lived up to the billing, though it would have been nicer if he could have made it to seven innings more than five times in his 19 starts.
Easily the biggest surprise was rookie catcher Carlos Narvaez, who hit .272 with seven homers and 28 RBI in 68 games.
Jarren Duran led baseball with nine triples.
Crochet, Alex Bregman and Aroldis Chapman will represent the Sox in the All-Star game.
The bullpen had a major league leading 11 blown saves to go along with its second-worst 74 errors.
Despite all the nonsense of the first half, the Red Sox were just 2.5 back from a wild card slot on the 4th.
Email Dave Long at dlong@hippopress.com.