1994 All Star Game 7/12/94 @ Three Rivers Stadium

this is the nbc television network the first commissioner of baseball said nearly every boy builds a shrine to some baseball hero and before that shrine a candle always burns the connection to baseball usually begins in childhood when imagination operates most freely when the feel of the game captures you when mimicking the mannerisms of your favorites is part of what it means to be a fan and even for those who would one day make it to the all-star game a word of encouragement in childhood still resonates how could it not when it was said to a twelve-year-old by the splendid splinter ted williams it was really a turning point in my career when you have probably the greatest hitter one of the greatest hitters in the history of the game telling you that you hitting the ball just as hard if not hard and he was at the same age when i was a kid growing up in chicago i used to dream that i was earning banks to hit a home run to win the all-star game and it happened last year at camden yards for ken griffey jr there was a baseball influence close at hand his dad my brother and i were running the now field and we raced we had a ball and we just ran ran straight down the right field line to his position and you know everybody stood up and clapped more than any other sport baseball is about history about comparisons every great player measured against those who have gone before those who set the standards and those who strive now to surpass them the names that echo down the corridors of time and those whose time is now those whose names may be forever linked with men they never knew those who will be watched tonight by some kid somewhere who will someday stand in their place the all-star game is next [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] a warm july night in the steel city temperature right now 85 degrees as we're getting set for the 65th renewal of baseball's all-star game the fourth time the city of pittsburgh has played host the first two times at old forbes field and now this is the second time here at three rivers stadium where all stars like willie stargill and roberto clemente played at least a portion of their hall of fame careers hello everybody i'm bob costas has it perhaps affected you already no i'm i'm gonna go out and have fun i mean it's situation if it happens it happens if it doesn't it doesn't i mean uh you know i can't worry about you know the future and i got to take care of today and that's the most important thing for me to do you didn't appear to have too many cares yesterday in winning the home run derby you look like you had fun well you know the real winners are the kids uh the kids who get the money and the rights are so they're they're the ones who are suffering we're not and we're just trying to put a show on for the fans i mean we're here for three days and we're gonna do the best job we can tell me what you thought about the one frank thomas hit well the next time he decides he want to uh make arrangements for a flight like that i'd like to be on it and uh ask him what movie he's showing let me ask you frank when you were when you were out here yesterday you didn't appear to have a case of butterflies you did a little while ago admits to having a case today i got a big big big case of butterflies tonight i was my first start ken's a veteran of this game now so you know it's something new for me i'm just gonna go out and have a good time though yeah are you having a good time whenever this topic of the home run chase comes up i didn't think about it you know i i was sitting around thinking about the other day i have 32 home runs at the break and i don't know how but uh you know i've had a solid first half but first half doesn't make the season so i just got to come out and just keep playing hard you're putting up terrific numbers in home runs batting average and runs batted in is there any one of those categories that you would prefer to excel in over the other not really i used to really love the rbi situation but now i'm i'm getting to the average race thing uh you know i've always hit for a high average but i never really thought about it so you know i'm not really too particular in any one of the categories all right frank thomas ken griffey jr good luck to you tonight we'll take a time out here when we come back matt williams of the san francisco giants joins us when we continue from three rivers stadium in just a moment all-star baseball game public address announcer tim debaco the trainers from the cleveland indians paul spacuza from the milwaukee brewers john adam the batting practice staff from the toronto blue jays bob baylor and in the bullpen gene tennis and gaitlin cisco the coaches from the chicago white sox gene lamont from the cleveland indians mike hargrove and now the american league non-starters from the baltimore orioles pitcher mike messina pitcher lee smith from the boston red sox third baseman scott cooper from the california angels outfielder chile davis from the chicago white sox pitcher wilson alvarez pitcher jason beret [Music] from the cleveland indians outfielder kenny lofton outfielder albert bell from the detroit tigers catcher mickey teddleton third baseman travis fryman from the kansas city royals pitcher david cohn from the milwaukee brewers pitcher ricky bonus [Applause] from the minnesota twins second baseman chuck [Applause] from the new york yankees outfielder paul o'neill from the oakland athletics outfielder reuben sierra from the seattle mariners pitcher randy johnson from the texas rangers first baseman will clark from the toronto blue jays outfielder paul molitor pitcher pat henkin and now tonight's starting lineup for the american league [Music] first the manager of the american league from the world champion toronto blue jays ceto gaston leading off the second baseman from the toronto blue jays roberto alamar [Applause] matting second the third baseman from the new york yankees wade boggs batting third the center fielder from the seattle mariners ken griffey jr matting fourth the first baseman from the chicago white sox frank thomas [Applause] madding fifth the left fielder from the toronto blue jays joe carter [Applause] matting sixth the right fielder from the minnesota twins kirby pocket [Applause] [Music] batting sevens the shortstop from the baltimore orioles cal ripken [Applause] the catcher from the texas rangers yvonne rodriguez [Applause] [Music] and batting ninth and warming up in the bullpen from the new york yankees pitcher jimmy and gentlemen the 1994 american league [Applause] all-stars and for the national league the trainers from the pittsburgh pirates kent bigger staff from the san francisco giants mark laton the batting practice staff from the philadelphia phillies john vukovich and in the bullpen johnny padres [Applause] the coaches from the colorado rockies don baylor from the pittsburgh pirates jim leland from the san francisco giants dusty baker [Music] randy myers from the cincinnati reds shortstop mary larkin pitcher jose rijo from the commonwealth of rockies outfielder dante from the florida marlins outfielder jeff conan [Applause] from the houston astros first baseman jeff bagwell second baseman craig vigio third baseman ken camanetti pitcher doug draymond from the montreal expos outfielder marquis grissoms shortstop [Music] [Applause] ken hill from the new york mets pitcher brett saberhagen from the philadelphia phillies pitcher doug jones pitcher danny jackson from the pittsburgh pirates second baseman carlos garcia from the san francisco giants [Applause] from the philadelphia phillies voted as a starter to the all-star team but unable to play due to injury outfielder lenny dykstra [Applause] and now tonight's starting lineup for the national league first the manager from the national league champion philadelphia phillies jim tragosies leading off the first baseman from the saint louis cardinals greg jeffreys matting second the center fielder from the san diego padres tony quinn matting third the left fielder from the san francisco giants from the los angeles dodgers mike piazza madding fifth the third baseman from the san francisco giants matt williams batting six the right fielder from the atlanta braves david justice the second baseman from the philadelphia phillies mariano duncan [Music] smith [Applause] atlanta braves pitchers greg maddox [Applause] ladies and gentlemen your 1994 national league stars [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] lady [Music] they opened up some of the seats that normally aren't available for baseball for this all-star game increased the capacity by some 10 000 so better than 58 000 are on hand in this sellout crowd tonight for the 65th renewal of the all-star game welcome back up to the booth and the first time to say hello to my new partners mr baseball bob euchre and hall of famer joe morgan two-time mvp ten times select d to the all-star game can you offer a memory or two of this game well it would have to be the 1970s and as i was trotting around the bases i was thinking to myself babe ruth made this journey quite often and it was very exciting and i don't even think i touched the bases i can't remember that you see reggie faced tonight by starter greg maddox roberto alamar at second base from the blue jays the yankees wade boggs at third ken griffey jr starts in center field for the fifth consecutive year frank thomas and we'll tell you about his truly remarkable numbers when he comes to the plate the white sox first baseman will hit cleanup joe carter in the left the game-winning homing first in the world series last year against the phillies kirby puckett an all-star perennial is in right field from the twins cal ripken jr making a record 11th consecutive start at shortstop for the american league ivan rodriguez the texas rangers young catcher second all-star appearance at age 22 and jimmy key from the yankees with a record of 13-2 will pitch ozzy smith is standing at shortstop for the national league he's the oldest player in the game but still spry this might be his last all-star game so he sees the moment the trademark flip when he hit the diamond at three rivers do it wizard the shadows growing longer for ozzy smith at age 39 roberto alamar stands in and maddox starts him with a strike how appropriate that the first hitter in this all-star game should hail from puerto rico the homeland of the great roberto clemente they dedicated a statue to him outside three rivers earlier this week the 01 pitch moves them back 1-1 the plate umpire is paul rangi from the national league john shulock of the american league at first jerry lane national league at second rocky row american league at third bill hahn of the national league left field jim joyce of the americans right field and alamar drops a bunt but it rolls foul alamar hitting 313 appearing in his fifth all-star game one for san diego four in the american league as a representative of the blue jays piazza with the sign maddox as usual ahead on the count hit to ozzy easy for the wizard one down to his cardinal teammate greg jeffers [Applause] joe let's take a look at the national league left field tony defensiveness normally a right fielder who's won a gold glove in center justice in right william smith on the left side duncan and jeffrey's on the right piazzo behind the mound and maddox on the mound wade boggs hitting 331 with nine homeless likes to look at several pitches usually takes one at the knees for a strike this will be the 12th time in a 13-year career that boggs hits better than 300. it's this one toward the middle and ozzie can't flag it down boggs is a 350 hitter in nine previous all-star games and he starts this one with a hit from maddox right down the middle and boggs right on it hit it in the center you said a moment ago bob the guy takes pitches left and right strike one strike two i don't know if there's a better two strike hitter in the game but he's amongst the best i guarantee you that [Music] so boggs at first with one down for ken griffey jr with frank thomas on deck junior won the home run derby here yesterday with seven of them and here's a drive into the gap in left center field and gwen won't get to it it splits them and goes to the wall boggs on his way to third and stop there by gene lamont the white sox manager who's coaching at third junior liked the first pitch he saw joe goes the opposite way and he has tremendous power in that direction for the two-bagger well greg maddox usually features a fastball and a changeup you can't tell the difference sometimes he starts quickly off with a fastball and he gets it up and griffey just laces it in the gap in left center field no chance for anyone to run that one down the pursuit of roger maris has him at 33 at mid-season same as matt williams of the national league one better than this guy frank thomas of the white sox marist had 33 at the break in 1961 when he caught ruth and there's a fastball for a strike to thomas how many power hitters yoke take as many pitches as thomas does you know there's an argument about that you won't get it from frank thomas though bob he's one of those guys that is disciplined he says no matter what the situation is runner's a board he's going to take pitches that he doesn't think he can handle i think a lot of people think he ought to swing at more pitches i mean balls that he can reach that are reachable for him to pick up rbis off the outside edge and low the american leaguers threatening in the top of the first boggs at third griffey at second that guy at chicago hitting behind him julio franco is having a heck of a year because of it a ball and a strike to the big hurt and maddox steps off and wants to confer with piazza that'll give us a chance to put the numbers back up for frank thomas his on base percentage is better than 500. look at that slugging percentage if he maintains that listen carefully only one man in baseball history will have slugged higher in a single season and his name is babe ruth and he did it only twice with back-to-back seasons in 1920 and 21 over 800. he hits it right on the nose and gwyn comes charging in and can't make the play scoring from third is boggs griffey stops at third and we'll see how they score it now remember gwen has played only one game in center field in the last five years and that was sunday just to get him ready for this all-star game he had to replace lenny dykstra in the starting lineup and he played sunday the last game before the break in center against the expos here it is again a sinking line drive off the bat that ball short hopped him it looked like it hit the turf first get another look yep it's a base hit [Applause] and an rbi for frank thomas so the american league trying to extend a six-game winning streak in front one-nothing three consecutive hits off maddox here's carter and he swings on the first one they're wasting little time well greg maddox comes right after you john i mean bob he does not fall behind many hitters an early tribute to don miller your partner on espn the great oriole announcer at least it's out of the way okay get it out of the way here's the l1 to carter lined and maddox grabs it and there's the dp maddox is a terrific fielding pitcher and he helped himself there they scalded the ball against him in this inning but the dp bails him out with only one run scoring national leaguers coming up 1994 all-star game is brought to you by budweiser beachwood aged for a crisp clean classic taste by mci the company that brings you proof positive and by oldsmobile and your local oldsmobile retailers [Music] bottom of the first coming up in three rivers there's a pennsylvania boy the bill's quarterback jim kelly training camp still a ways off and tonight's national league lineup presented by budweiser greg jeffries from the town where they brew bud saint louis will lead it off gwynn bonds piazza to follow williams justice duncan smith and the pitcher maddox the four-time gold glove award-winning maddox who got himself out of a tough first inning by starting the line drive d.p jeffrey's the former med and royal switch hitter batting right against key fastball high to start jeffrey's average fifth best in the national league hit 342 in his first season as a cardinal in 93. and the fastball is walloped down the line and left one hop off the wall harder to play the carob jeffries with a leadoff double you got two guys starting [Applause] [Music] but this one looks like a candidate for a slugfest well again joe talked earlier about the high fastballs from addicts it's a high fastball from jimmy key right down main street and jeffrey's right on it carter no chance to play this ball off the wall it's an easy double for jeffries tying run at second for tony guinn whose 383 average leads the national league ties him with frank thomas for the major league's best and he takes a strike out the knees four-time batting titleist this will be the 12th consecutive year he's top 300 longest streak in the national league since musial did it 16 straight times barry bonds on deck a ball and a strike you know joe we were talking about the pursuit of 400 you've got an interesting point of view well i believe that if you had rod carew george brett playing today one of those two guys would hit over 400 and wade boggs would have an outside chance if he was in his prime with the level of pitching the way it is right now he jammed him on that one and thomas is going to take it himself but jefferies advances to third with one out met there by the pirate manager jim leland who got a rousing ovation from the hometown fans he's coaching at third base for jim kragoshi [Applause] now it's carter griffin bucket in the outfield left to right boggs at third ripken it's short alamar second with big frank thomas at first it's ivonne rodriguez catching and left-hander jimmy keon for the americans bond stands in not so warmly greeted by his ex-hometown fans and he drives one to right but he didn't get all of it back on the track is kirby puckett and a strider so from the wall he makes the catch credit bonds with a sacrifice fly as jeffries comes across to tie it at one a piece well both of these pitchers are very similar they rely on the off-speed pitchers and the breaking balls this is the breaking ball of bonds you can see him check for a second and then take a powerful cut he just misses this ball now watch he'll take a stride and then he'll stop again right there he holds himself the weight on the breaking ball and then he tries to muscle it out and he can't quite get it out how important that little ground ball hit by tony gwynn though joe to get the run of the third and a strike to the cleanup man mike piazza the last time any catcher with all due respect to fisk and munson and the others any catcher put up numbers like piazza has in his first season and a half it was your old teammate johnny bench joe the off speed pitch hit to the right side and frank thomas takes the softliner so the nationals come back to even it tied at one after one it'll be pocket ripken and rodriguez to face greg maddox as we start the second score tied at one and a strike from maddox he's 28 years old great command of all of his pitches cut fastball slider the circle change with drop action he'll throw any of them at any point on the count kirby swings and misses pocket a career 319 hitter right around there at 3 21 leading the league in rbis mvp of last year's all-star game in an american league win at baltimore outside for ball one maddox works one and two got in on his fist slow roller matt williams cuts in front of ozzie very sure-handed third baseman from the giants he's got a couple of gold gloves on his show very good defensive third baseman great hands and a very accurate arm and when greg maddox gets ahead of you very rarely do you get a pitch to hit now this is matt wiggins charging throws on the run very accurate overlooked in all a hubba about griffey and thomas who have better overall numbers but when it comes to hitting them out matt williams is right there with 33 at the break as a matter of fact did not participate in yesterday's home run hitting contest due to a little a little bad back a little bit of a back problem decline but you know it was interesting when you were talking to him bob about the fact that despite the 33 home runs he's uh he's not totally satisfied with what he's hitting and the rbi cup ripken wasn't satisfied with what he was doing last year at this time 229 at the break although he started in his home park of camden yards cuts and misses but this year he's up to 306. and he is now 147 games behind lou gehrig's once unassailable mark of 2130 consecutive games played assuming no strike which is a huge assumption he could break it in late june of next season the one-two pitch you know we take it for granted like he's in the home stretch a piece of cake 147 games maybe for him but there are only three players active in the major leagues right now with a streak as long as 147 to put in perspective what this guy has done one-two pitch breaking ball outside two and two you know as a player or next player bob i think you can really appreciate what ripken has done i don't know if the average fan really really can appreciate the consecutive game streak i mean the times that he's been hit i know he's i've seen him drilled a couple of times where it looked like he might have to leave the game or not be able to play the next day but he always comes back bob you're getting a real look at the real greg maddox now he's struggled in the first and i'm sure he was a little nervous making his first start and now you see the hitters not getting good swings at him when he gets ahead in the count he never gives you a pitch to hit [Music] hasn't done that well in previous all-star outings ken griffey jr took him deep in san diego a couple of years ago another 2-2 pitch to ripken a chopper to duncan and mariano duncan and talk about all the young stars but here's the flip side appears in his first all-star game in this his ninth season in the big leagues he's been playing a lot of third base for jim ferguson in the phillies with dave collins on the disabled list but voted the starter at second after the retirement of ryan sandberg this is the first time since 1985 anyone other than sandberg has started at second base for the national league it was tommy herr of the pennant winning cardinals in 1985. here's rodriguez two out nobody on and a swing and a miss i'll tell you i love watching this kid catch bob he's one of the best throwers i've ever seen runners don't take liberties with this guy and i'm not talking only about stealing bases he loves to throw to any base any situation he'll try to pick you off loves to throw we can see the numbers including the fact that he's thrown out almost half of would-be base dealers horrific percentage but how good a handler of pitchers is he calling a game i think he's very good i really do there's a breaking ball fouled off he's uh he's a strong kid he's he's going to get better he's only 22 years old but you know to put him on a club like the texas rangers have got tremendous power pitching staff so so they lead the west but i'll tell you ever since i saw this kid is his first game in the big leagues liked his action good behind the plate as i said he loves the throw and he takes a fastball high jimmy key is scheduled to work only two innings so if rodriguez doesn't reach he won't bat but no dh in this game taking place in a national league park so key who has never had a regular season at bat his whole career in the american league is on deck called strike three at the knees so rodriguez makes a left turn heads back to the dugout and maddox after a shaky first sets them down in order in the second it's out of here [Music] baby [Music] it's been 21 years since roberto clemente perished in a plane crash on a mission of mercy from his native puerto rico to try and aid the earthquake victims in nicaragua new year's eve december 31st 1972 but what a presence in the imagination of pittsburghers they don't have to be baseball fans to revere clemente matt williams stands in and cuts and misses at key's first offering in the last half of the second you still see a lot of kids who weren't born when roberto got his 3 000th and last hit wearing number 21 jerseys around this town williams will be followed by justice and duncan game tied at one and that'll make the seats that's vera clemente in the middle roberto's widow and some of the children grandchildren [Applause] a singular player his passion for the game was palpable you could feel it you'd be watching a game on television you could feel his heart beating through the screen the o2 pitch struck him out on three pitches well both these pitchers use the off speed pitcher to keep the hitters off balance he wasn't fooled by the break of the ball there he's fooled by the speed now watch it's a slow curve ball he tries to wait on it can't wait good pitch there by jimmy key talk about the ultimate craftsman changing speeds taking whatever the umpires will give him move a little bit inside outside depending upon how wide a strike zone they're giving him on that particular night 33 years old once the backbone of the blue jays staff second year in new york on the outside corner at the knees to justice that's exactly the way he works bob he'll start you off the outside corner if it's ball one he'll come in a little bit more ball two he'll come in a little more if it's going to be a strike in that area that's where he'll stay all night long good tommy john type little sinker a little breaking ball he's never 120 was 18 and six last year consistently in the mid teens for those excellent blue jay teams he pitched for in the 80s and early 90s [Music] and another strike to justice one and two that's what you're talking about right there bob just a little bit above the knees david cohen of the royals will follow him to the mound a starter can work three innings but ceto says he'll use jimmy key only two on the other hand jim ferguson told us greg maddox would work the full three unless he came to bat before that so the national leaguers would have to put two men on for maddox's spot to come up and in that case fragosi would hit for him and either next inning of the one after ken hill of montreal will follow him justice trying to wait on that one but he just lost a soft fly ball to ken griffey jr and center and there's ken hill who won his 13th game just before the break when he threw a five-hitter against the [Applause] padres [Applause] two down nobody on mariano duncan takes a strike jimmy key is the first yankee to start an all-star game since mel stottlemyer in 1969 and that was a fluke the game was scheduled for a tuesday night in washington rained out denny mclean that ball hit back a third wade boggs long throw frank thomas terrific play to come up with it and we will tell you of denny mclean's exploits when we come back that's a beauty right here throws from foul territory and thomas does a split to record the out 1994 all-star game is brought to you by budweiser beechwood aids for a crisp clean classic taste by chevrolet the cars and trucks 36 million people depend on every day genuine chevrolet and by nike who encourages you to participate in the lives of america's youth one run on three hits for the americans one run on a loan hit for the nationals maddox will work the full three if he can get through this inning paul molitor pinch hits batting for jimmy key and that's his one swing of the night because he won't play the field so paul molitor grounds out to greg jeffrey's unassisted to start the third and we go down to the american league dugout where we're joined by hannah storm hannah hi bob well jimmy how was it out there you said you didn't know what to expect when you went out well it was wasn't quite as bad as i thought but you know i was just trying to throw the ball over the plate and get it over with and they hit six balls at people and i was able to get six outs and only gave up the one run so it wasn't that bad what was the highlight for you i think probably the last out i got to get it over with and now i can move on with the regular season we uh talked about the fact that when you were a kid you never envisioned being in an all-star game because you didn't think that that you would be here but now that you look back on it will you go to this later yes i will you know once my career is over this is definitely something i look back on it's one of the highlights of my career good luck to you and the yankees in the second half bob well hannah mariano duncan stayed with that one and from what would be the outfield grass on a natural surface field he throws robbie alomar out well mariano duncan's a very good second baseman not so good at third but he's good at second knocks the ball down at second you can do this knock it down pick him up and throw him out and again he's very deep just blocks the ball gets a good hop off the astroturf and he's able to throw roberto alamo [Music] boggs singled and scored in the first and takes a strike you mentioned that if he were at his very peak and to keep it in perspective he's hitting 331 joe but at his very peak in the mid 80s where he had that stretch hitting around 360 almost every year you thought he could hit 400 against this year's level of pitching in fact he hit 401 in a 162 game stretch from mid-1985 to mid-1986 i believe both boggs brett and of course rod carew all three could probably do that and i had no doubt in my mind that kuru could hit 400 with the pitching as it is today i think he's a little more scientific hitter than the other two and tony nguyen hit 399 from last july 1st to this june 30th so in the vicinity two and two what about that guy at first base uh tonight for the americans joe we talked about him yesterday too i mean as many times as he walks uh and playing on the artificial surfaces that are featured in a lot of parks now i mean watching that guy dean and death you'd think he'd have to be included in that in that trio also a called strike three finishes boggs tough start for maddox but he works two perfect innings to close so great gumball debuts this september as host of nfl live we've got a new pitcher as we move to the bottom of the third david cohn for the american league and he's going to face ozzie smith to start it and before ozzie steps in let's hear with his counterpart at shortstop the orioles cal ripken says about the wizard i'm very envious because i'm a big cumbersome type of person and i have to really rely on my positioning to to cover this ground here he is as someone that is very graceful and quick and he stands right in the middle saying it's a left-hand hitter or a right-hander i can catch that i can catch this i can make all the plays so i enjoy watching all the different types of shortstops and most of the time i'm envious of their abilities he's the one i think everyone's envious of [Applause] ripken had a year once where he made only three errors and that's the record ozzie jumps on the first pitch and a meek fly ball to center field that ken griffey jr takes care of ozzy defined the position for a generation though 13 gold gloves and his election this year when barry larkin is really the superior player at this point ozzie 39 years old is kind of in the category of a lifetime achievement award but he deserves it you know the first time i went to went into saint louis with the with the brewers bob in 82 series and saw this guy come out of the dugout and do that flip going to shortstop and and drove the fans crazy in st louis i mean it was a big part of their win this guy's really something and to watch him do it here tonight again i tried it earlier during batting practice no good does that hurt he'll be 40 the day after christmas best guess is one more year and then retirement five years later cooperstown bagwell bats for maddox there are three players in this game bagwell from the astros is at the plate now albert bell from the indians whom we'll see later and frank thomas of the white sox who have legitimate shots at the triple crown which hasn't been won in either league since karl yassremski of the red sox in 67. well the problem is they have to they have to beat each other up in their american league both bell and of course thomas then you have griffey leading in home runs bagwell fouls it back he's hitting 348. consider that number a right-handed hitter without much speed at 3 48 27 homers in the astrodome is his home park 82 rbis started out as the property of the red sox a trade they no doubt regret full count we watched watched him yesterday in the in the home run hitting contest following ken griffey jr and and the american league dugout going crazy and a pinch single for him here with one out in the third after griffey had about six balls in the upper deck bagwell came on and tried to duplicate to left there was no chance joe he had a very tough back to follow but the interesting thing about bagwell is he has become a these two have no excuse for not sending one another a birthday card each born may 27 1968. bagwell in boston thomas in columbus georgia jeffrey swings at a pitch he wished he hadn't offered that does rodriguez have room it goes off his glove he wasn't sure remember he's an american leaguer unfamiliar with this park perhaps not sure where the lip of the dugout was with a fence and he kind of stabbed at that ball at the last minute well he's at his own dugout bob he should have gotten a little more help there but he had a lot more room than he thought he was right near the uh the camera area down there he jumped up really didn't have to jump that ball was in by plenty popped away no play on him there's boggs right alongside jeffrey's a switch hitter doubled to left as a right-handed batter off jimmy key earlier in the game and scored the national league run there you see what david cohn is famous for a good hard slider jeffrey started for it but broke in so sharply would have been jammed if he would have continued to swing tony gwynn says of cohen best stuff in the majors i don't know why he doesn't win 30. one and two did it hit him yet nicked him down a second goes bagwell as jeffries is hit by a pitch and remember it doesn't have to hit you just touch your uniform and that's all it does there take another look and see it just touches his uniform it does not have to hit your body [Applause] and now with a runner at second rodriguez to talk it over with cohn they feel a lot better on the uniform than they do in the ribs we were talking earlier about it the fact that here it is again a little inside fastball no two pitch from cohn and not a bad pitch at all not a bad zone he just nicked the uniform of jeffries but he hit him when grounded out his first time takes a fastball high this may be gwen's best year overall because he's driving in runs he has 49 runs batted in which is a lot for him he'll probably surpass his career high this year he's the only padre on the team but there are six former padres combined in the game the most of any team which makes a statement about the state of their franchise he's ahead 2-0 and that's when he's most dangerous gets it hard down the right field line and in there for extra bases bagwell scores jefferies with good speed to third leland waves him home they have trouble with the carom alamar's relay safe he slid around the tag and gwen comes up with two rbis on the double down the right field line great slide there by jeffrey's at home plate the throw actually beat him rodriguez could not block him off the plate but you mentioned tony gwynn when he gets you two and oh he can take the ball any place he wants he decides to pull it and he finds a corner and now the ball will bounce away from puckett bucket gets there now it bounces away jeffrey's being waved all the way and watch the slide beautiful slide including the tag of rodriguez [Applause] mods had a sacrifice fly his first time swings on the first one and doesn't get it here it is again jeffries coming around the outside of rodriguez rodriguez had the plate blocked up front joe he came around jeffrey's came around the outside look where he's got his foot he's got the plate block jeffries with a beautiful slide to get the back part of the plate there's that devastating slider from kong with that downward action and bonds just kind of waving at it now the problem is it looks like a fastball until it gets about halfway to the plate and you have to respect his fastball because he'll throw it right by you [Applause] when it's second one out national league leads it three to one there goes the bat and there goes bonds back to the dugout made to look foolish by david cohn and the fans here get on him in contrast to draybeck a former pirate saw young award winner who left to go to houston as a free agent bonds did the same after winning two of his three mvp awards wearing a pirate uniform and they booed him mercilessly during the introductions well this looks more like a curveball you can see the spin on a little more downward action but just as effective as the two hard sliders to bond piazza lined softly to thomas at first to end the first for the national leaguers who are in front now 3-1 here's bonds again a devastating breaking ball that time there goes the bat into the dugout and guess who caught it the golden hands of smith he can catch anything the man who can bare hand a bat one and one bonds of course mvp three times in a four-year span and might have won it the one year he didn't when terry pendleton got it for the braves great year for pendleton but you could have made a case for bonds piazza serves one in the left center field didn't hit it all that hard but in a good spot he's got an rbi as gwyn comes across another breaking ball from david cohen that stayed up piazza waiting back nicely for the rbi baseship here it is again a little breaking ball that time he reached out and punched that ball get it up above the trademark yeah absolutely well you look at piazza here's a guy who was a 62nd round draft choice a called strike to matt williams i'm not talking about the 60-second player i'm talking about 60-second round widely viewed as a courtesy pick because his dad vince is a close pal of tommy lasordes he develops possibly into one of the great players of his generation after a year and a half all the signs are there now if you're 62nd or 72nd it's better than being drafted where i was which was where into the neighborhood i'm stepping on your stealing your lines here i just guessed it's on our side that's all it counted at that time one and one to williams with it for scouts for years and he couldn't catch up with the heat from cohn what's that story about when the scout came to your house talking to your dad oh yeah when they signed me yeah oh yeah the 3 000 bonus my dad couldn't afford it but he gave it up braves took it that was it was great to be signed that's that's all that mattered i'll tell you david cohn will give you some very uncomfortable at-bats especially if you're not used to looking at him but they punch three across back after this from your local station yes we now return to the martin short press conference always play hardball that's why kane ricky jr presents major league baseball as wall-to-wall action only on the super nes sports network it's the one game that plays in ken's [Music] league under the command of captains lee bradbury and russ adams the metlife blimp is providing aerial shots of the all-star game live from three rivers the metlife blimp travels over 60 000 miles a year covering sporting events and specials changes now for the national league ken hill is the new pitcher succeeding maddox who gave up a run in the first and then worked a perfect second and third and we'll tell you about the others after the first pitch to ken griffey jr which is a called strike bagwell who had a pinch single to start the rally in the bottom of the third stays in the game and plays first base and the lone pirate representative carlos garcia in its second in place of duncan garcia hits seventh hill hits in the number one spot with greg jeffries out of the game and bagwell remains ninth he had pinched it from addis hit toward bagwell he backhands hill covers one out [Applause] you will see a different pitcher from maddox in hill he will bust the fastball in on the hitters and throw the split finger or pork ball out over the plate he pitches the fastball in and the off-speed stuff out over the plate [Music] let's head now for the national league dugout say hello to johnny bench for the first time tonight jb all right bob thank you very much greg you're pitching the world series all-star games one will make you a little more nervous than the other yeah definitely uh you know i was pretty nervous out there tonight after the first inning things went a lot better for me i settled down i felt like what about your first all-star occurrence wow that was i was a wreck then i can't even remember i can't remember anything about it i was so nervous out there but this one a lot more enjoyable teams got the lead back up to you bob all right johnny 2-0 to frank thomas and he has ken hill joe where he has so many american league pitchers on a daily basis behind in the count [Music] 3-0 well the one thing about hill he will challenge you 2-0 but as you said thomas will not swing in anything out of the strike zone [Music] and he walks on four pitches as he trots down to first consider he leads the league in average at 383 in runs in walks in on base percentage total bases and slugging and he's very close to the lead in home runs and rbis i mean these are the kinds of figures that most people watching tonight weren't alive to see anybody put up these are jimmy fox numbers ted williams numbers in the 40s and early 50s their babe ruth numbers only two hitters have ever topped 500 and on base and 700 in slugging in the same year ruth and williams carter swings at the first one justice in right field easy play now you know when you talk to this guy too bob and about the walks and not swinging at pitches that are pretty close to the strike zone i mean he tells you he's going to stay disciplined the way he is he'd rather take the walk but on the other hand when you've got runners aboard you got a guy at second a guy at third where a long fly ball might get him in i mean 383 is outstanding it's great slugging percentage 795 515 on base but there's a lot of arguments about that if you can reach a ball guys like him the big rbi guys if you can reach a ball they go for it here's a completely different sort of hitter kirby pocket you got to try to walk kirby and he attributes that free swinging style to playing stickball in chicago as a kid the box on the brick wall was painted with a huge strike zone and he's a little guy at least in terms of height had to flail away i was like dick allen's theory on hitting he was here yesterday for the upper deck heroes game i think allen always said if he could reach a ball he thought it was a strike [Music] ninth all-star game in a row for kirby [Music] short lead by thomas at first base and a called strike joe you were that kind of a hitter i had to be patient though i couldn't go out of the strike zone if i went out of the strike zone it was an out i wasn't strong as frank thomas and some of the dick hitters and puckett fouls it off i mean you look at this guy frank thomas and i do not want to overstate it just look at the physique on the guy he was a tight end at auburn football teammate of bo jackson the word awesome is overused what other word would you use about this guy he's just eye-popping [Music] the 2-2 pitch and puckett squibs it down to bagwell and that finishes the american league in the top of the fourth frank thomas and company trail at 4-1 we talked to ken griffey jr yesterday about a childhood all-star memory he picked one that came when he was 10 years old and it was a natural choice listen i was jumping around and my dad got up to bed and i think it was against tommy john and i know he's going to hit a homer and i ran upstairs and i ran back upstairs and grabbed my back and he swung and hit him like oh there it goes and my uncle and that jumped over to how i know what did you know well i just felt it well bobby must have felt it because tommy john threw a super sinker and it was very hard for a left-hander to hit that ball in the air justice starts it and cone starts him with a strike on the outside corner you played with griffey senior and probably saw griffey jr around the ballpark as a kid a lot right there were a lot of great young players in that clubhouse that are in the major leagues now saw ken griffey jr hal mcrae son bryan eduardo perez pete rose jr a lot of players who went on pedro for bonsai a lot of players are now going to be in the major leagues in the next couple of years justice bounces one foul toward thomas senior very different in terms of his build 511 stocky junior much lankier has a more natural home run swing senior never hit more than 21 in a season one of the things that i'm bothered by bob is that because of exploits of their sons bobby bond has been overshadowed and so has ken griffey senior ken griffey senior was a much better player than he's ever given credit for he's a great outfielder very accurate and very good defensive player a lot of speed i believe that he is much faster than ken griffey jr he's a better base dealer he wasn't better defensively and bonds is the same situation his father was a great player you know griffey a lot of times joe has been accused of lackadaisical play on center field and he really doesn't uh he's just got that loping stride he knows that the crack of the bat where the ball is going the other guy too in in toronto devon white who as we've seen many times balls are hit out there that you think are in the gaps or are going to go out of the ballpark and he's got that little cruising gate and he gets there very easily and both in the same situation wade boggs had justice played well off the line at third and it turns into an easy play for him folks beginning august 7th nbc sports brings you the world championship of basketball dream team two will take the floor led by shaq and alonzo morning reggie miller will be there they're on a quest to bring home the gold and the world title the world championship of basketball begins august 7th on nbc carlos garcia stands in [Applause] kit is really a natural shortstop with a great arm but they have jay bell an all-star last year for the pirates so he's at second base these days chopper towards short ripken glides left and tosses him out the rule is every team has to be represented garcia fine young player probably doesn't have the numbers that some others who were left home have put together in the first half of the year but every team has to have at least one player and of course you're never going to have a city host the game and not include somebody from their club i think that's fair ozzy flied to griffey his first time up two out nobody on last half of the fourth national league leads it four to one americans got a run in the first nationals tied it in the bottom half and the senior circuit got three in the third to take the lead quickly 0-2 is not only the oldest all-star he's the oldest position player in the majors which is kind of surprising at age 39 reaches for that one and hits it softly in the right for a base hit there are only seven players in the majors older than ozzie smith and they're all pitchers or designated hitters a little breaking ball that time an 0-2 breaking ball from david cohen up about belt high and ozzie smith nice easy nothing but hands [Music] so ozzy aboard with two down he used to be a prolific base stealer but he swiped only four this year how about bagwell's stance not only the staff bob but he has an unusual stride he spreads out a lot but instead of striding forward his front foot actually comes backwards it will come back and not go forward like all the other hitters do in the dirt and rodriguez comes up with it bagwell despite the numbers probably your first half mvp in the national league fifth in the voting playing for the astros has a lot to do with that the astros have five players on the team all reserves most of any team in either league but they haven't had an elected starter since cesar cedeno 21 years ago at the knees says the point of paul rungi actually i have to amend that statement with the late editions of will cordero and marquis grissom the expos now also have five four blue jays that's the most of any american league team ozzie dives back they cannot forget about audi at first he can steal a base i'd love to see him run tonight i want i want people to see this kid throw evon rodriguez the 2-1 pitch not going fouled off joan you talked about bagwell in that open stance despite the fact that he flies out that he opens up and stays open he covers the plate he still covers the plate look at his front foot how it comes backwards it doesn't go forward but you're right he does cover the plate because his upper body is close to the plate where does his power come from well his power comes from his upper body strength and he really throws his hips open he uses his hips to help generate bat speed but his upper body is very strong the 2-2 pitch cone dropped down on him and strikes him out third strikeout for kong 4-1 [Applause] the 1994 all-star game is brought to you by buick and your local buick dealers remember buick the new symbol for quality in america by north a new film from castle rock entertainment and columbia pictures at peters july 22nd and by concert the new global communications company formed by british telecommunications and mci jim fragosi trying to work everybody in marquis grissom of the expos an actual center fielder is there now david justice of the braves is out of the game tony gwynn moves to his more comfortable position he's in right bonds remains in left grissom hits in justice's spot ken hill works to cal ripken and there's a strike to start the top of the fifth with the national league leading 4-1 ripken grounded a second his first time up and that'll make the seats you know earlier bob you were talking about denny mclean somebody hit a ball and we got interrupted you had a denny mclean story you're going to tell me i'm not sure it's worth it three minutes later but we might as well dot all the eyes across all the teams after this next pitch to rip it basketball high one and two so mclean noted free spirit due to start the 69 all-star game coming off the 30-win year the year before he would win consecutive cy young awards the game is rained out in on ripken's fists and he muscles it down the left field line with bonds in pursuit and right near the chalk barry bonds makes a nice running cash [Applause] so mclean is due to start the game gets rained out he flies home to detroit to keep a dental appointment the next day blows the start and mel stadelmeier has to go but he comes back gets there in the second inning and comes into the game in the fourth and the teeth hurt all the worse they were throbbing when willie mccovey went deep on him right away teeth drilled and then mccovey did the drilling aren't you glad you asked oh yeah that was a great story threatening weight was worth it well one to rodriguez hill has really come into his own hasn't he joe yes he has always had potential but he now he throws strikes that's the key when he was with the cardinals he was a little more erratic and he discovered this split-fingered pork ball or whatever he calls it and now he's become one of the better pitchers in the national league he's always had the good fastball rodriguez spanks one to dead center field grissom on the run back near the track and he makes the catch well two good plays in the outfield for the national league here in the fifth here it is again grissom going back on the drive off the bat of rodriguez you made it look rather easy high fastball that rodriguez got into you think win makes that catch joe well he may have made that one but the first ball that was missed by gwen i believe grissom would have caught because he's a natural center fielder he caught that one because he'd been playing a lot deeper and play by bonds on the hitter before those are the two best left builders and center fielders in the national league right now chile davis now will pinch it for cone randy johnson is warming up he swings on the first one and he's thrown out so hill sets them down in order in the fifth nationals cling to a 4-1 lead to three rivers stadium in pittsburgh for the 65th annual all-star game hannah storm along with david cohn uncharacteristically allowing three runs in the third what happened out there somebody's gotta be the goat i guess it's gonna be me i hope we come back score some runs so i'm not the story well you got some power on this bench they might take care of you one highlight though or sure to make all the highlights tonight barry bonds losing his bat on your curveball when's the last time that happened i haven't seen that in a while he's a tough hitter he's gotten me a few times in the national league i just got some pitches up and and that's a good lineup over there everybody's talking about this american league that actually is a good lineup also all right david good luck in the second half bob thanks hannah here's mike messina in the game and messina is the way he prefers to have it pronounced all the controversy last year in his home park of camden yards he's warming up in the ninth inning cedaw gaston doesn't use him ahead nine to three and the hometown fans aren't the least bit pleased and messina actually nursed a grudge about it for a while and they tried to put it behind them now he had warmed up earlier sat down then randy johnson began throwing and he's still tossing in the bullpen so messina becomes the third american league pitcher cedo has done a smart thing from the american league bench his first two pinch hitters have been molitor and davis the two dhs who couldn't play the field hit hard and pass leland in the third base coach's box so he got them out of the way early before the strategy shapes up late in the game when you might want to make switches that affect your defense monitor as you said bob used early hit the first pitch i don't think he was in the game more than three minutes this is the rockies dante bechet with an o2 count and he pops one softly in the left but carter was playing deep and he can't get there [Applause] so a pinch single for buchet i don't know if carter really saw that ball would have left the bat it looked like he took a step back then came on i don't know if he had a chance to catch it anyway a little saw fly ball off the bat of dante but little breaking ball or off speed pitch from messina and cotter i said look i don't know if you saw that ball immediately or not face it though dante here's gwen jim fregosi indicated he might play the whole game we know tony hwan is an amazing hitter i'll give you another amazing statistic about him bob and that is he uses a 31 inch bat um it's like a little league back even for me what size did you use 34 and a half 32 ounce he uses a 31 inch 30 ounce bat sometimes 29 ounces quinn is 34 years old thinking man's hitter discipline focused constantly watching the videotape you know if he's not leading the league every year up amongst the leaders right at the top you think something's wrong with it tries to go the opposite way carter closing ground on it and joe is able to get to this one retreating to first base well last year gwen hit 358 and didn't win his fifth batting title because andres came out of nowhere he hit 370. [Applause] and they haven't warmed up any to barry bonds here bonds a sac fly that drove puckett to the wall and right in the first and looked bad fanning against cohn in the third messina works to him there's a strike you go back a ways with the plate on fire paul rongi don't you joe yeah paul rocky and i were teammates on the durham bulls in 1963. of course that was before susan sarandon came by we didn't get a chance to meet her but we were teammates [Music] a ball and a strike to barry the shed at first one down bottom of the fifth 4-1 national league they have six hits the americans have three the americans have won the last six straight all-star games in there joe here's a guy that hits baseball's out of sight from time to time modified home run hitter it's always amazed me not so much amazing i mean it shows you you don't have to be the big guy and you don't have to hold a bat down on the knob or have the knob up in your hands to hit to hit home runs [Music] how much hitting surface you think he has he talked about gwen's bat how much hitting surface you think he's got from his hands to the barrel well you're right he probably has about 30 inches as well he chokes up as you can see about an inch and a half but maybe the greatest hitter ever lived ted williams also choked up he had over 500 home runs 5 21. [Music] again on 1-2 he's a strikeout victim for the second time in three at-bats you know bonds admitted first to roy firestone on espn then to us yesterday that early in his career he didn't handle the press the way he should have he came across as more sure of himself than perhaps he wanted he said i should have kept my mouth shut and he alienated some people here in pittsburgh on the other hand he played magnificent baseball here for three division winners and he should be appreciated as one of the great players in the game here is piazza it takes a big guy to admit that too bob and yesterday i'm talking i mean there's cases where these guys come to the big leagues at 19 and 20 and 21 years old and and it is a problem for them i mean they're free spirits uh not that much responsibility-wise and you're making a lot of money and and you really don't have to do a lot of things once you're here and you're established a couple of years and established the way he has established himself it does become a problem because you're you're bugged by the media all the time they want you constantly and if you don't do things from time to time you get a bad rap no one's ever won four mvp awards bond still has time the o2 pitched to piazza and he fouls it off messina 13-4 era just under three he's got a shot at the cy young along with jimmy key the national league starter greg maddox could be the first man ever to win three in a row but he'll have competition from ken hill and some others david cohn might have cy young numbers in the american league that's high [Music] cohn gave up three runs but he also struck out three in two innings of work that slider was biting most of the time most of the time yeah he got a couple of breaking balls up that hurt him trying to wait on the off speed pitch wide of first frank thomas to tuck it away so we've gone through five it's still 4-1 nationally [Applause] top of the order in the top of the six for the american league in a new picture doug draybeck bad first year after he went to houston he's turned it around this time terrific stretch here for the pirates on the cy young award in 1990 and yet this is his first all-star appearance alamar 0 for two you know it's not all that uncommon tonight's starter greg maddox cy young award last year just eight and eight at the break didn't make the all-star team there have been 17 cy young award winners and seven mvps who did not participate in the all-star game that year lined through the box a base hit for alamar [Applause] trebek is an off-speed type of pit pitcher you throw a lot of breaking balls curve balls slider and change up but he will throw the fastball to get the sinking fastball to get the double play this is the breaking ball that hangs right in the middle of the plate good hitting there by alomar he didn't try to pull it just lined it right back through the middle so the american league trying to get something shaking here in the sixth box has singled and struck out he's shown some pop this year nine home runs that's already his second highest total he had 24 in the lively ball year of 1987 which stands out as a real aberration in his long career this is not a lively volume well i guess it is you believe it's juicy yes i do uh you wouldn't [Music] alamar bluffs ago and boggs takes a strike talk about drayback not making the all-star team in the cy young year and some players complain the rosters are limited put it in perspective hank greenberg was the unanimous mvp in 1935 and at the break he had 103 rbis alamar running and boggs fouls it off 25 homers 103 rbis and the teams were selected by the managers and the manager was his own player manager and teammate mickey cochran of the tigers and he leaves greenberg off the team so if roberts complains or john franco complains hey others have had it worse maybe of course salary conflict for sure on the outside corner and you're looking at a rarity a double strikeout game for wade boggs here it is a fastball that is around the outside corner a little tailor from dravik i don't know if that was a strike or not the bug doesn't take too many like that here it is again another look off the outside corner that's a bad call you know what you tend to believe that with a with an eye like boss when he strikes out looking you tend to believe it might have been a missed call don't pitchers love those pitches all right here's junior doubled and grounded to first it's one of those pitches where piazza turns around the umpire and says a lot of guys wouldn't call that tough pitch to call but you called it right alamar on it first as griffey fouls one off all the talk about the pursuit of roger maris obviously if there's a strike there's no chance but even if they play 162 the odds are overwhelmingly against griffey against thomas against williams if no one breaks it this year marissa's record will have stood exactly as long as ruth stood the year marist broken 34 years and really no one has come close ruth's record was challenged more often fox at 58 greenberg at 58 wilson at 56 maze and mammal made runs no one has hit more than 52 since marist hit the 61. a ball and a strike there goes alamar a swing and a miss and a high fastball the throw is not in time stolen base for robbie but robbie had a pretty good jump not a great jump piazza had a shot at him but he did not make a good throw and watch not a perfect jump there and you'll see the ball come into the pitcher not a good throw and hit the turf and bounce good play there by ozzy alamar dive to the outside of the bag makes the tag a lot longer from aji's standpoint they kind of eye each other even a good throw joe if he's on the other side of the bag if he's on the right field side of the bag close but i still think alamar is in there here's a pitcher's nightmare man in scoring position and griffey and then thomas with a crack to knock him home two and two you talk about a guy being ahead whoever the guy is this year or in the past ahead of marist's pace ahead of ruth's face misleading marist's biggest months were july and august ruth hits 17 home runs in september of 1927. lots of guys have been ahead of the pace and then tailed off i even think i was ahead one time bob after about three games big week huh yeah big week joe when you look at when you look at griffin playing in a couple of indoor stadiums and and indifference to in those years of the marist's and he hits it sharply in the center it'll drop in front of grissom for a hit they're waving alamor home the throw is cut off but now they've got griffey hung up bagwell cut it off and ozzy puts the tag on him [Applause] well good hitting but not good base running there by griff they really didn't have a good shot to get alamar at the plate he was going to score and if griffey could have stayed at first base he would have been that you know frank thomas would have been the tying run they're waving alomar around he's going to make it easy watch the throw is smartly cut off by bagwell and they take griffey at second base but what a wonderful hitter look at this i mean it's just a natural swing nothing forced when ken griffey is in the batter's box so griff is now two for three he gets the rbi but runs into the second out and thomas bats with the base is empty and he whistles one into center for a hit well you know that's going to happen the guy makes the base running mistake going back just just to finish the thought on on on griffey and maris and and uh playing indoors bob later in the season i mean it's cool all the time you don't have the july and august where you're outside and vernon heaters standing out there in the outfield standing on the artificially surfaced fields and standing outside which i mean probably played a big part marist in new york of course you're not getting the coverage uh griffey heat i'm sure it's going to be heat for him or thomas or williams or whomever carter [Music] had the broken thumb late in spring training played right through it before we put this subject to bed again perspective on how tough it is to challenge marissa's record there are 14 players with more than 500 home runs outside corner for a strike 10 of them never hit as many as 50 in a season let alone challenge 60. the all-time leader hank garrett never hit 50. only ruth mays madeleine fox among the 14 500 home run hitters ever topped 50. that's right two thomas is two for two with a walk carter lined into a double play fly to right a run home in the sixth he lays off two and two pocket on deck what a show he put on yesterday i mean he sent some rockets into the upper deck and right and frank thomas did the same in left there were three or four that were estimated beyond 500 feet thomas had the big one they said at 5 25 he went 519 and then followed that one into the upper deck or off the facing of the upper deck in deep left center at 5 25. there it is he hit the will clock sign didn't he well that's a long way here's a look at it man it sounded like a cannon blast back live and carter hangs with it punching it out of play and you might add it's tougher to hit a ball that foreign batting practice than it is during the game because you have to supply all the power batting practice pictures thrown approximately 60 miles an hour of course you got a pretty good idea where it's going to be well that's a good point not gonna have much of a break to it thomas inches away from first the 2-2 pitch with two out bounce toward williams he backs up goes the short way and throws it away thomas bounces back up the ball loose down the line thomas being waved home the throw is going to go to third a run scores and everybody's safe as joe carter winds up at third base well very uncharacteristic of matt williams overthrowing garcia on the attempted force that would have ended the inning a little bouncer hit by joe carter that williams backs up on here's the underhand flipper the sidearm flip and he just threw the ball away garcia never had a chance easy play just threw it away as you said bob you don't see him make that play i mean that's that's an easy play oh boy well a three base throwing error an unearned run home a one run game all of a sudden and obviously anything they get the rest of the inning is unearned a hit for puckett could tie it back through the middle to his left ozzy no chance the game tied and it's a tough out at the plate anyway and kirby puckett put runners on base and he drives him in as you mentioned matt williams does not make many throwing errors [Applause] so now fragosi to the mound and it's not drabeck's fault but they'll call on his astro teammate john hudak three runs across even at four on the sixth we'll be back johnny bench played some third base late in his career johnny you take this he retired by playing third base but here's garcia at a very late pace coming down to second base i know williams had a little bit of a high throw but garcia awfully late getting there unless he anticipated the throw to first base from the second baseman's perspective joe i agree with john he should have been there sooner and i think he could have jumped straight up and maybe have caught the ball can't defend matt williams as a high throw but there he could have helped his teammate out in comes the only rookie in the game john hudec and he does throw hard ripton couldn't catch up with it he is the first guy in all-star history to appear in an all-star game before he wins his first big league game obviously the saves are the important stat in the era under two and nearly a strikeout an inning but he was knocking around he's 27 years old released by the tigers astros pick him up mitch williams falters boom here he is closer called strike going too i guess that begs to ask the question how could the tigers release a pitcher the one that makes it in the all-star game you know talking with this guy yesterday joe and and about his philosophy with pitching he said i just go right at him he said here it is if you can get it go the o2 to ripken fouled back that's got to be the slow gun i know he's a little better than 80. what did that say 81 [Music] 94 okay i think the 81 was piazza throwing it back either that or it doubles as a thermometer 94 miles an hour ripken's 0 for two mvp of the 91 all-star game in toronto two-time league mvp the o2 pitch to it struck him out kudek performs his specialty but three runs across two of them on earn brand new game the 1994 all-star game is brought to you by toyota and their full line of quality cars and trucks toyota i love what you do for me by true lies the new action adventure starring arnold schwarzenegger starts friday at theaters everywhere and by budweiser beetswood aged for a crisp clean classic taste scorecard sales are brisk at the all-star game they're a souvenir but you also need them to keep track only ripken and rodriguez remain you got a new pitcher randy johnson a whole new outfield albert bell and kenny lofton from the indians in reuben sierra the lone oakland a on the team will clark replaces frank thomas at first chuck knoblock is in for alamar at second cooper of the red sox and third for the man who preceded him at that position in boston wade boggs and rodriguez remains as the catcher tied at four randy johnson who will ever forget what he did to john crock last year in baltimore john crock well he'd like to forget it john cruck not here but uh his look alike sang the national anthem meatloaf told me before the game i'm here because john cruck isn't you see randy johnson gets it up there in a hurry as well 93 miles an hour on that fastball he will go to triple digits on a good night he'll get to 100. i wouldn't mind seeing 100 from this distance two balls in a strike to matt williams and a high pop and a shallow right reuben sierra is there joe let's talk about this from an intimidation standpoint the guy is 6-10 he has the long stride you were a left-handed hitter here's kruck last year well randy johnson of course he doesn't have a smooth motion first of all so he's very intimidating you can't pick the ball up quickly enough [Music] is that on purpose i would hope not i don't think it was no he throws too hard for that well kruck waved the white flag and took the k and quickly took his leave here's marquis grissom who's in center field at this point when you talk about intimidation though bob give you example now we'll take a look at his motion and this motion can intimidate you because it's unorthodox sandy koufax threw harder but he was more comfortable he was straight over the top he didn't really intimidate you too much he just threw the ball right by you did guys into joe i was just going to say johnson too one of those guys that normally left-handers have that ball it really runs i mean this guy throwing in the high 90s with a running fastball tailing away he doesn't have that though fastball basically straight he'll throw a cutter once in a while that little breaking ball right there two and two to grissom did guys throw at you yuke yeah i was no different than anybody else guys threw at me a lot unfortunately they were outfielders i was in the bullpen if that's his off speed stuff it's around 80 miles an hour 79 there's a fastball they used to talk about the average of the average fastball a guy with average stuff 87 86 to 87 miles an hour so when you're up in the 90s like this guy isn't hudic joe you know you got to have you got to have something else that's true especially if your fastball is straight this ball is sliced down the line and right and gets out of the yard marquis grissom goes the opposite way and the national league takes the lead again at 5-4 but when he first swung i thought the ball was going foul first of all and didn't think it would definitely would not carry all the way into the lower deck well you put all the factors together maybe a lively ball guys swinging lighter bats with greater bat speed and johnson providing a lot of the velocity himself you go the opposite way make any kind of contact it carries and the ball is carrying tonight at three rivers i didn't think that ball had any chance to go as joe said i thought it was going foul nice easy swing by grissom fastball again in the 90s and he thought it was going foul too carlos garcia hits one hard into center field for a clean single and they appreciate that at three rivers remember this is a franchise which had drayback and borneo and bonds and lost them all because they couldn't compete financially if there were a poster child for revenue sharing and salary caps the kid would be wearing a pirate hat [Applause] standing with a new first baseman will clark of the american league [Music] this is a real sign of respect by jim fragossi that ozzie smith hitting just 240 at age 39 goes this long in this all-star game and if anybody deserves what might be a final national showcase it's ozzie smith but i also think jim tragosie can identify with aussie smith very well in that he was a short stop and as he got up in age he knew that he had to move to another position or out of the game so i think he has a lot of respect for ozzy as you said there goes the runner and ozzie fouls it off you know joe no matter how hard to get back to that thought a moment ago about johnson and his 90-plus mile an hour fastball if you don't have the braking stuff a little off-speed stuff to go with it it's almost like batting tracks i don't care how hard you throw i don't care if you throw a hundred if you're sitting hard stuff all the time and if you go up against a guy like this if you look anything but hard stuff against him you ought to go someplace else and play right [Applause] ozzy a switch hitter of course from the right side the 1-2 pitch from johnson hit hard down the line and left and that ball is foul what a story that would have been for ozzie smith who only recently crept past your lifetime home run total uke to go deep in the all-star game off randy johnson i want to tell you something something's wrong here there's that ball just foul just foul and he looked like he had a breaking ball a slider off of johnson there it is i mean right on it and just missed look at the uh stay up baby stay fair baby stay fair baby he he doesn't have the good talking to it like colton fist had caught fiscal keep it fair for him [Applause] how sweet would that have been we're in the sixth 5-4 national league got him leaning and they punch him out garcia says no but john shulock of the american league says you bet well he definitely caught him leaning towards second base he's questioned whether the throw gets there in time and the tag is applied garcia dies back clark grabs it and they almost have to agree with garcia there well the throw beat him but maybe the tag didn't no the tag didn't beat him but the throw definitely beat him we'll get a better look at it from this ain't gonna watch when his hand hits the bag yeah and the fans see that on replay and now the count goes full oz johnson by the way is by far the leader in pick-offs in the american league he's got eight in the first half of the season here's the 3-2 broken bout roller to third and across the diamond cooper of the red sox to clark of the rangers national league goes in front we're back after this from your local station [Music] here's tonight's toyota diamond dust baseball fact 136 homers in all-star history and he gets the oldest and youngest players to hit one out in the all-star game [Applause] we'll give you the answer in the next half inning and we'll give you a couple of changes for the national league defensively in just a moment we go to the top of the seventh yvonne rodriguez to start it against hudak who ended the last inning by fanning cal ripken jr rodriguez is 0 for two robbed of a hit his last time up on a nice running catch in center by marquis grissom fastball popped back new second baseman craig begio of the astros and another astro makes his first appearance ken camaniti camaniti an eight-year player this is his first appearance in an all-star game so a big night for him replacing matt williams at third one and two ozzy remains in shortstop and i wouldn't be at all surprised if fragosi in tribute to him this will certainly be the last all-star game he ever plays in a nationally park if he plays one more year announces his retirement and they add him to the team next year the game will be in texas he might let him go all the way as he said with gwen wynn will play the full nine and maybe the same hole is true for austin rodriguez sends one up the middle for a hit so that's the way the top of the seventh starts the american league has one backup catcher it's mickey teddleton now there is a rule in the all-star game that pertains to catchers only if the second catcher comes in and is subsequently hurt you can reinsert the starting catcher [Applause] and here's pendleton now batting for the pitcher [Applause] so teddled and bats for johnson knoblach is on deck and the switch hitter fouls the first one back he's topped 30 home runs each of the last three years for detroit he's got 14 this year we're talking earlier joe about barry bonds and the way he chokes take a look at pendleton he's got the bat handle the knob in about the middle of his hand how low he carries this thing and then the whip action to get it up and going again well they call that one finger berry there have been a couple of players with two fingers buried that's one finger underneath the knob willie stargill used to get two fingers underneath it yeah he's awfully strong the 1-1 pitch look at the way teddleton holds the bat in a way reminiscent of west covington except covington used to hold it higher but also almost parallel to the ground teddleton's got it at about belt level but held loosely and almost flat behind him well you always got to get it started from some place he gets it started i mean he gets it started when the pitch is on the way maybe we better start it a little soon a little quicker on this guy yeah who that does not give you a lot of time to start it here it is again on tilton that fastball mickey with the bat back he gets back up on top but the ball by him joe everybody talks about the hitting theories and where you should carry the bat and how you should stride what you should do more often than not it's whatever is comfortable for you let her go just have to get it into hitting position before the ball gets there rodriguez at first nobody out and this is a 3-2 pitch to tettleton and the runner goes and that's ball four so the american league trailing five to four has something going chuck knoblach steps in his dad ray suffered a mild heart attack his old high school baseball coach a guy who played minor league ball and here's what chuck says about dedicating tonight's performance to him yeah he was my high school coach and uh he played ball himself and uh he was in san diego and he was hoping desperately to be here tonight and uh you know he had a mild heart attack and and uh i just want to say get well and and get better quick there you see the batting glove he flashed it during the introductions prior to the game so his dad is watching from his hospital bed he was there in person two years ago at the all-star game in san diego knob block hits one toward the hole ozzy gets the force a definitive moment from the definitive shortstop of his generation and maybe in the history of the game 13 goal gloves but i'm sure bob euchre has not seen this play very often i've seen it quite often bob it becomes almost routine the way ozzie makes it but no one else in baseball could make that play except ozzie smith and now fragosi heads to the mound [Applause] well you can look at it now from the outfield i mean you know what ripken talked earlier about how big and cumbersome he was that he had to play the hitters not this guy tragosie discussing with hudak the merits of a shower at this juncture and we'll take a break shots of three rivers stadium and the surrounding pittsburgh area provided by metlife blimp snoopy one metric's aerial ambassador typically cruises at an altitude of 1200 feet and a speed of 35 miles per hour looking to do battle with the dreaded red baron let's answer the trivia question while danny jackson warms up he's come out of the bullpen for the national league the oldest to connect in all-star play stan musial now it would have been interesting if ozzie's ball had stayed fair we would have had to start counting months and days because ozzy is 39 turns 40 in december muzil hit more all-star homers than anybody six in his storied career and the youngest johnny bench in the 1969 game at rfk stadium in washington when the senators still had a franchise let's go quickly to johnny bench remember that all-star homer i know you do well i sure do you're talking about 1969 when denny mclean got the dental appointment and stottlemeyer started the first pitch i saw he hit for a home run and later yastrimsky took the second one over the fence away from me [Applause] up step scott cooper danny jackson the left-hander on to facing with one out the american league has the tying run at third base rodriguez opened the inning with a single titled and walked and then knoblax bid for a base hit was snuffed out by ozzy smith they got the force at second so runners at the corners with one out cooper's first half out of this game and this will get the run home and maybe more deep into left field and bonds watches it hit off the wall for extra bases in comes rodriguez an opposite field double for cooper with knobloch pulling up a third this is a good game very good game cooper takes this fastball it was inside not exactly where danny jackson wanted to throw it bonds makes a good play bear hands it gets it back in and that keeps knobloch from scoring here's the tag up there by rodriguez he scores easily still only one out and they're going to pull the infield in against kenny lofton of the central division leading cleveland indians he really has supplanted ricky henderson as the premier leadoff man in the american league he's at 378. he's got pop 10 home runs 45 steals leads the majors terrific butter on a pace for almost 250 hits swaying in a miss i think this is an interesting situation here they're playing the infield all the way in with runners at second and third and especially on the carpet joe anything hit by this guy he can really fly as bob said the view's not a tight ball game play back give up the run you're only in the seventh inning one and one lofton hangs in well against lefties hitting 350. yeah he's not bad i'll tell you this guy can play unbelievable centerfield he's one of those guys that can climb the wall he throws well on the inside corner one and two danny jackson was the number four starter last year for jim fragosi's pennant winners but now with injuries schilling hurt green hurt mulholland gone ben rivera hurt he's really the ace of the philly staff at this point where the dl is crowded in philadelphia the one-two pitch to lofton lays off [Applause] will clark on deck and then if the inning keeps going albert bell knoblock at third cooper at second with one out if you're danny jackson in this situation you need a strikeout and that fastball up and in there that was what he wanted to get the strikeout with joe they play they play loft and they hit the other way but i tell you this guy this guy can pull he can pull he's strong he can hit the right center bob said earlier he can bunt but i can tell you he can pull another 2-2 pitch get toward the hole with the infield in they have no chance one run scores cooper waved home bonds has no play and the american league has scored three times in the seventh and they lead seven to five well that's the danger you run when you bring the infield in the infielders have no range at all the ball goes through there so quickly this ball goes through before they can move i mean if you're back you have a chance to keep this ball on the infield if not make a play you may not be able to throw a loft now but you can keep the ball on the infield [Applause] nice piece of hitting by lofton a little breaking ball from jackson out away took it to left field bonds the charge but no play and the americans back on top bob 7-5 fragosi makes the logical move with the lefties due he brings in jackson but two straight hits by left-handed hitters cooper and lofton here's another one clark swing and a miss and we might see lofton run testing piazza's arm kind of all-star game you like to see plenty of action not going and a ball often down at first terrific basketball player sixth man on lewd olson's arizona team then went to the final four in 1988 graduated from arizona with a degree in television wrote his thesis as i understand on mr belvedere i was shocked why wouldn't you get an a on that down the line and left bonds toward the bullpen and out of play and here's a look at the 1994 chevrolet mvp award that's the all-star mvp trophy which will be presented immediately following the game a few candidates have emerged but the game still very much in doubt 7-5 american league the pitch to clark line drive over ozzy for a hit lofton will stop at second say what bob this game is mirror imaging most games you see in the major leagues this year a lot of offense move with the left-hander here's clark again a pitch out away from him and he drills it to center field and now jim fregosi is coming out again look at clark joe you've watched this guy for so long and i mean you talk about somebody who uses the whole ballpark balls away he'll go the other way he's got power although his powers car totals are down this year but a pure hitter will clark batting 353 in his first year in the american league ozzy is now coming out of the game so we missed our guess this is the moment they have to make a move and a double switch will cordero replaces him it's short rod beck of the giants comes out of the bullpen jackson yielded hits to three straight lefties he's out so is ozzie and we step aside for a minute [Applause] rod back of the giants in late addition to the all-star squad when jose rio of the reds was scratched rio and larkin both hurt the reds technically don't have a representative here although two were named first at-bat for albert bell look at his eyes joe just stares a hole through the picture and rod beck does the same thing so we've got a staring match here and that's quite so long you're right they wanted to see who would back off first beck as you see kind of fearsome looking himself but he says he's had the mustache since the 11th grade there goes lofton double steal piazza can't find the ball and lofton steals third the major league leader in swipes and clark steals second behind him not an easy ball for piazza to handle i don't know if he'd had a chance anyway joe if he makes the catch clean little breaking ball down low and away that he let get by lofton a major jump though he had a huge jump will clark at second there it is a little breaking ball down in the way that piazza didn't handle cleanly and again i don't know if he has a shot or not well they're back in the same situation the infield in again [Applause] you know it's bad enough you got to play against guys like this on artificial surfaces and play it up close with guys like bell guys hit the ball so hard pitch from back cordero will come to the plate and they've got lofton with piazza applying the tag so that time it worked you have to play the infield in now because there were two runs down in the seventh inning before it was a tie ball game now when you're two runs down you cannot afford to let any more run score cordero makes a good play good throw high throw keeps it up and piata applies the tag there have been four hits one of them a double and a walk in this inning a double steal and it would have been worse had not ozzie smith turned in a brilliant play at shortstop here is sierra former ranger now with oakland bounced foul he is the first product of the roberto clemente sports city in puerto rico roberto's dream to make it not just to the big leagues but to an all-star game his oakland a's are nine under 500 but only three back of texas in the west the rangers lead the west three under 500 could be the first race ever where in september they talk about how many games back a team is in the win column instead of the loss come there you see the number 21 worn by sierra in honor of roberto clementi and a pop-up back of second base and bgo of the astros squeezes it but back-to-back three-run innings for the american league and they're up again 7-5 back at three rivers stadium for this all-star game we're in the bottom of the seventh american league leading seven to five with ozzie smith and ozzy it was vintage in the last inning and it's an emotional time for you playing in this all-star game it is uh johnny cause this uh very well could be my last one as as far as the national league is concerned i plan on playing one more year and um i was kind of surprised to be here this year and that i didn't get voted in last year and usually when you don't get uh voted in and you've been there 10 or 12 times it's tough to get back but i'd like to take the time to thank all the fans that took the time to punch my name on the ballot well 2500 hits in reach and also almost a home run tonight i came real close how's uh a ted quick you know when you when you're facing guys that you haven't faced it's tough to know exactly what they're going to throw you and that particular instance is hard to really stay that stay back too long on randy johnson because he gets the ball up there so well but he threw me a breaking ball and i was just out in front a little bit on behalf of everybody thanks for being what you are thank you john back up to you bob all right johnny and here it is what might be the final exit in terms of all-star player and a base hit for bagwell this is the 13th all-star game in which ozzie has appeared 11 of them as he started says he wants to play one more year if he stays healthy he'll get to 2500 hits the hall of fame long since a foregone conclusion he has the best defensive shortstop that i have ever seen and i've seen a lot of good short stops he's the way they will be measured from now on unfortunately that's tough isn't it yeah you know it's one thing to be good right another thing to be such a joy to watch which he was will cordero now now here's a young shortstop with all the tools but sometimes the concentration lapses obviously he can hit and hit with power uncommon power for a middle infielder but he makes too many errors at this stage of his career i think it's a lack of concentration in the field he concentrates in the batter's box but sometimes he takes that out to the field with him and he's not concentrating i tell you what the ball jumps off of his back as well as any of the players you've seen in this game tonight joe i'll take it i'll take a guy with these totals and and take a chance on him defensively any time wouldn't you teach him absolutely or move him someplace else he can swing the bat like that he can play the outfield too i think he's going to be a quality shortstop he just has to cut down on his mental lapses so cordero takes high we move to the bottom of the seventh and it kind of reminds me if we were at wrigley harry carrie ordinarily would be serenading the fans and we want to send our best wishes absolutely to harry the voice of the cubs in his 50th year in broadcasting had some health problems recently had to interrupt his season but they expect him back before the end of the month on those broadcasts on wgn [Applause] i actually thought you and bob were going to go into that in addition to taking me out to the ball game i can't sing so i want to stay overnight in pittsburgh you know i was talking to phil rizzuto before the game he is the honorary captain did he answer the america the american league squad he's going into the hall of fame finally later this month as a matter of fact cordero bounces one to ripken who'll step on the bag and complete the double play and you walk in the room and the scooter says hey you guys i saw that major league too that's right shot on a plane really liked it you know most of us of course caught it at the cannon film festival but uh that's why i saw it on the plane i got a kick out of him he was he was sitting in a locker down there i saw you being punished come out of there he was sitting actually sitting inside the locker i said look if you want me to talk to somebody and get you out of there just ask ah he's a great guy i love the scooter i really do it's to be around him and and to listen to him a pleasure and well deserved finally in the baseballs hall of fame you remember a couple of years back bob when he he had that brace on his arm he had something wrong with his hand and we were in yankee state he was wearing a brace on his left hand for whatever and i asked him i went over on the yankee broadcast for a couple of minutes quinn with a chopper and clark will retire tony guinn who is now one for four but holds a bad story anyway you're gonna finish it whether you like it or not true to form cal ripken doesn't even miss an inning at least so it appears he's over three you know he doesn't turn 34 until next month so 21-31 to pass gehrig is one thing he could keep on going for several more years i think they'll make him rest after he passed lou gehrig i think he'll he stops the next day i think he will rest day off finally get that one day off he's been looking for and that'll be it [Music] a drive toward the gap in right center field gwen in pursuit back near the fence and it short hops the wall ripken on his way to second and he's content with a lead off stand-up double [Applause] well you know the esteem in which the fans hold him and in fact he was second to ken griffey jr in the overall fan balloting ozzy got the most votes in the national league there's his swing again on a fastball that looks to be out over the plate off the back in the right center field it's it short hops the wall out there i'll tell you really as i said at the top of the telecast the more i watch him and and and appreciate him as a player and and joe i know you feel the same way uh yeah to have played as long as you did and to watch this guy day in and day out and not to miss it's truly remarkable rodriguez now as the american league tries to add to a 7-5 lead in the top of the eighth against the giants rod beck back all but untouchable as the giants won 103 last year all-star this year but the numbers off joe while he's giving up nine home runs in about 30 innings he has not pitched nearly as well this year as he did last year he seems to be throwing a lot of fastballs in the middle of the plate as was evident on the ball that was hit by rickkane he is not making the quality pitches that he made last year and you have to remember though he was on a disabled list for quite a while so injuries probably the result of that is is because of the injuries robbie thompson on the dl willie mcgee swift and burkett not quite what they were a year yeah they were i'll tell you they're a completely different club than i saw in arizona this spring here's the o2 pitch just a bit outside thank you buddy i was wondering when you were going to get to that one just a bit outside just a bit outside no doubt about it and the one-two pitch two and two we mentioned phil rizzuto yeah you know i wanted to finish that story about philly i was over there for a little rain delay and uh and uh there are the honorary captains that's basement for the homestead graves yes sir the homestead graze and phil rizzuto and i went over there to sit on a yankee telecast during a little rain delay was with rizzuto and he had this little cast or splinter or whatever on his wrist a little sprained risk and i asked him in the conversation when he started training falcons and he almost answered me he said wait a minute training falcons i said this thing he said no i got a bad rest he's a beautiful guy though bob i know you've known him for a long long time and uh a joy to listen to uh i don't know what the yankee telecast and broadcast would be without phil razuga he shows up occasionally now doesn't he you mean at the ball park anywhere kind of makes his own schedule that's what i'm saying two-two fishing [Applause] that's paul o'neill on deck a 382 hitter a point behind frank thomas for the american league lead and sizzling this past week he was over 400 fell off down in the 360s then went on a 13 for 18 tear several days ago as balls hit in the air to center field and marquis grissom will make the play ripken isn't going anywhere grissom is one of 15 kids somebody asked him how come your name is marquis says my mom ran out of all the regular names as he put it she had to go to the french [Applause] all right here's o'neill who made the all-star team once he's a national leaguer with the reds winning thomas or tops but an inordinate number of guys over or around 350. i have a theory yes the theory is there's not as many hard throwers in either league now as there were before and i think that is contributing to the fact that guys are hitting for a much higher average because they can handle the breaking balls if they don't have to look for the fastball you know joe talking to johnny bench some time ago there's jimmy key and wade boggs bench was talking about the same thing about the lack of hard throwers but everybody now seems to want to put movement on the ball pitch on your fists all the time on your knuckles and and do something without the breaking ball breaking ball of course is a mover all the time but make the fastball run in or run away from you cut it or whatever with o'neill now in the game the only position player according to my calculations who hasn't gotten in for the american league is travis fryman of the tigers a mile high pop-up and cordero records the second out for the national league we haven't seen fred mcgriff yet darren fletcher the backup catcher no moisture salute yet jeff conan of the marlins hasn't appeared in terms of pitchers for the american league jason beret and wilson alvarez of the white sox haven't been in ricky bonus of the brewers lee smith we haven't seen him yet either knobloch with 37 doubles might be a threat to the record set by an obscure red sox outfielder of the early 30s earl webb i think webb got 67 one year [Music] and that's the record stood a long time oh and two [Applause] knob blocks over one robbed of a hit on ozzie smith's diving backhand stop in the seventh inning seven five american league they've got 12 hits five nine and one and the error was costly for the national league outside one and two national league pitchers we haven't seen doug jones brett saberhagen randy myers goodbye nabla sobeck concludes the top of the eighth with a strikeout still a two-run game and we'll be back to three rivers after this snoopy one has teamed up with nbc sports to bring you these aerial views of the all-star game from three rivers the metlife blimp traveling over 60 000 miles a year on the bottom of the eighth we go 7-5 american league they wasted a lead-off double by cal ripken in the top half ripken as you see second in the all-star balloting griffey won the popular vote but i understand ripken still hopes to prevail in the electoral college [Applause] who said they don't care another chance for barry bonds a sacrifice fly and a couple of strikeouts wilson alvarez of the white sox in smooth throwing venezuelan almost looks like he's playing catch out there he has such an easy motion at one time 15 consecutive wins bob going back to last season before he was finally beaten a couple of weeks ago [Music] the starting catchers have gone all the way piazza's in the on deck circle rodriguez still in the game for the american league [Applause] in the air to left center field sprinting after it as kenny lofton loses his cap but not the baseball great jump there by kenny lofton and the ball was first hit i thought it was in the gap but he got a great jump on it and his speed did the rest [Applause] what can he do well gold glover throws well and for a speed guy a leadoff guy he hits the ball with authority he's got power he took his eye off that ball just momentarily joe to find the warning track and then made an easy catch he almost overran the ball and piazza one for three in there for a strike from alvarez ken camaniti of the astros on deck grounded to the right side coming up with his knob block and the minnesota twin tosses him out knobloch a very fine fielder had a string of 80 consecutive games without an error dating back to last year and about nine ten days ago sunday night game in cleveland ball went through his legs ground ball easy ground ball he was probably still nervous over being named to the all-star team that afternoon here's kamanity who's got 17 homers got under this one too much and albert bell makes it a one two three last half of the eighth [Applause] and inning left at three rivers seven five american league back after a word from your local stations [Applause] the 1994 all-star game is brought to you by toyota and their full line of quality cars and trucks toyota i love what you do for me by gillette sensor and the gillette series gillette the best a man can get and by reebok [Music] just a few days ago they dedicated a statue outside three rivers stadium to this man roberto clemente [Music] footage from one of his world series performances i believe 1971 when he just owned the world series against the baltimore orioles and there it is a great clemente pose he's breaking for first after just smashing what you imagine is an extra base hit into the gap you played against him joe and right center field that was his alley a magnificent hitter and a great player no matter how many films you see that guy joe you've always appreciated him more when you had a chance to watch him in person exactly well he was something randy myers of the cubs is in 17 saves but the cubs are not doing well and here's a guy who could be tasty trade bait but with the strike looming and with realignment giving even mediocre teams the idea that they have a chance to stay in the race i think you will see fewer of the sort of late season deal that pat gillick became a master of with toronto where a contender picks up a veteran guy in return for prospects late in the year he's behind cooper 3-0 and scott swings at the 3-0 pitch and bounces out to bgo down to the american league dugout where hannah storm holds fourth i'm here with the guy that loves to tout the superiority of the american league you're close to winning your seventh straight you guys usually do it with power you're surprised you're getting done with a lot of singles and doubles well i mean this is a big ballpark for us we're not used to it but uh you know we got to win and uh you know we got to do it some way and singles and doubles are the key right now now you grew up about an hour from here to nora pennsylvania you know you had about 40 family members are you happy with where you're able to perform in front of them yeah i was a little nervous because i've never played you know that many family members usually it's about 10 or 12 but to have my uncles who've never seen me play before it was real exciting for me i know one of those uncles used to think he could strike you out but no more no he still thinks he can all right back to you bob thanks hannah here's lofton at the plate a single a pair of rbis a stolen base and his only played appearance also made a fine running catch in the outfield kind of amazing to think that ken griffey jr might wind up as only the second best player to come out of donora pennsylvania that's the hometown of stan the man one and two in fact musial told me he played basketball and baseball in high school in the 30s with ken griffey jr's grandfather i made the right choice when you were with the cardinals you gave museu a lot of tips didn't you bob yes i did every time i went in this restaurant stand in big east lofton's bat goes flying toward first he goes walking toward the dugout banned by myers [Applause] here's that last breaking ball from randy myers and the bat of kenny lofton talking about people at the all-star game and in our booth tonight your young son right here keith nice to have him with us here tonight boy is he happy though oh man favorite players ozzy smith and kirby puckett had their moments tonight myers tried to backhand it bigio will have to eat it [Applause] a base hit for will clark well it's obvious randy myers doesn't get himself in a good fielding position after he releases the ball uh he falls off towards the third base side he tries to reach behind him to make this play but he doesn't see falls off toward third base no chance to really get in position ball goes through no play for bgo and will clark has his second base hit you know yesterday when i met bob's son joe he introduced me to his young son keith and he had a baseball in one hand and i shook his hand and i as i shook his hand the ball fell out of his hand it was very disturbing for me i mean he didn't touch me he dropped the ball right away your aura rubs off i don't know what it is bell goes to the opposite field gwen lost it momentarily it appeared in the lights but he tucks it away last chance for the national league grissom bgo and then either mcgrith or conan back after this from your local station the mci proof positive replay as if additional proof were needed that ozzie smith even at age 39 can still bring a crowd to its feet and a national television audience too tonight well big lee smith who pitched in plenty of these as a national leaguer tries to close it out as a representative of the baltimore orioles and the american league the only two pitchers that cedo gaston hasn't used yet are jason beret of the white sox and ricky bonus of the brewers now the only two hitters jim fragosi hasn't used are fred mcgriff and jeff conan it'll be grissom biggio and then one of the two my guess would be mcgriff and both managers in talking to them before the game bob explained that especially gaston saying he was going to go tell the players who probably wouldn't play that there may not be a chance for them to get the game apologize and say hey if i can't get you in the game don't take it don't take it the wrong way as to jim frigosi marquis grissom had an opposite field home run off randy johnson back in the sixth that gave the national league a brief 5-4 lead but in the 7th the american league scored three nothing since then seven five americans they've got 13 hits the nationals have nine and a costly error by matt williams overthrowing carlos garcia at second led to two unearned runs although garcia was late covering the bag the american league trying to nail down their seventh consecutive win in a series once dominated by the national league the nationals lead it 37-26 with one tie oh major gas find out what the what that fastball was smith reaching back for a little extra that time here's another guy joe i mean every once in a while you're going to throw you a little something off speed but basically here it is and he's been that way throughout his career here's that last fastball grissom right through it two and two [Applause] foul off i don't think smith leaving location aside and there's no question he has better mastery of his pitches this year in baltimore than he did last year in st louis when he struggled and the cardinals let him go but i don't think he was throwing this hard a year ago i don't know if he throws as hard i don't i'm sure he's he's nowhere close to what he was in his prime he's still up there but it's nowhere near what he was a few years back drops down a little bit registers 89 and the count is full so if grissom can get aboard the tying run would come to the plate [Applause] he hangs in grissom is hitting 281 six homers 30 steals second in the national league to dion sanders 32. tragosie who played in six all-star games with the angels gaston played in one as a padre it holds it three and two he swung at ball four twice a couple of high fast balls from lee smith here's that last pitch high fastball up around the letters which used to be a strike no more yeah when they were the balloon protectors talking about the american league on fires anyway strike zone much tinier grissom finally lays off on down to first he goes with a laid off walk well in his last appearance before the all-star break lee smith gave up a home run to lose the ball game [Applause] and here's the high fastball just too high and grissom lays off [Applause] the crime dog fred mcgriff comes out of the dugout capable of tying it with one swing he'll get a chance next if biggio gets aboard one swing could win it for the national league [Applause] there's mcgriff with 23 home runs and 63 knocked home in the first half only man in this century to lead both the national and american leagues in home runs [Applause] as christmas chase back he's hitting 320. he's stolen 25 bases hard to believe he began his career as a catcher they had to get him out from behind the plate with his speed and his bat on two and that's what lee smith does now he will paint the outside corner with a breaking ball whereas in the past he really just overpowered the hitters and i think he needed the change to go to the american league that is more of a breaking ball league whereas in the national league he still wanted to overpower the hitters hit hard but foul one of those hanging breaking balls right there joe or a cut fastball but uh as you said he's he'll throw the breaking stuff now every once in a while a change up but he tries to paint on you here it is one more time that looks like a splitter that's exactly what it is split finger fastball hardly any rotation on the ball and bijou out in front of it and rip the foul biggio has 35 doubles that's second in the majors to nabla two base hit here would make things very interesting [Music] we're in the ninth 7-5 american league just got a piece of them [Applause] four division titles two world titles with the blue jays but hard times this year hard to believe the defending pennant winners each well under 500. that's the midpoint that's amazing bob it really is look at that toronto ball club again on owen two and again he hangs in [Applause] fred mcgriff next fergosi told us before the game he wanted to save mcgriff for a late inning situation [Applause] upon [Applause] he had jefferies and he had bagwell so he couldn't really work mcgriff in in the field speaking of pagosa had to give jeffries and bagwell their turns at bat but now it'll be mcgriff in the ninth in the clutch the one-two pitch two and two division you know joe indifference to smith a few years back when he i mean reach back are you worried about painting the corners here he's trying to hit the outside he missed off the outside corner but years ago a couple of years back when this guy had the good fastball there was no messing around it was here it is go get it and he steps off [Applause] big league at age 36 leading the american league in saves in fact leading the majors and that one also makes the seats though as intimidating as lee smith is with his size and with the great fastball though you he never really intimidated the hitters he didn't knock anyone down you know owen ii he basically would come inside but not he didn't knock very many people down so he's done it straight lace terrific at bat for bgo it really is [Applause] smith has thrown him everything so far the splitter fastball off speed he smacks it down a third cooper comes up with it safe at first biggio keeps them out of the double play and not many right-handed hitters would have beaten that because the ball was smoked down at cooper i was still a little surprised that he beat it but watch now what happens here is watch cooper he takes one extra step there that's where he lost the double play but again real good hustle there by biggio he beats the play at first base but most right-handed hitters your right would have been out on this they turn it very well with good hustle by bidgeo knight block grissom puts a little pressure on him but he gets off a good throw [Applause] so that sustains the drama because mcgriff is the tying run at the plate smith with 29 saves for baltimore mcgriff fouls it on [Applause] well ceto has played it according to plan he's got his closer in there and forgosies got his man too bob lugosi trying to stave off the seventh consecutive national league defeat [Applause] one on one out the 01 pitch smith's 29 saves leads the american league by 10. rick aguilera has 19. he's second best but bob you must wonder at age 36 can he keep this up for an entire season and baltimore is going to need him down the stretch after we play the entire season so that's something you have to be aware of through their oreos the o2 to mcgriff oreos of course right there with the yankees in the east cleveland and chicago close in the central white sox have won six straight with the possibility of a strike looming the series right after the break between cleveland and chicago takes on urgency players remember the split season of 81. don't know when the season might resume [Applause] that'll make the seats as mike hargrove the indian manager said we're going to play all these games as if it was september [Applause] you might see some strange things guys going on three days rest and whatever else has the strike date lose that's been much of the talk here along with the all of the celebrating that's going on with the all-star games i'm a little bit surprised that bgo doesn't take second base because they're not holding him on and he could at least stay out of the double play will clark way behind him and be joe's very good base dealer there he goes and the ball is sky to left center field lofton goes back locked into the fence she's gone when mcgriff crosses it's tied at 7. the great thing about freddie mcgriff if you throw the ball away from him he will go the other way and he can drive it out of the ballpark not a bad pitch from lee smith down and out over the plate but freddie mcgriff drives it over the left center field wall and three rivers is alive well yesterday in that home run hitting contest mcgriff was the leader until griffey hit and here tonight on a fastball down low and away he got it off and he's the leader again absolutely he is the leader yep tied at seven in the ninth here's bagwell [Applause] i mentioned earlier lee smith gave up a home run in the ninth inning to mark maguire on sunday to lose the ball game dora's lost to oakland right [Applause] oh and two to bagwell who had a single his last time up will cordero is next straight against strength and mcgriff was better toward the middle smothered and knobloch scrambles to his feet with a terrific play great play by knoblach joe very good play this is the toughest play for a second baseman anything to your right but watch how quickly he gets up after he makes the stop no contest at first base either look he gets up very quickly gets rid of the ball gets bagwell by about five steps excellent play here by knoblach he plays on astroturf so he knows how to play astr and that's an excellent play there cordero now unless the national league scores here with two outs in the bottom of the knife we're looking at an interesting situation the managers rightly try to get everybody in now the benches are depleted this is a non-dh game in the national league park weird things could happen here if this game goes 12 13 innings cordero grounds it down to cooper we go to the 10th mcgriff kept it alive the 65th all-star game is tied at 7. fred mcgriff shook up three rivers stadium and left lee smith shaking his head we go to the 10th tied at seven [Applause] this is as mcgriff stays in the game at first base the ninth extra inning game out of 65 and the national league has won all eight previous extra inning games most recently 1987 in oakland a scoreless game until tim raines got a double that broke it open in extra innings doug jones is in now the philly's top bullpen guy throws that palm change three-time all-star with cleveland in the american league once with houston now his fifth overall appearance we talked about lee smith being overpowering before and coming full cycle throwing a lot of breaking balls doug jones is the same he's gotta get a great change in space now he's great off speed pitcher change-up pitching sierra ripken and rodriguez owen two as jones is ahead brett saberhagen is the only pitcher now that fragosi hasn't used jeff conan is only reserved the o2 pitch to ruben sierra line drive base hit over bgo at second jason beret the right hander of the white sox is throwing in the american league bullpen he and the brewers ricky bonus are the only pictures ceo gaston hasn't used and travis fryman of the tigers is the only hitter he hasn't used ripken's one for four doubled off the wall in right center his last time up how big was that double that they didn't score him bobby let off the inning with a double and couldn't score it back in the eighth rip hitting 306 for the year there's a strike there's travis fryman [Music] right-handed batter as is conine they only hit her left for fragosi outside you know if this thing goes deep into extra innings it's interesting it's exciting but it's a manager's nightmare because somebody might have to pitch four or five innings and blow himself out for a while i don't mean hurt his arm but take himself out of commission for the better part of a week for his own ball club when the season resumes that's in the seats in the 1967 game which went 15 innings at anaheim catfish hunter pitched the last five and gave up the game-winning home run to the man seated just next to us broadcasting the game on television for the spanish speaking audience tony perez [Applause] i think the both managers have to be more aggressive now i hit the bob i believe darren fletcher the expo catcher is chasing after it just in case but it did hit the bat as ripken went down here it is again an inside runner a little fastball coming inside from jones and ripken it looked for a moment like that ball hit him in the wrist but it did hit up around the barrel of the bat there it is right there you know when you think about the street [Music] approaching 2 000 games pursuing garrick first of all with all due respect and a world of respect is due to one of the great players of all time lou gehrig he played first base ripken plays shortstop a more demanding position and you think of all the things that could happen like on a pitch like the one just previous you could be hit by the pitch you could be taken out on a pivot spike it could be spike second yeah absolutely heck you could fall down the steps and stub your toe at home anything could happen definitely a more demanding position than the first base the garrett played [Applause] the 2-2 i asked him when you get about 10 games away next year assuming it happens are you going to kind of walk around your house or gingerly say to your wife hey honey would you cut this sandwich just in case why don't you open that car door and wait till i'm all the way in before you shut it was his comment he said he didn't think about stuff like that didn't he it's because he has work to do and i have nothing better to do than sit around and think of these things sierra at first he led off with a single we're in the 10th tied at seven struck him out good fastball from jones he got ripken looking for the off speeds up and threw a fastball right by him about 84 miles an hour they were talking about greg maddox not throwing that hard but he said if a car is coming at you at 85 or 90 you really can't tell the difference so if you set him up with the change up that 84 mile an hour fastball looks like the 90 mile an hour fastball and now here's rodriguez he and ripken have gone the distance he's one for four from vega baja puerto rico and fryman is on deck get toward the hole and that's through there let's see what sierra does win charging and reuben will hold it second you know tony gwynn obviously is one of the great hitters of all time but when he first came up to the big leagues joe he was not much of an outfielder and he worked and worked especially at what we just saw charging ground ball hits well he has worked on his entire game and he is a scientist as far as i'm concerned he has a master's degree in playing baseball he charges the ball very well whole sierra at second base [Music] [Music] so here's fryman the last hitter on cedaw gaston's bench that's how to play what would happen is the pitchers would have to hit fryman with a happy history against doug jones back when jones was with cleveland travis is hitting 285 for the year 13 homers 64 rbis you can put a lot of k's in the scoreboard next to his name though he's already struck out 99 times in the air to right the ball really carrying tonight but the ballpark will hold this gwen makes the catch sierra tags rodriguez remains at first runners at the corners now with two out [Applause] i talked about managers having to be more aggressive in these situations because they're running out of players i wouldn't be surprised you see a double steal because rodriguez runs well he stole eight bases last year and sierra runs well from third a double steal after two strikes might be in order here knob locked the hitter oh for two rounder to short struck out well this guy no matter no matter what he does joe talking about doug jones as i said before he got a great change up but he likes to pitch inside too he's one of those guys despite the fact that he's not a hard thrower he's not afraid to challenge afraid to come inside so fryman hit for smith hooray was throwing we'll see him in the bottom of the tent knoblach now behind on the counter and [Applause] two well joe it's long been your theory that maybe unlike 20 years ago all-star games are decided by the bench not so much as the starters these days and that's exactly what is happening here tonight his second strike out of the inning two hits for the american league but they strand two to the bottom of the tenth after these messages from your local station [Applause] back we go 27 years anaheim july of 1967 tony perez takes catfish hunter deep and it's the deciding blow in the longest all-star game in history when 15 innings now the rules do provide that once a game is in extra innings a pitcher can work more than three they're limited to three within a regulation game there's tony perez and his wife patooka major league baseball international broadcasting the game to over 60 million people in 139 countries in eight languages including spanish of course and tony is handling those duties another tony gwynn to start it moisture salute next and then darren fletcher jason bray now white sox right hander on win has a double in four trips breaking ball in there foreign pitched five in a third on saturday in his last outing so he's on two days rest here nine and two era 3.56 chopped over the mound they'll have no play even if knoblach could have flagged it down which he couldn't so gwen is two for five which in a sense is a typical night and that's why 400 that's why tony gwen is such a good hitter though beray was ahead of him makes a good pitch and watch me just hit this with nothing but hands there's a curveball breaking down he just reaches out chops it back through the middle base it tony gwynn hitting 383 entering the game his single season high was 370. in 1987 he's a career 332 hitter counting the first half of this season wade boggs highest lifetime batting average 335 so gwen is close moisture salute [Music] fastball up and away kind of hard thrower jason bray with a good breaking ball all the breaking as you said joe the breaking ball that that gwen hit not a bad pitch no o2 curve ball [Music] [Applause] and lou is pretty much a first ball hitter the first strike he sees he will be hacking first half out of the night for him swinging a drive into the gap in left center field and up against the fence this could do it being waved home is safe safe and the six games [Applause] [Applause] just last september was stretched out on the serpent bush stadium dislocated left ankle fractured lower leg his leg grotesquely twisted and you would have bet his career was in jeopardy he has come back in 331 with 18 homers in the first half and to drive home the game-winning run with a double the left center in his lone at-bat in this 1994 all-star game in 10 innings the national league ends the american league's six-game winning streak right here eight to seven let's go to johnny bench with mike four innings ago moses you said it and i did it i was just lucky to get another at that i wanted to do something good for the team thanks to freddie tie it up he should be the hero and and first all-star again i got a chance to play and i think i did pretty good you sure did a lot of inexperience on the national league team but it proves to be a big win again but there bob the national league comes through in extra innings off the base of the wall on the fly [Applause] [Music] albert bell's relay to ripken and ripken's throw right on the money to rodriguez couldn't have been much closer they might have had him but paul runge was right there here's another angle now we get another look at it but how about the coaching job of jimmy leland at third he never stopped him and a perfect relay throw by ripken they knew they had a play on him here's quinn we get a different angle and he's in there he's in there absolutely great call by running absolutely from that angle you could see the tag was high on the legs so even though the ball beat him rodriguez can't get it down he's in right there absolutely well just a moment ago joe you said the national league should become more aggressive nobody out ever twin opened the inning with a single and jimmy leland did not hesitate he waved him home while you're running out of players you have to do something let's go to great gumbel all right bob i am here with the most valuable player of the 1994 all-star game fred mcgriff of the atlanta braves and kurt ritter from chevrolet to make the presentation curt well fred there are home runs and then our home runs i'm sure you'll remember that one forever on behalf of chevrolet and all of our dealers across canada and the united states i'd like to present you with the chevrolet mvp trophy thank you as well we'll be donating in your name an astral van to the special olympics once again congratulations thank you fred the hour is late but there can't be a more dramatic home run than the one you hit to tie the game in the ninth inning and you haven't been able to stop smiling since you got over here tell me your feelings oh well first i was just hoping i'd get that back you know it was getting late and uh for ghosts he hadn't called on me yet so i'm like man i gotta get it back and i finally get at bat and i'm telling myself be aggressive you know take your hacks you know and uh leave them a fastball down away and hit it out congratulations they're laughing and smiling i'm sure down in atlanta as the national league bob has broken a six-game losing streak back to you moises who began his career in pittsburgh before being traded to montreal for zane smith wins it after fred mcgriff had tied it in the ninth with the two-run pinch homer off lee smith wins singled and scored the winner driven home by elude doug jones the winner beret the loser later tonight on nbc join us for the tonight show with jay leno followed by late night with conan o'brien and later with greg kinnear that's all coming up next except on the west coast and it comes up after your local news for bob euchre joe morgan greg gumbel hannah storm and johnny bench i'm bob costas so long from three rivers stadium in pittsburgh the nationals finally break through they win it eight to seven goodnight this program has been produced by the baseball network in association with nbc sports you

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Length: 171min 13sec (10273 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 10 2020