NEW YORK — I woke up, grabbed some Dunkin Donuts coffee, and made my way to the Intercontinental hotel, where the Hall of Famers had gathered for 30 minutes of press availability. Not a bad way to start a morning.

There are 40 Hall members here for tonight’s on-field pregame ceremony, and about 30 of them were sitting at tables in one room. Walked in, and Harmon Killebrew was talking about Yankee Stadium, pre-renovation, and how difficult it was for righthanded hitters.

“I remember hitting four balls one night that would have been out of any other ballpark,” Killebrew said. “But it was Yankee Stadium, and after the third one, Mickey [Mantle] came up to me — he came across the infield as I’m going to my position — and I said, ‘Mickey, how in the heck do you ever get a hit in this ballpark? And he just grinned and laughed.”

The Hall members were at a swank Manhattan restaurant during the All-Star Home Run Derby. The derby was on the TVs, and they watched with the sound muted, making up their own commentary.

I’ll have more on this for our first editions, but they were all pretty amazed at Josh Hamilton’s performance. Killebrew and Paul Molitor, in particular, were thrilled to see Justin Morneau win.

“That was great,” Killebrew said. “I know he felt bad over the other guy [Hamilton] — he really did. He said that, and I know he meant that. But I was happy to see him win the home run championship.”

Scheduling update: Please note that the first pitch tonight is at 7:39 p.m. (Central). The Red Carpet Parade, which is going on now, I believe, will be replayed on Fox starting at 6 p.m. The on-field stuff starts about 6:30 p.m.

They’ll sing “Oh Canada” at 7:17 p.m. (Mr. Morneau, Ryan Dempster and Russell Martin would appreciate your attention.) Sheryl Crow will follow with the “Star Spangled Banner.”

Eventually, they’ll play ball, and the National League will try to snap its 11-game winless streak.

National League (40-36-2)

1. Hanley Ramirez, SS

2. Chase Utley, 2B

3. Lance Berkman, 1B

4. Albert Pujols, DH

5. Chipper Jones, 3B

6. Matt Holliday, RF

7. Ryan Braun, LF

8. Kosuke Fukodome, CF

9. Geovany Soto, C

Starting pitcher: RH Ben Sheets

American League (36-40-2)

1. Ichiro Suzuki, RF

2. Derek Jeter, SS

3. Josh Hamilton, CF

4. Alex Rodriguez, 3B

5. Manny Ramirez, LF

6. Milton Bradley, DH

7. Kevin Youkilis, 1B

8. Joe Mauer, C

9. Dustin Pedroia, 2B

Starting pitcher: LH Cliff Lee

Yankee Stadium. First pitch: 7:39 p.m.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 15th, 2008 at 2:27 pm and is filed under Around MLB, Twins thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.