Carpenter Lone All-Star Rep

(Busch Stadium) For the third time in his career, Matt Carpenter will carry the banner for the St. Louis Cardinals at the Major League All-Star Game.

“It really is a thrill,” said Carpenter, who learned of his selection on Tuesday afternoon. “This will be the third one and the excitement doesn’t go away at all. I’m extremely humbled to go and represent the Cardinals at an All-Star game. It’s something–it’s hard to believe sometimes that you’re getting that opportunity, so it is a lot of fun.”

Since 2013, Carpenter leads all MLB lead-off hitters with 53 HRs, 229 RBIs, 520 hits, 136 doubles, 329 runs, and 252 walks.

“Walking in the clubhouse and seeing the best players in the Major Leagues in that clubhouse,” answered Carpenter to his first “wow” All-Star moment. “My first All-Star Game was in New York and Mariano Rivera–his final All-Star Game, so it was pretty cool. And then my second All-Star Game was Derek Jeter’s final All-Star Game so just being mentioned with those names is probably the big wow moment.”

Since his return from paternity leave on May 28th, Carpenter has hit .383 (44-115) raising his overall average from .250 to .305 as he entered play tonight. More than a few have joked that “daddy-strength” is propelling Carpenter.

“I think that the anticipation of having a child–that the relief of that and the excitement of having a baby, I don’t think that it made me play bad before that, I just think there was some relief in everything going well and not having that anticipation build up,” explained Carpenter. “Now I can just focus completely on baseball instead of always having the thought of ‘I have a child about to be born’ lingering in the back of your mind.”

“This year more than anything I felt like this is for me, personally, the best first half that I’ve ever had so to be able to be labeled an All-Star after what I consider my best first-half, I’m proud of that.”

In the last 20 years, the St. Louis Cardinals have had only one representative for the All-Star Game on four occasions–Albert Pujols (’07), Matt Morris (’02), Mark McGwire (’98), and Ozzie Smith (’96). Carpenter was selected by New York Mets Manager Terry Collins, who will serve as the National League skipper.

“I certainly think we had some guys that probably got snubbed this year, but that’s the way it goes sometimes,” said Carpenter. “It just unfortunate because we do have some guys who deserve it as well.”

“Yeah, I felt there were some other guys having the kind of seasons that deserved to be on the All-Star team,” echoed Mike Matheny. “It’s the system we’re in. It just didn’t work out.”

The Cardinals manager also didn’t accept the idea of hovering around .500 this season versus being on pace to win 100-games was the difference in not receiving more selections.

“I don’t think we’ve been on pace for 100 wins every single year and we’ve had great representation,” pointed out Matheny. “Half-way through this year we have guys having tremendous seasons and there’s no reason why we can’t have a collective year with as many wins as anybody else. And there’s no reason why our guys can’t have outstanding independent seasons too. I don’t see the correlation.”

photo credit: Bill Greenblatt/UPI