Before you watch the MLB All-Star Game, watch our favorite wholesome baseball moments
The MLB All-Star Game and Home Run Derby will have lots of hits & homers, but this compilation of the best baseball moments knocks it out of the park!
Sportskind, USA TODAY
The most talented prospects in the minor leagues were on display Saturday night at Dodger Stadium in the SiriusXM All-Star Futures Game.
It’s a great opportunity every year to highlight young players whose names may not be familiar to the average fan right now, but will be fairly soon. Some of them could possibly make their major league debuts later this season.
Catcher Shea Langeliers of the Oakland A’s took home MVP honors after cutting down a speedy runner (Arizona’s Corbin Carroll) trying to steal third base in the opening inning and then homering in the fourth to lead the American League team to a 6-4 victory.
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Langeliers’ performance wasn’t the only notable one.
— Perhaps the best pitching prospect in the minors right now, 19-year-old Miami Marlins right-hander Eury Perez – all 6-foot-8 of him – tossed a dominant 1-2-3 inning, averaging 98 mph on his fastball.
— Speaking of bringing the heat … St. Louis Cardinals prospect Masyn Wynn fielded a fairly routine ground ball at shortstop and unleashed a throw that registered 100.5 mph, faster than anything ever recorded by a major leaguer in the Statcast era.
— Righty Emerson Hancock of the Seattle Mariners struck out all three batters he faced.
— New York Yankees outfielder Jasson Dominguez, making his second Futures Game appearance at age 19, hit a two-run homer that traveled 415 feet.
— Minnesota Twins outfielder Matt Wallner crushed a third-inning home run with an exit velocity of 115.8 mph.
— Outfielder Zac Veen, 20, of the Colorado Rockies had two hits and stole two bases, showing off the blazing speed that’s resulted in 41 steals in 43 attempts this season at High-A Spokane.
The Futures Game is a celebration of unlimited potential and an early glimpse of many rising stars we’ll see in actual All-Star Game a few years down the road.
Except for one huge problem. Only the most diehard baseball fans even had the slightest idea the game was taking place. And even then, they needed a premium streaming service to watch it live on television.
If MLB is looking to expand its fanbase and appeal to a younger audience, why would it take this showcase, put it on Peacock and move it to the Saturday night before the All-Star Game – at the same time the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox were playing a nationally televised game on Fox?
In addition, the Futures Game was shortened three years ago from nine innings to seven – giving these rising stars even less time on the field to shine.
Having covered several Futures Games in person, it’s a joy to see players’ eyes light up when they step onto a major league field, many of them for the very first time.
I remember Pete Alonso, just a polar cub in 2018, hitting a towering home run at Nationals Park onto the concourse behind the left-field seats, a spot I’ve never seen any major league hitter reach in a game there.
I remember getting my first look at an 18-year-old Vladimir Guerrero Jr. in Miami in 2017, and being astounded merely by the sound of the ball coming off his bat.
I remember young slugger Eloy Jimenez in 2016 hitting a monster home run in San Diego and also making a fantastic leaping catch in foul territory, nearly tumbling over the wall in the process.
But with the game pushed to a fledgling streaming service and banished to a horrible time slot, prospective baseball fans had almost no chance to watch this year’s heroics live.
Which leads to a question: If MLB had an all-star game and (almost) no one was able to see it … did it really happen?
