Ludacris performs 'Welcome to Atlanta' at MLB All-Star Game
After the game's reserves and pitchers were introduced and ushered onto a stage behind second base, Dupri — who was the master of ceremonies — brought Ludacris out to join him for their seminal 2001 banger.
The duo continued to perform as the All-Star Game starters were announced and the Clark Atlanta Mighty Marching Panthers and Essence Dance Line eventually joined the performers and players around the stage.
Kane Brown performs 'Georgia On My Mind' pregame
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Yahoo
a few seconds ago
- Yahoo
MLB storylines at the All-Star break: bullpen woes, dazzling Detroit and torpedo bats reconsidered
The Major League Baseball season has reached its halfway point, or, more accurately, we've landed at the All-Star break, with 60% of the schedule already in the books. So, how did it go? Here's a handful of storylines to chew on as we prepare for the second-half stretch run. What hasn't happened Remember the torpedo bats that were a destroyer of worlds in the season's opening days? Some geniuses even said they were the latest example of how 'over-innovation can ruin baseball' (no idea who wrote that zinger). Well, so far that's looking like the kneejerk reaction of the season, or maybe several seasons. The Yankees, who are the chief adapters of the redesigned bats that boast customized sweet spots, hit 15 home runs in three games against Milwaukee at the start of the season. Then they calmed down and struck 1.46 home runs per game from then on. Yes, they still lead the league in homers, and yes, they're averaging more dingers per game than they did last year when Juan Soto was in their lineup. But the tech has not in fact made a complete farce of the game. Has Cal Raleigh, the Mariners' torpedo bat swinging MVP candidate, been aided by the innovation? Well, he has 38 homers this season, four more than his career-high already, while Triple Crown candidate Aaron Judge, who doesn't use a torpedo bat, has 35. This time, let's go with a more conservative take on the bats: the jury's still out. Advertisement Oh, the bullpens … What drives fans the most crazy? The way their manager handles his bullpen. Don't believe me? Try searching 'bullpen management' on X and see what comes up; it's not pretty. But here's the thing: when your starting pitchers average well under six innings a game, and you have to figure out how to get an additional nine, 12, 15 outs or more, where's the roadmap for that? There isn't one – managers make it up on the fly most nights. With a bevy of starters recovering from elbow injuries, while upper management continues to nurse the long men, desperate brass are forced to shuttle relievers between the minors and the majors looking for fresh arms. It's pretty ugly. Is anyone getting it 'right?' Well, few outside LA are going to sympathize with the super-rich Dodgers, but their skipper Dave Roberts is getting just 4.5 innings a game from his beleaguered, injury riddled starters, the worst number in all of baseball (the MLB average is 5.2). Apparently there's more than a few teams that'll be looking for bullpen help at the 31 July trade deadline. Yeah, you think? Stand up for Detroit Remember last July when the Tigers were dealing away players, and then somehow made the playoffs and came within a single victory of the American League Championship Series? Well, as it turns out, that run was no fluke. The Tigers have an 11.5 game lead in the AL Central at the break, the largest such lead they've had since the All-Star Game began in 1933. For context, the historic 1984 Tigers that began 35-5 had an eight-game lead at the break. Detroit own the best record in all of baseball, even after losing their last four games. Advertisement So what's gone right? Tarik Skubal has stiff competition from Boston's Garrett Crochet in his bid to win a second successive Cy Young, but the Tigers hurler has walked just 16 batters in 121 innings – an astonishingly low number. Meanwhile, Detroit's lineup is full of redemption songs, with three players in the top five favored for the AL Comeback Player of the Year award (Rangers ace Jacob deGrom leads that group). Former No 1 overall pick Spencer Torkelson has recovered from an abysmal 2024 to power up a Tigers offense driven by Gleyber Torres, Riley Greene and Zach McKinstry, allowing the bats to overshadow a middle-of-the road pitching staff, Skubal aside. But perhaps the story of the season is Javier Baez. The once big-dollar-bust is an All-Star this season, and has upped his OPS by more than 230 points from last season and is Detroit's face of mojo as they head to the second half of the season. The Lost Boys The Colorado Rockies weren't daunted by the 2024 White Sox' modern MLB record for losses in a season. With a team of misfits, horrific ownership and tough NL West neighbors, the Rockies went to work on besting (or worsting) the ChiSox right out of the gate. And away they went, losing 36 of 46 games at Coors Field, a modern home record. Elsewhere, pitching phenom Paul Skenes is one of the only bright lights at the Pirates, who continue to sag, having failed to finish higher than fourth in the NL Central since 2017. Their lack of competitive play is even enough to get Commissioner Rob Manfred somewhat 'concerned' about the Buccos, not to mention teams such as the Marlins, who lead a system of meandering franchises whose ownership appear uninterested in winning. Clearly a salary cap, which every other major North American sports league has in some form or other, could help with such imbalance. But with a divide between rich and richer owners and a players' union that's fought against a cap for its entire existence, that will always be a tough sell, and so the issue will be a source of labor strife after the 2026 season. Advertisement And speaking of a tough sell, MLB has been trying to unload a short-term package of games since ESPN opted out of the final three years of their rights deal worth roughly $1.5bn. Manfred, who admitted that having to find another suitor to replace those lost dollars is not all that fun, says there's been 'progress' in that search and says he should have some news in the coming weeks. Odds and ends Thanks to breakout star Pete-Crowe Armstrong, Kyle Tucker, Nico Hoerner and virtually everyone else in the Cubbies lineup, Chicago are having their biggest OPS+year since, well, 1884. They lead the Brewers in the NL Central by a single game. In the NL East, the Phillies have power issues, but it's Zach Wheeler and their starting pitching that's given them a short lead over the Mets, who started fast and fell faster, losing 17 of 27 games heading into the break. In the AL East, the Yankees slumped themselves out of first place, while the surprising Blue Jays overtook the Bombers despite an inferior run difference. The once hotter than hot Rays traded places with the Red Sox who rode a 10-game winning streak into third place at the break, all after controversially trading away Rafael Devers and losing Alex Bregman to injury. The Houston Astros of the AL West dealt away their best player, Tucker, in the offseason, but look better without him: hurlers Framber Valdez, Hunter Brown and a white hot pen have the 'Stros in a commanding first place position after an un-Astro-like 2024. In the NL West, the 'Best Team Ever' are yet to play like it, but then again, LA have been missing most of their rotation for most of the season. The Dodgers are likely to get stronger when it matters though. Shohei Ohtani is pitching again and has an ERA just over one as he stretches out for the postseason, Tyler Glasnow just returned, with Blake Snell and Roki Sasaki to follow. Add that to All-Star Yoshinobu Yamamoto and it's clear that we ain't seen nothing yet. Whether or not heavily favored LA can become the first repeat World Series winners since the 2000 Yankees is the question heading into the second half.
New York Times
4 minutes ago
- New York Times
Your views on the swing off
An All-Star Game that was once comfortably in the hands of the National League ended Tuesday night when the NL won, four homers to three, in the first tiebreaking home run swingoff in the history of the Midsummer Classic. The Phillies' Kyle Schwarber, a three-time All-Star, hit home runs on all three of his swings to help clinch the NL victory and secure an All-Star Game MVP for himself. The game was tied 6-6 before Schwarber, Pete Alonso of the Mets and Kyle Stowers of the Marlins combined to redeem the NL, defeating an American League group made up of the Athletics' Brent Rooker, Mariners' Randy Arozarena and the Rays' Jonathan Aranda. The derby tiebreaker was implemented as part of the 2022 collective bargaining agreement. Previous All-Star Games that were tied after nine went extra innings, most recently at Nationals Park in 2018, when the AL won in 10.
Fox Sports
2 hours ago
- Fox Sports
'I Thought They Were Kidding': The Thrill and Confusion of MLB's First All-Star Swing-Off
ATLANTA — Late in the ninth inning of a 6-6 game Tuesday night, Robbie Ray noticed National League All-Star manager Dave Roberts coming down the dugout steps. "You won't believe this," Ray recalled Roberts telling the group. Moments later, Ray noticed someone running out from center field at Truist Park with an L-screen. Meanwhile, fellow Giants starter Logan Webb looked out to the NL bullpen and noticed there were no pitchers left. Ray, Webb and many players on both teams were about to learn that the first ever All-Star Game swing-off would determine the result of the 95th Midsummer Classic. "We were like, 'What is going on right now?'" Ray recalled. "I honestly had no clue that this was a thing," Webb added. The last time an All-Star Game was tied after nine innings in 2018, it went into extra innings. As of the 2022 collective bargaining agreement, that's no longer how it works. Before Tuesday's All-Star Game, Roberts and American League manager Aaron Boone had to declare three players who would take part in a swing-off should the game be tied after nine. Both skippers decided on hitters who would be playing toward the back end of the contest, which meant selecting reserves. Most of the starters, after all, only play a few innings. Many of them leave once they get pulled. That meant no Cal Raleigh, who won the Home Run Derby the night prior. No Shohei Ohtani or Aaron Judge for the swing-off, either. Roberts had asked Phillies slugger Kyle Schwarber on Monday if he would be up to it. "I said, 'Absolutely,' not thinking we were going to end up in a tie when you say yes," Schwarber recalled. Schwarber had done the Home Run Derby twice before, but this format was something entirely different. The three players selected from each team would get three swings to decide the outcome. The team with the most total home runs would be crowned the victors. "It was kind of like the baseball version of a shootout," Schwarber explained. Initially, it was going to be Eugenio Suárez, Schwarber and Pete Alonso for the NL squad against Brent Rooker, Randy Arozarena and Jonathan Aranda on the AL side. But Suárez had gotten plunked by a 96 mph fastball from Shane Smith earlier in the night. X-rays were negative on Suárez's pinky, but he would need to be replaced in the swing-off. In the bottom of the ninth, one of the NL coaches approached first-time All-Star and lone Marlins representative Kyle Stowers to tell him he would be filling in. Stowers, like the Giants pitchers, had no idea what was happening. "I thought they were kidding," Stowers said. "I literally thought they were messing with me." Once Roberts came and delivered the news, he knew it wasn't a joke. At first, he was hesitant to participate. If he was asked instead of told, he probably would have declined. Ultimately, though, he was grateful that they nudged him to compete. "When I really step back and think about it, I don't know why I was telling them I didn't want to do it or wouldn't have done it," Stowers said. "Those are the moments we all kind of live for as players, to care at that level of intensity in that type of moment." The NL trailed 2-0 in the swing-off after Brent Rooker, who participated in the actual Home Run Derby the night before, homered on two of his three swings. Stowers then cut the deficit to one with a home run on one of his three swings. "I can't stress this enough, as athletes sometimes you get so caught up in the threat of something," Stowers said. "We're human, we have fear of failure — at least for myself, I'll speak for myself — sometimes I can let fear of failure get in the way of opportunity. For me, that was something in that moment I was reminding myself, 'Hey, this is an opportunity to do something cool, something fun.' Those truly are moments I want to be a part of." Randy Arozarena added one home run to the AL's tally, bringing Schwarber to the plate trailing by two homers. "He said he was nervous, but I don't believe him at all," Webb said. "That's the guy you want in that situation." Pitching to Schwarber was Dodgers third-base coach Dino Ebel. On Friday, Ebel's son, Brady, was selected by the Brewers with the 32nd overall pick in the MLB Draft. Two days later, Ebel was helping pitch the National League to an All-Star victory. Schwarber had taken batting practice from Ebel before, back when they were both part of Team USA at the World Baseball Classic. On Tuesday, Ebel asked Schwarber where he wanted the pitch. "Just middle," Schwarber responded. "He's like, 'I got you.' The All-Stars who had stuck around hovered on the dirt outside their respective dugouts, hanging on every pitch. All except for Alonso, who was in the cage getting ready, in case he had the opportunity to finish the task. "I'm watching in the cage as I'm taking my swings, and everyone, you see them going, 'Hell, yeah, Schwarbs!'" Alonso recalled. Ultimately, the NL wouldn't need a third hitter. Schwarber went a perfect 3-for-3, launching home runs 428, 461 and 382 feet to put the NL ahead. Aranda needed one home run to keep the competition going but was unable to sneak a baseball over the fence. Pandemonium ensued in front of the NL dugout as the All-Stars mobbed Schwarber, who earned MVP honors in an All-Star contest unlike any other. "We had a blast watching it, all the guys that were still here," Webb said. "I got a group text of a bunch of other baseball players around the league, and they seemed to really like it, too. I think it was an awesome way to end it." Rowan Kavner is an MLB writer for FOX Sports. He previously covered the L.A. Dodgers, LA Clippers and Dallas Cowboys. An LSU grad, Rowan was born in California, grew up in Texas, then moved back to the West Coast in 2014. Follow him on X at @RowanKavner . recommended Item 1 of 3 Get more from the Major League Baseball Follow your favorites to get information about games, news and more
