star studded.

The Midsummer Classic is here in the Bay Area for the first time since Oakland hosted the game in 1987. (Side note: I attended that Home Run Derby. Mark McGwire, a rookie, was the big star.) It's a fantastic opportunity for baseball players and fans to celebrate the game. Some initial thoughts:



The good
• TV coverage for the best ballpark in MLB not named Fenway or Wrigley.
• Proof that if Bonds played half his games in another park, he'd be well past 800 by now.
• MLB asserts itself at the most "global" sport.
• It really does count (for World Series home field advantage).
• Bonds is in the starting lineup

The bad
• ESPN coverage, complete with Chris Berman dropping local city names.
• A packed, overhyped McCovey Cove that looked like the Bay Bridge Toll Plaza.
• Peter Gammons putting Bonds on his heels. (Show some respect, PG.)

OK, OK. Maybe the last comment is a little bitter. I used to be a huge Gammons fan when I lived in Red Sox Nation. Maybe I've grown tired of his East Coast bias and his rock and roll tribute albums.

Perhaps the most telling image was of Barry and A-Rod chatting for nearly half of the Home Run Derby. Why is that telling? Barry might as well have handed A-Rod the key to the city.

Yeah, you heard it here first: A-Rod will be a Giant in 2008.