MILWAUKEE -- Josh Bell seems more excited about being asked to participate in the Home Run Derby than being selected to the National League squad for the All-Star Game.
Part of that is a function of the times the 26-year-old grew up in. The derby has long surpassed the game in popularity with younger fans. There is more action, drama and excitement.
With each passing year, baseball is looked at as boring and stodgy by school-aged kids. I have four great nephews who range in ages from 7-19. Only the 7-year-old still plays baseball. The others lost interest long ago, concentrating on soccer.
Sunday’s game at Miller Park was a perfect example of why baseball is considered uncool. the Brewers beat the Pirates 2-1 and the game lasted three hours and 40 minutes.
That’s right. A nine-inning game in which just three runs were scored took more than 3 ½ hours to complete.
When teams started adding playgrounds and other child friendly activities at ballparks about 20 years ago, I couldn’t understand why the game itself wasn’t enough to keep kids interested. My childhood is in the distant past, so maybe that’s why it took me awhile to understand but I think I finally grasped it Sunday.
Heck, I was bored, too, and I love baseball with all my heart and soul. I hate to be the old guy yelling to get off my lawn, but three runs in 3:40 is enough to make anybody fall out of love with the game.
• One thing Bell will have going in his favor in the derby is that he won’t have any lofty Pirates’ history to uphold.
Just three Pirates’ players have participated in the event since its inception in 1985. Nobody from that trio even came close to winning.
Barry Bonds was in the 1990 derby at Wrigley Field and then again in 1992 at old Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego. Bonds didn’t clear the wall at Wrigley even once then hit just two homers two years later.
Jason Bay took part in the 2005 derby at Comerica Park in Detroit and was embarrassingly shut out. Andrew McCutchen didn’t fare much better in 2012 at Kansas City, hitting just four homers.
It will be a low bar for Bell to step over on the lakefront.
• The Pirates were disappointed that Felipe Vazquez was not named to the All-Star team as he has 19 save in 20 opportunities along with 55 strikeouts and just nine walks in 35 innings.
However, it’s hard to really fault Major League Baseball for leaving him off the NL squad. The Senior Circuit has just three relievers on the roster in the Brewers’ Josh Hader, the Giants’ Will Smith and the Padres’ Kirby Yates.
Hader and Yates are having great seasons. Because every team must have at least one representative on the squad, even one as awful as the Giants, Will Smith was the logical choice from San Francisco.
Vazquez is certainly deserving but just didn’t fit on the roster. To use one of Dave Littlefield’s favorite phrases, that’s the reality of the situation.
• Kevin Newman’s 19-game hitting streak came to an end as he went 0 for 4.
That is the longest streak by a Pirates’ rookie in modern-day history (since 1900). It is also the longest streak in the major leagues this season.
Yet Newman barely got a third of the way to the big-league record of 56 by Joe DiMaggio in 1941.
“It was hard to get a hit in 19 straight games,” Newman told me. “I can’t even imagine having a 56-game streak. That seems impossible.”
Which is why DiMaggio’s streak will always be considered one of the greatest feats in sports history.
• If the Pirates go into sell mode when the July 31 trade deadline looms, one under-the-radar player who could generate interest is Francisco Liriano. The veteran left-hander has made a relatively smooth transition from starter to reliever this season.
Liriano showed his value Sunday when he came into the game in the sixth inning with the bases loaded, two outs, the Pirates trailing 2-1, and reigning NL Most Valuable Player Christian Yelich at the plate. Liriano struck out Yelich to end the threat then pitched a 1-2-3 seventh.
The outing showcased Liriano’s versatility. He can be a left-on-left guy or he also can be a multiple-inning guy. Relievers like that are valuable for teams with championship aspirations.
That’s not to say the Pirates would get a bundle for Liriano in a trade. They might get something, though, and that would be pretty good considering they signed him to a minor-league contract late in the offseason.
