American League Wins its Ninth Straight Baseball All Star Game

In what is becoming routine, the American League won the Baseball All Star Game for the ninth straight time in a 3-2 win at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles on July 19th. The A.L. has now won 21 of the last 25 games.

Clayton Kershaw got the start in front of his home fans, and after allowing a leadoff single to Shohei Ohtani, picked off the defending A.L. MVP. The National League got off to a fast start in its half of the 1st inning, with Ronald Acuna, Jr. hitting a ground rule double; he scored on a Mookie Betts base hit. After a double play, Paul Goldschmidt hit a home run and the N.L. had a 2-0 lead.

The National League had a total of four hits in the 1st inning. They would get a grand total of one more in the rest of the game. The American League was scoreless until the 4th inning, when Giancarlo Stanton hit a two run home run with one out tie it up at 2-2. It didn’t stay tied for long; the next batter, Byron Buxton, hit a home run to give the American League a 3-2 lead. That turned out to be the winning run, as the game was a pitcher’s duel the rest of the way.

At a news conference earlier in the day, Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred did his absolute best to show he is in an alternate reality. In response to a Senate Judiciary Committee inquiry about the treatment of minor league players, Manfred insisted that minor league baseball players are paid a living wage. Ok Rob, if you think a maximum salary of $14,700 for those not on a major league 40 man roster or those without any big league service time is living high off the hog, I don’t know what to tell you. Manfred says that housing is supplied to minor leaguers, which is true, but this is the first year that housing has been mandated. (Manfred, by the way, makes 17 and a half million dollars per year as commissioner). Perhaps the commissioner missed that court settlement this week that awarded some 20,000 minor league players past and present $185 million in a class action lawsuit over minimum wage and overtime violations.