Tag: 2025 All Star Game

Atlanta Welcomes This Year’s All-Star Game; National League Wins In First Ever Home-Run Swing-Off 4-3

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The National League’s Kyle Schwarber of the Philadelphia Phillies admires his tiebreaking home run for the game winner in the Swing Off to defeat the American League at the 2025 All Star Game at Truist Field in Cobb County GA (AP News photo)

By Barbara Mason

After nine innings, the All-Star Game was tied at 6-6. For the first time ever the winner was decided by a Home-Run Swing-Off. The hero of this game’s finish was Kyle Schwarber who hit three home runs to win the game for the National League.

All Star recap: Tuesday night the All-Star Game got underway, the 95th annual event being held at Truist Park home stadium of the Atlanta Braves in Cobb County. Starting the game for the National League for the second year in a row will be Pittsburgh Pirate Paul Skenes.

Taking the mound for the American League Cy Young winner Detroit Tiger Tarik Skubal got the honors. The two clubs will be managed by the Los Angeles Dodgers Dave Roberts (National League ) and the New York Yankees Aaron Boone (American League), the two skippers for the teams that reached the 2024 World Series. So the best of the best in the world of baseball took the field and this game got underway.

Second baseman from Detroit Gleyber Torres took the plate getting this game underway. Skenes breezed through the inning three up and three down. Torres and Riley Greener both struck out and Yankee great Aaron Judge grounded out.

The National League took the early lead in the bottom of the inning 2-0. Arizona’s Ketel Marte doubled the Braves Ronald Acuna Jr. and Dodgers Shohei Ohtani home. It was a great start for the National League with three hits to open this game.

Although all of these guys by nature are highly competitive, smiles abounded on both sides These guys were having the time of their lives as were the fans lucky enough to be able to attend the game. The Dodgers Freddie Freeman hit fourth in the inning drawing cheers from the fans after having played his first 12 seasons in Atlanta. He still remains a fan favorite here at Truist Park.

The Dodgers Clayton Kershaw took the mound to start the second inning all mic’d up which was a real treat for viewers. ( a bevy of players were mic’d in the game) the Seattle Mariners Cal Raleigh lined out and Kershaw struck out Toronto Blue Jays Vladimir Guerrero before heading back to the dugout. The Padres Jason Adam closed out the inning with a Orioles Ryan O’Hearn strikeout.

San Francisco’s Logan Webb pitched the top of the third inning closing it out with a couple of ground outs, and a fly out giving up a single. The Mariners Bryan Woo pitched a three up, three down bottom of the third and the National League took the 2-0 lead into the fourth inning.

The National League extended their lead in the bottom of the sixth inning. Padres Fernando Tatis Jr. got the inning going with a walk, the Cardinals Brendan Donovan singled and the Mets Pete Alonso had a huge hit, a home run to right and three more runs for the National League. They would tack one more on off a the Diamondbacks Corbin Carroll shot a solo home run and going into the top of the seventh inning they had a 6-0 lead.

As the sixth inning came to an end the game was halted for a beautiful tribute to the Braves Hank Aaron and his legacy of excellence. The 25-time all-star who broke through unbelievable barriers, hatred and racism, was honored on the field in a memorable and unforgettable moment.

As the seventh inning got underway, this game would get very interesting when the American League finally got up on the board. The Athletics Brent Rooker hit a home run and base runners the Blue Jays Alejandro KIrk and the Rays Jonathan Aranda scored and the National League’s lead had been cut in half 6-3. They would score another run when the Royals Maikel Garcia scored on a Royals Bobby Witt Jr. ground out and we had a new ball game 6-4.

This game went into the top of the ninth inning with the National League hanging onto the 6-4 lead. The American League started a rally with a runner on second base with one out. The Twins Byron Buxton scored on a Witt Jr. double and the American league only trailed by a single run with only one out 6-5.

With two outs, the Guardians Steven Kwan was looking at a 1-2 count down to their last strike. He hit an infield single and this game was tied 6-6 when Witt Jr. scored. The game went into the bottom of the ninth inning and the National League was looking for the walk off. It did not happen and we all got to witness history.

History was made with the first home run swing off ever. Three players from each team would get three swings apiece. The two teams would alternate and the team with the most HR’s would win the All-Star Game.

The American League chose Rooker, the Rays Randy Arozarena and Aranda, For the National League Miami Marlins Kyle Stowers, the Phillies Kyle Schwarber , and Alonso took the plate.

After the first round, the American League led 2-1 when Rooker hit a couple out of the park. Arozarena added a third home run. for a 3-1 lead. Schwarber hit all three out of the park and the National League led 4-3.

Aranda missed all three pitches and the game was decided. It was history in the making and it was the National League who made that history with win 4-3 in a wild finish. MVP of the game was as expected Schwarber.

This game had everything that goes into an exciting All-Star Game with a little extra thrown in making it one of the most exciting and unique games ever, one to remember, one that will go down in history.

All Star notes: Monday night the All-Star Game got underway with the highly anticipated Home Run Derby. The favored Seattle Mariners Cal Raleigh came within an inch of not moving on from the first round to win the whole shebang.

After the first round Raleigh was tied with the Sacramento Athletics Brent Rooker, each of them hitting 17 homers. Raleigh moved on in thanks to his longest hit of the round which surpassed Rooker’s by roughly an inch. Raleigh’s blast traveled 470.62 feet while Rooker’s came up just short at 470.54 feet knocking Rooker out of the derby. So the Seattle Mariners Cal Raleigh took the tiebreaker and moved on to win the derby.

That’s Amaury News and Commentary: MLB Robots are here for the All-Star Game!

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A radar device is seen on the roof behind home plate at PeoplesBank Park in third inning of the Atlantic League All Star Game Wed Jul 10, 2019 as a test for robot umpires (AP News photo)

MLB Robots are here for the All-Star Game!

That’s Amaury News and Commentary

By Amaury Pi-González

This next Tuesday’s All-Star Game at Atlanta will feature, for the first time, the use of its robot technology for ball-strike challenges. This represents a significant step toward utilizing this technology for the 2026 season and will eventually replace all human umpires in the not-too-distant future.

In 2023, the overall umpire accuracy in calling balls and strikes was 92.8%, according to Statcast data. This marks a slight increase from 92.45% in 2022. In other words, Umpires on average miss a call roughly once every 3.6 plate appearances.

Robots are cheaper than humans: The average salary for a Major League Baseball (MLB) umpire today is approximately $150,000 to $450,000 per year, depending on experience and seniority. It is the most challenging job in baseball; you usually get a lot of abuse from players (but you have the power to expel a player from the field) and, of course, the public, who are usually not kind to umpires. And if a fan gets ‘real nasty in vocabulary,’ umpires have the right to ask for that fan to be removed, also when a fan interferes with the play on the field.

Although robots are knocking on the door in baseball, a famous umpiring school still operates in Florida. The Harry Wendelstedt Umpire School, located in Osmond Beach, provides training for aspiring umpires, featuring both classroom and on-field instruction.

Many of the graduates have gone on to work in Major League Baseball. They will probably go out of business when baseball implements total robotic control on the field of play. I would think humans still would be needed to supervise some of this robotic world of umpires, or perhaps not? Time will tell.

Some of us remember when each league, the American and National Leagues, had their umpires, from their founding (1901 for the AL and earlier for the NL), until 2000, when MLB merged the two leagues into a single, unified roster. During the 2024 regular season, 10.9% of called pitches in the strike zone were ruled balls, and 6.3% of called pitches outside of the strike zone were ruled strikes, according to MLB Statcast.

Major League Baseball is currently testing a challenge system with automated ball-strike calls during spring training, with the potential for regular-season implementation as early as next season (2026) if testing is successful.

This system, known as Automated Ball-Strike (ABS), enables teams to challenge balls and strikes, with the call then reviewed by the automated system. MLB has been experimenting with the automated ball-strike system in the minor leagues since 2019.

Robots are as American as Baseball: Joseph Engelberger was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1925. Joseph Engelberger is widely regarded as the “Father of Robotics.” While he didn’t invent the concept of a robot, he is credited with developing the first industrial robot in the United States, the Unimate, and co-founding Unimation, Inc., the first robotics company.

He collaborated with inventor George Devol, who held the patent for the robotic arm used in the Unimate. ‘ My Take: I am not a fan of robots in baseball, or anyplace else, for that matter, but I also do not like automobiles that drive by themselves, and all this automation we have today, were people go on vacation take two cell phones and a laptop and do not have time to smell the roses. For me, baseball was the most excellent game ever invented, but, as previously mentioned, everything changes, and time goes on. I am not against progress, but just like the famous quote, “sometimes the best trades in baseball are the ones you do not make,” I think of the past and still believe baseball was more enjoyable in the past, with less technology and more humanity. Quote; I never questioned the integrity of an umpire. Their eyesight, yes. – Leo Durocher, Manager.

Amaury Pi-Gonzalez – Cuban-born Pi-González is one of the pioneers of Spanish-language baseball play-by-play in America. Began as Oakland A’s Spanish-language voice in 1977 ending in 2024 (interrupted by stops with the Giants, Mariners and Angels). Voice of the Golden State Warriors from 1992 through 1998. 2010 inducted in the Bay Area Radio Hall of fame

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NBA All Star Game & Headline Sports podcast Charlie O: NBA All Star Game was highly protected with police presence after 49er Pearsall shooting; plus more news

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2025 NBA All Star logo (image from Wikipedia)

On Headline Sports podcast with Charlie O:

#1 Charlie one thing you can say about the City of San Francisco hosting the NBA All Star Game there was a police presence in the late night hours around downtown and nearby Union Square. This is unusual to see that much coverage but the City doesn’t want any headlines during this high profile event.

# 2 The Golden State Warriors had struggled for much of this season until they recently picked up Jimmy Butler from the Miami Heat. Since then Golden State are 2-1 with Butler and it has freed up Stephen Curry from being double or triple teamed.

#3 Charlie, longtime NBC Game of the Week Curt Gowdy had the Media Award named after him. This year the top recognized journalist is Adrian Wojnarowski a former ESPN writer. Wojnarowski worked at Yahoo! Sports in 2007 and retired last September. Gowdy worked as the play by play announcer for baseball and football on NBC.

#4 The Sacramento A’s announced they will be heard on Sacramento flagship station KSTE Talk 650 and the A’s will continue to broadcast on their former flagship station 960 KNEW Oakland with English broadcasters Ken Korach, Johnny Doskow, and Chris Caray. The pre and post game shows will be broadcasted by former A’s second baseman Shooty Babbitt and former Dodger second baseman Steve Sax.

#5 The A’s have made no decision on Spanish radio. The A’s are in negotiations with Multi Cultural Broadcasting and no word if there has been any agreement as to the amount of how much the A’s will pay for broadcasting rights or any agreement at all. The A’s who broadcast on 990 KATD Pittsburg and 1010 KIQI San Francisco during their Oakland days would be the two stations returning to Sacramento if the A’s and Multi Cultural come to some agreement.

Join Charlie O for Headline Sports each Sunday at http://www.sportsradioservice.com