Rays’ Carlos Pena, who grew up in Haverhill, has been “having a blast’’ in St. Louis.
(Nam Y. Huh/Associated Press)
All-Star notebook
A high honor for Bay and Wakefield
Rays’ Carlos Pena, who grew up in Haverhill, has been “having a blast’’ in St. Louis.
(Nam Y. Huh/Associated Press)
ST. LOUIS - Become an American citizen one week, meet the President the next.
The Red Sox’ Jason Bay managed to celebrate his new citizenship with a handshake with President Obama last night as he made the rounds in the American League clubhouse at the All-Star Game.
“I became a US citizen and met the President a week later,’’ Bay said. “It’s just the way it works, I guess. It doesn’t happen all the time. Interesting.’’
Bay said, “I was going to let him know that, but he was too locked into Wake and the knuckleball.’’
It seemed the President was keen on learning about the unusual pitch, making sure to ask the Sox’ Tim Wakefield about it as the pitcher introduced himself.
“He kind of walked around and shook everybody’s hands,’’ Wakefield said. “He got to me, I said, ‘Tim Wakefield, nice to meet you.’ He goes, ‘Oh yeah, you’re the older statesman here.’ I guess he had a joke with [Derek ] Jeter earlier about being the oldest guy here. [Jeter] said, ‘No I’m not, there’s a guy older.’
“Afterwards, he’s like, ‘Hey, how do you hold that thing?’ I told him, ‘Like this.’ He said, ‘You’ll have to teach me how to throw that thing one day.’ ’’
Sitting it out
With Wakefield having the most rest of just about any AL pitcher, he was left to be the extra-inning insurance. Thus, along with Josh Beckett, he didn’t get a chance to participate in the game. “I would like to have pitched, but it’s OK,’’ Wakefield said. “It’s an experience that I’ll never, never forget the rest of my life. I’ll cherish it forever. It’s just awesome being in this clubhouse with the greatest players in the world. Being able to partake in my first All-Star Game at 42 years old is pretty cool.’’ . . . MVP Carl Crawford gave his hat to the Hall of Fame . . . Bay hit a single up the middle in the first inning, loading the bases, but it didn’t get Joe Mauer home from second. “Off the bat, yeah,’’ Bay said about whether he thought he had a chance at an RBI. “Then as I was kind of getting to first, I noticed Joe was running, and there was a pretty good chance we weren’t going to push him at that point. Maybe I’ll get on him for squashing my MVP chances.’’ . . . Kevin Youkilis singled in his lone at-bat . . . Justin Morneau was unhappy with the choice to use a recorded version of “Oh Canada’’ before the game, especially with Sheryl Crow on hand to sing the national anthem. Bay mostly shrugged it off, but said, “It was a decent rendition, but you figure somebody in St. Louis would know the words to ‘Oh Canada.’ I mean, Morneau and I could have sung it.’’Figgins gets call
The Angels’ Chone Figgins arrived at the ballpark right at 6:30 p.m., not long before the teams lined up along the foul lines for introductions. He had been alerted that he would be replacing Evan Longoria (infected right ring finger) yesterday, and scrambled to make a flight from Los Angeles, getting an escort to the ballpark with the city’s chief of police. “That’s something that not anybody can ever take from you,’’ Figgins said of getting named. “Whether you play or not, that’s out of your control. But the reason that you got selected - obviously you deserved to be here.’’ Figgins had watched at least 20 old All-Star Games in the week leading up to this, he said. Not only did Figgins make it to St. Louis, but he rustled up six plane tickets for his family, and six tickets to the game. They arrived around 7. Figgins couldn’t make it in the clubhouse to see the President, though. He was stopped by security . . . Casey McLaren of Newburyport, Mass., represented the Red Sox in the finals of the Pitch, Hit, and Run skills competition here, in the 7-8-year-old boys’ division.Dream call for Pena
Carlos Pena had dozed off late on Saturday night, after the Rays had completed a loss to Oakland. He was clearly not waiting for his phone to ring. But it rang.“I had already turned the page,’’ Pena said yesterday, before his first All-Star Game got under way. “I said, ‘OK, I’m going to have my few days of rest.’ I did not expect to get a call. Definitely did not expect that. I was just relaxing in the house. Actually fell asleep.
“I was like, I don’t know what to think. I had to switch back to the possibility, accepting the possibility of not being here, and then actually celebrate because I was coming. I was so excited.’’
Sunday was a whirl of activity, of making arrangements to get his wife and daughter, mother and father, to St. Louis. He never slept that night, his celebrating turning to packing, his packing turning to the overall excitement. He arrived in St. Louis exhausted, and still stunned that he would be an All-Star, with a spot in the Home Run Derby and a place among the best.
He remained cognizant, however, of how he got to the game. Upon seeing a reporter from Boston, he asked about Dustin Pedroia’s wife, Kelli, concerned about her condition. He knows that Pedroia’s decision to skip the game to be with his pregnant wife is the reason he got that middle-of-the-night call.
When Twins reliever Joe Nathan came up to Pena and asked for a ball autographed solely by the Rays first baseman, Pena seemed shocked. “I’m flattered,’’ he said, and he meant it.
Despite the exhaustion, Pena appeared to be the most excited person on the field Monday night at the Derby, perhaps including eventual winner Prince Fielder.
“That was so much fun,’’ said Pena, who is from Haverhill, Mass., and attended Northeastern. “I was having a blast. I enjoyed every second of it.’’
© Copyright 2009 Globe Newspaper Company.
