Northern California Baseball Blog and Q&A

Paul Gutierrez
Raised in Barstow, Calif., where he played community college baseball for two years, Paul Gutierrez has worked at Sports Illustrated and the Las Vegas Review-Journal, where he covered his alma mater's Runnin' Rebels at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. During a six-year stint at the Los Angeles Times, he co-authored Tommy Davis' "Tales from the Dodgers Dugout." He came to The Bee in October 2005 and is now a Bay Area sports features writer who concentrates on baseball during the spring and summer.

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July 10, 2007

Down in front!

Greetings from the upper deck media seating section at AT&T Park. A little sore from yesterday's scrums with the masses for a home run derby ball, I'm nonetheless ready to go. The wind is blowing, the clouds are coming in and it figures to be a cold one, just like the not-so-good-old days at Candlestick Park.

The start of the All-Star Game is still about two hours away but there is already a sense of excitement coming from the crowd as the orange-clad American League All-Stars take batting practice down below. The N.L. stars hit first, wearing black jerseys - the host Giants' colors serve as the B.P. jerseys, complete with the Golden Gate Bridge serving at the "I" in "American" and "National" - and, as expected, Barry Bonds got the loudest ovation.

Not surprisingly, a Dodger, catcher Russell Martin, received the loudest boos.

The players, though, will wear their teams' respective colors during the game. It is one of the best traditions of the game, allowing players to truly represent their teams by sporting their uniforms.

The NBA tried a similar stunt in its All-Star Game a few years back but it never took hold. Besides, there is more money to be made in more jerseys.

-Paul Gutierrez

Posted by Bill Bradley, July 10, 2007 06:11 PM

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