Marlins All Star Moments: #8

Leading up to the midsummer classic, FishStripes is counting down our top 10 "hats-off" moments in Marlins All Star Game history. The Fish have 18 All Star Games under their belt, so clearly, with such a wealth of thrilling game moments to choose from, your opinion on the order and relevance of each moment may vary. Feel free to jump in on the comments and post your personal top ten, or simply rip ours to shreds.

Our #8 moment takes us back to July 7th,1998, at Coors Field in Denver, Colorado. To some baseball fans, the '98 All Star game may have been just another year that the National League lost to the American League. For Marlins fans, however, it is the game that contains one of the top All Star Game moments in Marlins history.

1998 had the majority of baseball fans obsessed with the the long ball. Mark McGwire. Sammy Sosa. Home run records being broken. Pfffff. Marlins fans didn't need to bother with any of that. Not when they had bragging rights to one Edgar Renteria, the shortstop for whom the phrase "chicks dig the small ball" was coined, and who captured the hearts of South Florida with that single he slapped up the middle in the 11th inning of game seven of the '97 World Series, to deliver the first ever Teal October.

Renteria was the lone Fish to make it to the '98 ASG, and it would be difficult to choose just one hats-off moment from his stellar performance. So we'll pick an entire inning instead. In the eighth, Edgar shined. He started a lovely 6-4-3 double play on Dean Palmer's ground ball to short in the top of the frame, showing off his defensive skills. In the bottom of the inning, Eddie showed America what he could do with the bat when he reached on a throwing error by Scott Brosius. He would also display his speed and tenacity when he scored on a two-run single by Greg Vaughn to bring NL within 2.

The NL lost, of course, but we like to think that Renteria had a lot to do with keeping the game as close as it was. (13-8 is close. Sort of.)