The American League Wins The Major League Baseball All-Star Game

It was a hard fought game for both sides, but in extra innings early Wednesday morning, the American league won the all-star game with a final score of 4-3. The game was filled with ups and downs but was easily one of the most exciting all-star games to be played in a long time.

Both starting pitchers, Cliff Lee for the AL, and Ben Sheets for the NL, pitched 2 innings of scoreless baseball to start the game off. Then, in relief for Cliff Lee, Joe Saunders and Roy Halladay combined to pitch another 2 innings of scoreless baseball. Ervin Santana then came on in relief in the 5th inning, and despite striking out 2 players, he allowed one home run to Matt Holliday for the NL to take a 1-0 lead.

As for the NL, Zambrano and Haren combined to pitch 4 innings of scoreless baseball.

In the top of the 6th, Duchscherer relieved for Santana, and pitched 1 inning, but allowed one run to Berkman off of 3 hits, making the NL lead extend to 2-0.

In the top of the 7th for the AL, Joe Nathan came in and pitched a scoreless inning for the AL.

Then, in the bottom of the 7th, the AL finally scored some runs. With Volquez pitching, Morneau doubled to left field and then advanced to third on a grounder by Ian Kinsler. then, after Navarro struck out looking, J.D. Drew came up to the mound and hit a two run home run to tie the game at 2.

Top of the 8th came with more action. Papelbon came onto the mound and had to endure the "wonderful" chants from the Bleach creatures in Yankee stadium. Tejada got a lead off single and was able to steal second and advance to third on a throwing error by the catcher. Then Gonzalez was able to hit a sac fly to score Tejada and allow the NL to take a 3-2 lead.

In the bottom of the 8th, Wilson came onto the mound and was able to strike out 2 people in the 8th before being replaced by Billy Wagner. Grady Sizemore was able to get a hit off of Wagner and then steal second. The rookie Evan Longoria was then able to a double to score Sizemore and tie the game at 3.

Then, after the 8th inning, Dempster came in and pitched the 9th for the NL while K-rod pitched .1 innings and Mariano Rivera pitched .2 innings of the 9th.

The game went into extra innings still tied at 3. For the AL, Mariano Rivera continued to pitch in the 10th inning, while Arron Cook pitched the 10th for the National League and was able to pitch his way out of a bases loaded no outs situation (thanks to back to backs errors to Dan Uggla), by getting 2 force outs at home and then an out at first base.

The top of the 11th was uneventful as Soria allowed a lead off hit, but then got 3 quick outs to end the inning. with Arron Cook pitching, the bottom of the 11th was anything but uneventful though. Ian Kinsler was quickly able to get a lead off hit, but was then caught stealing on a questionable decision. Navarro then got on base by a walk and then drew singled to put runners on first and second with only one out. Young was then able to single right up the center, but, due to Navarro's poor running skills, he was just tagged out at home plate. Quentin then hit the ball towards Tejada who charged the ball and quickly threw the ball to first to get the out, falling to the ground in the process.

Soria then pitched .2 innings of the top of the 12th, and Sherrill came in and threw 3 straight strikes to end the top of the 12th game still tied 3-3.

In the bottom of the 12th, with Arron Cook still pitching for the Nation League, Carlos Guillen doubled deep to left field to start the inning. Then Sizemore grounded out to second, but allowed Guillen to get to third, Cook then struck out Longoria to get the 2nd out. Morneau was intentionally walked, and then stole second to put runners on second and third, but Kinsler was able to ground out to get the third out.

In the top of the 13th, after allowing a lead off single to Wright, Sherrill was able to get out of the inning. In the bottom of the 13th, Marmol relieved Cook, and after getting Navarro to ground out, J.D Drew was able to get on first thanks to Uggla committing his 3rd error of the game. Drew was then able to steal second base, but Quentin struck out looking.

In the top of the 14th, with Sherrill still pitching for the AL, he was able to get a 1-2-3 inning. This was his second inning pitched which was the most innings in a game he has pitched all season. In the bottom of the 14th, Marmol was relieved by Brandon Webb who also had a 1-2-3 inning, striking out 2 batters in the process.

To start of the top of the 15th, the American league had to do something they didn't want to do, but had to, and that was to bring in Kazmir to pitch (Kazmir had just thrown over 100 pitches on Sunday but was the last pitcher in the American League bullpen). He struck out the first person he faced, and got the second person to fly out, but then he walked someone. Fortunately, he was then able to rebound and get the 4th batter he faced to ground out to first.

The Bottom of the 15th was very eventful. Lidge relieved Brandon Webb to start the bottom of the inning of. Lidge allowed a lead off hit to Morneau, but then got Kinsler to line out. Navarro then came up to bat, who didn't have a hit all night, but was able to single to center, moving Morneau. the winning run. to second base. Lidge then walked J.D Drew to load the bases with only one out. Young then came up to bat and hit the ball to right field, fortunately, although it was an easy catch for the National League right fielder, he had hit it deep enough to all Morneau, who was the winning run at third base, to tag up and try to run home, The NL right fielder threw the ball to home plate, who then quickly tried applying the tag onto Morneau, but it was to late, he was already sliding across home plate. The final score of the game was 4-3, and J.D Drew won the All-Star game's MVP (the remaining fans didn't like this too much and booed him for it.)

Additional Notes From the Game

-Dan Uggla had the worst game in All-star history, committing 3 errors, 3 strike outs, and hit into a double play.

-The All-star game took 4 hours and 50 minutes to play, making it the longest All-Star game to be played.

-If Lidge ran out of gas pitching, the NL was set to have David Wright pitch an inning.

-Nate McLouth was the first fielder in an all-star game to throw out a winning run at home plate.

Breaking News: American League Wins All-Star Game

The American League has defeated the National League 4-3 in the 2008 MLB All-Star Game. More to come later.

Marcus Camby Traded to Clippers

Well, it appears the Clippers will attempt to help out Baron Davis. They will acquire C Marcus Camby from the Nuggets for a second-round pick. Camby averaged 13.1 rebounds per game last season, and should provide Davis with a low post prescence of some sort.

Breaking News: Yankees May Pursue Barry Bonds

What I am about to tell you sickens me. The Yankees have reportedly (Yahoo Sports) expressed interest in Barry Bonds. Bonds says he will play for minimum salary, which intrigues the Yankees very much.

Everyday DH/OF Hideki Matsui is likely headed for season-ending surgery, and Johnny Damon's rehab is taking longer than expected.

If the Yankees sign Bonds, he will be playing in the AL for the first time. He has 762 career homers, and would bring upon an interesting situation in NY.

Dallas Drake Retires

Red Wings RW/LW Dallas Drake has retired after 18 NHL Seasons. The Canadian played for the Wings, Coyotes, Blues, and Jets in his career.

Selig Says More Instant Replay Is Coming

With the impending inception of Instant Replay on Home Run calls coming within the next month, it appears MLB Commissioner Bud Selig is taking a bigger stance with the product. He claims that by October, it is very possible that Boundary Instant Replay will be instituted, meaning on any play that is questioned as fair or foul.

Baseball will join almost every other Major Leage sport with Instant Replay, and it has brought among much controversy alongside it. Time will tell with the experiment.

No More Final Fours for Billy Packer

He's been announcing Final Four games every year for the past 34 years, but Billy Packer will not extend his streak to 35. On Monday, CBS reported that Billy Packer will no longer be CBS' lead college basketball analyst, which he had been for the past 27 years. The new analyst that will take Packer's position will be Clark Kellogg.

Kellogg, CBS analyst for 16 years, will be announcing alongside Jim Nantz on the 2009 Final Four broadcasts. Kellogg said he was "excited, humbled and quite pleased" at the opportunity.

Packer told the Associated Press by phone: "These are really good circumstances. This decision was made with myself and CBS over a year ago. Their timing to announce it is their business. I have nothing to do with that. I was working on a series of one-year contracts for several years. I did say there would be no mention during the season so as not to detract from the games and the guys involved."

Albert Pujols: the best baseball player

When I was voting for the Espys two weeks ago I was surprised to see the nominations for best baseball player. The nominees were Alex Rodriguez, Jake Peavy, Josh Beckett, C.C. Sabathia, Jimmy Rollins, and where's Albert Pujols? Nowhere on that list, a guy who is one of the most feared sluggers in the game isn't even nominated for best baseball player. I always thought he's the best player mainly because of his performance ever since he stepped into the big leagues: 2001 Rookie of the Year, 2005 NL MVP, and a world series ring in 2006 to top it all.

We not only have seen the terror that his bat causes pitchers in the regular season, but in the postseason. In 2004, he won the NLCS MVP. When the Astros were 3 outs away from going to the world series in game 5 of the 2005 NLCS, he homered off Houston closer Brad Lidge to send the series back to St. Louis. This is just a taste of Pujol's clutch hitting from April to October and we saw it again in game 1 of the 2006 World series, when his homer led the Cardinals to a game 1 victory. Not to sound negative and mention names but you can't consider guys like A-rod and Sabathia because they have not yet proven to respond to pressure.

This guy is not only clutch but he impacts his team. In 2008, the Cards have been overachieving with names you have not heard of primarily because of Pujols. When he went on the DL, the team's offense began to struggle. It seems like every year Pujols can win the MVP, he came 2nd in the 2006 voting. And don't get me started on his stats, they are sickening. He is only 28 years old and already in his 8 years in the big leagues he has hit 30 or more homers, and batting averages higher than .310 in each of those seasons. Also from 2001-2007 has driven in more than 100 runs per season. In his young career he already has 300 homers and a career batting average of .333, which is 1st on the active list.

So how can this guy not be the best baseball player? At every month of the baseball calender he's a threat to drive in runs, he makes his team better, he's a gold glover at first (2006), and he's a great competitor. Maybe its because he's in a small market St. Louis that doesn't get him the fame he deserves. Let me tell you, he's the LeBron James of baseball, no wait he's better than James at his sport. I know A-rod has been around for a while and his 500 homers and 3 MVPs are nice but in this decade if you look at the numbers and who has exceeded in baseball's main stage, the postseason, its gotta be Pujols and he's at the half point of his career, Pujols is on pace to hit 600-700 homers with a .330 BA, and one of the greatest right handed hitters of all-time.