Tri-fecta Anyone? [David Stefanini]

Something very rare can happen today. So rare, there has never been a day like this in baseball history.

Tom Glavine can become the 23rd player to get to 300 career wins. It is very possible this may be the last time we see this milestone achieved in the near future. The next closest person to 300 wins is Randy Johnson with 284 wins. But we do not know if he will ever pitch again. After that we have to go down the list to Mike Mussina who will not get to 300. The only pitcher I see that has a chance of getting to 300 is Johan Santana.

Now onto the long ball where Alex Rodriquez can become the 22nd player to reach 500 career home runs. Unlike Glavine this milestone will likely be reached again. It is possible that this milestone will be reached two more times before this season is over. Still A-Rod will be the youngest player to ever reach 500 home runs. A-Rod is 32 years and 4 days old today. That will be 332 days younger than Jimmie Foxx was when Foxx hit his 500th.

Finally the biggest and most impressive milestone of the three, Barry Bonds could tie the all-time home run record. Tonight, if he plays, Bonds will be swinging for career homer #755. No matter what your personal opinion of Bonds is does not matter today. The only thing that matters is the number 755. When he breaks the record there will be no mark in the record books, and his name will not be penciled in to be erased in later years. He will be the home run champion, at least until A-Rod breaks it in several years.

Photos: Stars Twinkle in Mid Summer Classic [J. Mark English]

Next Stop: Dog Days of Summer [J. Mark English]

Baseball right now is the only sport on the horizon. Football is still a month away. Who cares about basketball during this heat wave? Anyone really taking interest in how much Sydney Crosby will be making over the next few years in Pittsburgh? How about Federer and Nadal? Yea, we can talk about them come the U.S. Open. And the British Open is still a few weeks away.

So baseball really is all there is now, and tonight will feature only an exhibition game, and tomorrow there will be no game. I think tomorrow night may be the only night of the year when none of the professional sport teams (at least in baseball, hockey, basketball, and football) play. Sports Center should be a blast tomorrow night. Exactly what current event highlights will they show?

Perhaps they can continue to pump up their own mini series, the Bronx is Burning. I set my Tivo to record the show, and when I came to watch it, the Tivo had recorded the conclusion of the home run derby. So I missed out on this show that ESPN has been advertising the hell out of for the last few weeks. Grrrrrr.

But I guess there are some news of note to throw out there. Bud Selig will attend the games where Barry Bonds has a chance to break Hank Aaron's record. I hope it takes Bonds two weeks, just to make it painful for Selig.

Baseball agent, Gustavo "Gus" Dominguez, was busted for smuggling ball players out of Cuba. I don't get that. He is getting five years for encouraging players to leave a communist country, giving them an opportunity of a life time. Shouldn't we be celebrating what this guy is doing, not throwing him in jail?

Dayn Perry of Fox Sports breaks down his top 10 All-Star game moments:

1. Babe Ruth wins the first All-Star Game (1933)
2. Carl Hubbell whiffs a quintet of Hall of Famers (1934)
3. Ted Williams returns to Fenway Park (1999)
4. The All-Star color line is broken (1947)
5. Cal Ripken's final All-Star Game (2001)
6. Pete Rose and Ray Fosse (1970)
7. The 1967 marathon
8. The young guns of '84
9. Terry Steinbach redeems himself (1987)
10. The 2003 All-Star Game

I'm biased when it comes to this, but I think the baseball all-star game is the best of the four major sports. I'll be watching tonight. With any luck, the National League will break its losing streak.

Finally, there was a plane crash earlier today which took the lives of some members of the NASCAR community. Here is the story from Barbara Liston of Reuters:

A small plane attempting an emergency landing crashed into two houses near Orlando, Florida, on Tuesday, killing at least five people and causing an intense fire, investigators said.

The twin-engine Cessna 310 was registered to a corporation linked to NASCAR racing and one of those killed, the pilot of the plane, was the husband of NASCAR official Lesa France Kennedy, officials of the popular U.S. motorsport said.

The plane took off from Daytona International Airport en route to Lakeland, Florida but the pilot reported smoke in the cockpit and it slammed into a residential neighborhood in Sanford, near Orlando in central Florida, investigators said.

"We can confirm there were two people on board, including the pilot, Dr. Bruce Kennedy, and Michael Klemm, a senior captain with NASCAR Aviation. Both were killed in the crash," Ramsey Poston, NASCAR's managing director of corporate communications, said in a statement.

MLB Slaps ESPN on the Hand... [J. Mark English]

In essence, ESPN is being punished, or given a "timeout", for doing something bad in the eyes of MLB. Paul Gough of the Hollywood Reporter has more:

Major League Baseball has limited ESPN's access to Tuesday night's All-Star Game after the network broke an embargo and broadcast news of the players' selections a few minutes after an exclusive, rain-delayed telecast on TBS.

Baseball executives told ESPN that it must pare its broadcast efforts from AT&T Park in San Francisco, where the All-Star Game is being held. So, most coverage will be done out of ESPN's headquarters in Bristol, Conn., rather than having "Baseball Tonight" and a portion of "SportsCenter" originate from California as planned.

ESPN doesn't have the rights to carry the All-Star Game -- those are Fox Sports' -- and didn't have the rights to carry an All-Star selection show, with those going to TBS as part of the new rights deal with Turner Broadcasting. ESPN had previously done the selection show.

Sources said MLB was angered after ESPN's "SportsCenter" on Sunday reported the National League rosters using an Associated Press story and the entire NL and American League rosters a few minutes after they were unveiled on TBS. No one was allowed to disclose the names until after the Turner show. Fans pick the starting players through a weekslong voting process.

Baseball executives have told ESPN that it cannot telecast from AT&T Park beyond an hour on Monday (not including the network's coverage of the Home Run Derby) and limited access to hours before Tuesday's game.

Mets Dominate Standings, and Voting [David Stefanini]

The Senior Circuit ballot, which hold the first votes for the All-Stars, have returned back and the results are one-sided.

Of the 8 positions on the NL All-Star team, if the game was held right now, half of the team would be New York Mets. Don't forget, those are just the starters. Those players would be:

CF - Carlos Beltran (leading vote getter for the NL)

SS - Jose Reyes

3B - David Wright

C - Paul Lo Duca

This year can be something very special for the New York Mets. As Mark English has pointed out earlier, we can not forget that Hall of Famer Pedro Martinez is going to be the ace of the team in the second half of the season. Reports so far have been all very positive about Pedro. Many scouts are saying he is looking like the Pedro of old and is healthier than he has been in the recent past.

They are a team full of All-Stars, but unlike the Yankees, they have a cohesiveness about them. They seem to be having fun in the dugout, smiling, and laughing all the time. It's very early in the season, but I have a very good feeling about seeing them playing in October.

Ranking the All Star Games [J. Mark English]

Nothing like getting ready for big time action at an All Star game.

Okay, I admit that that statement reeks of sarcasm. Not many people schedule time into their busy weekends (with the exception of a lazy blogger or two) to watch an all star game, no matter what the sport.

Tonight, I will be watching the NBA's All Star game , because its February, and there really isn't anything else worth watching...at least nothing is sports related.

Just for fun though, I thought I'd rank the all star games of all four major sports.

1. MLB All Star Game - Ahh, the mid season classic. Its lost its luster over the past 20 years because of lack of league pride. There was a time when this game had the intensity of a playoff game. Rarely did a reserve player get a chance to play. Managers took the game very seriously and would let their starting pitchers pitch as long as they could. There have been pitchers who have struck out some of the most awe inspiring line ups of all time. There have been heroic plays, and a chance to see your bitter rivals play as teammates, like the Red Sox and the Yankees. This game offered a chance for a National League fan to see the American League players, and vice versa. Over the years though, more and more players were put in, and the game lost its intensity. It reached a low point a few years ago when an extra inning game had to be stopped because of lack of available players. The game ended in a tie. But since the new rule which guarantees home field advantage in the World Series to the winning league, the game has started to get its bite back. Last year, the NL had a chance to win for the first time in many years. Carlos Beltran could have tied the game in the bottom of the ninth. He played the whole game, and though he grounded out, he ran out the play at full speed, making NL fans hope that their teams would have a chance for homefield. It was truly exciting.
2. NBA All Star game - Theres no defense, but who could defend the teams that are on the court at this game. Tonight the East features Dwyane Wade and LeBron James in the same backcourt. Is that not worth the price of admission? Remember the 1992 All Star game where Magic Johnson returned to play his final All Star game? You had 10 Hall of Famers on the court. They included Michael Jordan, Patrick Ewing, Scottie Pippen, Charles Barkley, Karl Malone, Isiah Thomas, and many more. Does it get any better then that bunch? Tonight's game represents the new golden age of players as David has referred too. This game may lack the intensity of a playoff game, but the fun of enjoying such talent on display is worth watching.
3. NHL All Star game - For a sport that prides itself on physical play, their all star game bares no physicality at all. There might as well be no goaltenders since the final score is usually 15-11. Its great to see the whole talent of the NHL on the ice all at once, but the sport they are playing on the ice is far different from the one I watch during the regular season. The NHL All Star game is to hockey, what the Arena Football League is to football. Its not the same game...
4. NFL Pro Bowl - This is the most pathetic of the four major all star games. Might as well call it a glorified vacation. They are limited in the plays they can run, you can barely sack the quarterback, and everyone is playing at half speed so as not to get injured. Its probably the most worthless game in existence, but it offers a fun way to wrap up the season for the NFL's best.