By JIMMY D / AllStar Game Challenge a la Jimmy D | Jimmy's archive

So you plan to watch the MLB All-Star Game tonight at Yankee Stadium, but don’t really care who wins and don’t really have any contest options to make it more interesting.

Jimmy D thought that might be the case, so he approached the folks at FanJack.com about setting up an All-Star game contest where he could challenge all alleged fantasy baseball wizards out there.

The game is called All-Star PropMaster and it contains 19 questions about the game. You answer questions correctly (as events unfold during the game) and you win! Everyone who finishes ahead of Jimmy D will have their names mentioned here next week. We don’t expect to have to list any names because Jimmy has pledged to win the whole thing.

How will the first run of the game be scored? RBI single? Home run? Passed ball or wild pitch? You get more fantasy points for picking the longshot answers or you can play it slow and steady with the answers that have the best odds.

Like the Yankee-Red Sox rivalry? Fanjack wanted to add a bit of Yankee-Red Sox spice to the game, so you can choose whether A-Rod and Derek Jeter will combine for more hits, runs and RBIs than the four Red Sox starters. You get 25 points for picking the hometown Yankees and just five for picking the Sox. 

It’s free to play, there are all kinds of cool contests and tournaments on the go including British Open golf Free Agent Challenges, NASCAR contests around next weekend’s AllState 400 at the Brickyard and plenty of baseball tournaments too.

Visit www.fanjack.com/fantasysports/2008 and sign up and take on Jimmy.

Rays fade, Mets surge

Seems Tampa Bay’s young stars have started believing all the press clippings about how great they are. After leading the AL East most of the year, the upstart Rays lost seven straight to hit the All-Star Break a half game behind Boston.

A four-game sweep at the hands of Cleveland completely erased all the good a seven-game win streak had done last week. Still, the young bats and arms of Evan Longoria, B.J. Upton, James Shields and others have Tampa as legit AL contenders. At some point, Jimmy D’s second-round pick Carl Crawford has to get his bat – and legs – moving.

“I hate what just happened this week, but we're sitting in a very good spot,” Tampa’s bench boss Joe Maddon told AP. That may be true, but we’ll be watching this situation closely. You don’t want to get stuck with Rays on your roster if they plan to do Rockies finish of 2007 (21-1 to end the season and through the NL playoffs) in reverse.

Those Rockies were just starting to hit their stride last year at this time, winning fix of six before the Break. And it was mid-September when the Rocks started rocking the NL West.

The Mets meanwhile, despite their sloppily timed and sneaky canning of manager Willie Randolph, have caught fire. They rode a nine-game win streak into the break behind some hot play from Jose Reyes (32 stolen bases), David Wright (17 HRs, 70 RBI) and Carlos Beltran (three triple-hit games in past eight).

But it has been the pitching in July (including four shutouts in their past six games) that has the Mets within a game of the hot-and-cold Phillies. John Maine and 6-foot-7, 235-pound Mike Pelfrey, who has won his past six starts in case he is available in your league, have been ably supporting ace Johan Santana.

Can Josh ‘Hack’ it?

Oh my gosh, Josh! With an eight-game RBI streak that saw him drive in 13 runs last week, Josh Hamilton officially got halfway to the major-league RBI record held by Hack Wilson. Hamilton has 95 RBIs, 27 more than anyone else in the AL, and halfway to Wilson’s 191-RBI season back in 1930 for the Cubbies.

Hack, referred to by Wikipedia.com as “built along the lines of a beer keg, and not wholly unfamiliar with its contents,” also hammered 56 homers that season. That NL record stood until juicers Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire destroyed it in 1998. Poor Hack destroyed himself long ago with his own juice, dying of alcoholism at age 48.

Hamilton and 2B Ian Kinsler have singlehandledly kept the Rangers viable this year.

Jimmy D

jpoole@herald.ca