14 years

I always love watching the MLB All Star game. Its a chance to see the most popular and typically the most talented players the game has to offer on one field. For years the AL has dominated the mid summer classic. As a fan of the National League that’s been tough to swallow. The NL has produced some great teams the last few years and every year I thought, “This is the year the NL finally wins!”. Tonight took a combination of good pitching, a couple great defensive plays and timely hitting.

It took Ryan Braun’s diving catch in left, Byrd’s heads up play in right to throw out Ortiz, Brian McCann’s clutch 3 run double and every pitcher the NL had to offer to beat the American League.  

So while the National League and its fans can finally celebrate, its time to figure out who stands to benefit from this victory? Since the 2002 All Star game ended in a tie game the winner now gets home field advantage for the World Series.

A quick glance at the standings shows San Diego in first place in the West, Cincinnati in the Central and Atlanta in the East. I don’t think San Diego has the offense to maintain first place in the division and Cincinnati has to keep a close eye on St. Louis. Atlanta just might be for real but I’d be a fool to ignore that ferocious Philly offense and a Mets team that looks poised to be around in September.

There’s plenty of baseball left and anything can happen!