[Elendil]

2010 All-Star Game

Miner All-Star Thierry Tremblay Warms Up Before 2010 ASG

July 25 - The Mat-Su Miners would host this year's All-Star Game at Hermon Brothers Field in Palmer, a nice, central location for the most of the league's clubs.

This year the All-Star Game took place about two-thirds of the way through the season, so that those chosen would be more likely to reflect the true stars of the year. The Seward Division would be trying to extend its all-time record against the Denali Division to 3-1.

The game would feature some long-time fan favorites, such as Bucs Tom Robbins, whose OBP was flirting with .500, 3B Nick Bedford, and SS Jonathan Bertrand, whose batting average had taken a dive into the .230s but was still a home run leader, and Nick sluggers Sloan Starr, Vince Leroux, Dominique Gaudet, John Abston, and Bob Horton. The first-place Nicks dominated the Denalis' starting pitching selections, with Chance Major, George Mullins, Chip Becker, Tom Pick, and Mike Rancourt all getting the nod. The hometown Miners would be well represented with SP Thierry Tremblay, CL Bryant Brenton, MR Waylon Ellsworth, C Pierre-Alexandre Langlois, 2B Rene Fortier, CF Greg Trudel, and RF Dave Langille. On the other side of the coin, Ketchikan had only one representative (closer Ed Staitie) and Juneau had only two (Dunsmore and Russo). There were some controversial non-selections, such as Jets' starter Eugene Pond, a youngster leading his division in ERA, and Louis Mays of Juneau, who was leading the whole league in ERA but had gotten a late start to the season.

The game itself was a doozy. Rancourt started for the Denalis against Pilot hurler Mike McCutcheon. Both teams traded scores in the early innings, ultimately making it 4-2 Denali Division after three. The Denalis made it 6-2 after five, but a Robbins homer in the 6th brought the Sewards one closer.

In the bottom of the 6th, Glacier Pilot reliever Alex Stevenson came into the game. The Denalis touched him up big-time with a couple of walks and four consecutive singles. He was relieved by Oiler starter Melvin Phillips, who got the final two outs, but by the time it was all done the Denali Division had an 11-3 lead, and there was a bit of a carnival atmosphere in the stadium.

Sentinel Ray Rayner came in to pitch to the Sewards in the top of the 7th. He promptly gave up a walk, two singles, a sac fly, another single, another walk, and finally a double to Grizzly first baseman Don Goodyear. Suddenly it was 11-8, and in came a new pitcher. He didn't do much better, yielding three consecutive singles as the Seward Division tacked on four more. They had scored nine in the inning before it was all over, and taken a 12-11 lead.

It would stay that way, and Grizzly Ron Yuke made the Denali hitters look foolish in the bottom of the ninth with his tricky slider, getting a groundout and two K's to finish the game.

The Seward Division had now won three of four All-Star Games. Every position player on each team had batted in this game, and only four pitchers had been unused. The surprise All-Star MVP was catcher Tim Rowsell of Kodiak, who was having a good year at the plate to go with his stellar defense. He went 3-for-4 in this game (all singles).

Entering the stretch run...

By now, it was clearly a two-team race in the Denali Division, with Mat-Su and North Pole going at it hammer and tongs all year. Whichever team won the division this year would likely be the winningest team of all time.

In the Seward Division, the Bucs were disappointing, while the Oilers had a fairly comfortable lead over the Grizzlies, the Jets a surprise third.