MLB Allstar Game: Now I know why it's called the "Midsummer Classic"

Well, you have to give credit to the Americans for at least one thing: they know how to put up a great show and celebrate things. Although for European ears the ever present glorification of their home country might sound a little odd, but nonetheless they know how to great an atmosphere where everybody who is watching the event feels at least a little touched.
So I tuned in for the annual MLB Allstar Game last night which was scheduled to start at 2 am MET in the morning. Little did I know they were honouring quite a few people before the first pitch. There is no equivalent in football/soccer to the Hall Of Fame system they have in professional sports over there, so it's hard to describe it to people not familiar with the matter and it's even hard to understand for me who is just learning about baseball and its history. Anyway, there were a lot of people on the field, they were annoucing each starting position seperately and at the position's place on the field quite a few Hall of Famers were greeting the Allstar players.
The biggest fuzz though wasn't about the players, it was about the stadium. Yankee stadium is in its final year and will be torn down after the season. So some of the Yankee greats of former times like Yogi Berra threw out the ceremonial first pitch to Yankee players and managers involved in the Allstar game. Everything accompanied by very dramatic music and a commentary sounding like the spectators were witnessing the coronation of a king or some other event of global importance. That's what I meant with creating atmosphere. Baseball is a sport which might be starting to spread around the world but in the end it's an American thing. Sure, they play ball in other countries as well and it might be big in Asia and the Caribbean, but for the rest of the world it's this strange sport from the States. But when you watched the broadcast it felt like the whole world was watching.
The game itself was very interesting. Scoreless through four the National League struck first with a solo homerun by Colorado Rockies outfielder Matt Holliday off L.A. Angels pitcher Ervin Santana. The first two pitchers for both teams (Cliff Lee/Indians and Roy "Doc" Halladay/Blue Jays for the AL, Ben Sheets/Brewers and Carlos Zambrano/Cubs for the NL) had dominated the first innings. The NL doubled their lead one inning later when Lance Berkam (Astros) scored teammate Miguel Tejada on a sacrifice fly. Still one inning later the game was tied at two. To the delight of every scriptwriter a Red Sox player hit a 2 run homerun in the 7th to tie the game at Yankee stadium. The Red Sox players were booed when they were introduced to the crowd before the game and this shot by outfielder J.D. Drew might have been the only time a Red Sox representative was cheered briefly by a New York audience. Both teams scored in the 8th inning and the game was going to extras. The last innings of the AL team were pitched by both Jonathan Paplebon of the Red Sox (8th) and Mariano Rivera (9th) of the Yankees. The audience let Paplebon know what they thought of him, booing him, chanting Riveras name and "Overrated".
So after the 9th inning I just had to go to bed because I just wasn't able to stay awake. The game itself dragged on into the 15th inning when Justin Morneau (Twins) scored on a sacrifce fly by Michael Young (Rangers).

This was an exciting experience although I didn't manage to stick with it until the end. It's a shame there's nothing like this in European football but then again there is nothing like the Euro championships or the World Cup in baseball, although they are trying to establish something like it with the World Baseball Classics.