Pre-Game: Pirates All Star Notes

A couple notes on the Buccos in the All-Star Game (we hope; as of 4PM, it's pouring on the GABP):

The All-Stars & their fams hopped a private jet to Cincy (Mark Melancon Instagram)

• Four Pirates were chosen: Cutch (5th time), Mark Melancon (2nd) and first-timers AJ Burnett & Gerrit Cole. 
• Cutch's fifth straight selection passes the four year runs of Bobby Bo (1988-91) & Roberto Clemente (1969-72), ties Ralph Kiner's streak (1948-52; he also made it '53, starting the season as a Pirate but selected to the AS team while a Cub), and eats the dust of only Roberto Clemente's eight year stretch from 1960-67 as Pirates.
• Cutch will start the game for the second straight year and bat leadoff. He was a coach's replacement to start as he didn't get the nod from the fans, but considering that he was hitting .188 on May 6th, pretty good rally to get back to AS status.
• Only two players have waited longer than AJ's 17 seasons to make an AS squad - Arthur Rhodes (19) and Doyle Alexander (18). At 38, he's also the oldest player. The rest of the players are 35 or younger (mostly much younger - 20 starters are 25 years old or less).
• On the other hand, Gerrit Cole, 24, will be the second-youngest Pirate at an All-Star game. John Candelaria was 23 years old in 1977 when he earned an AS spot.
• AJ and Cole Train are the first pair of starters selected for the game since 1960 when Bob Friend and Vernon Law were on the team.
• Who would have guessed after the Joel Hanrahan trade with Boston in 2012 that Mark Melancon & Brock Holt would meet as All-Stars? Other ex-Buccos are AL All Stars and teammates, Jose Bautista & Russ Martin of the Blue Jays.  The Mariner's Lloyd McClendon is coaching for the A, and Ned Yost's hitting coach at KC, Dale Sveum, is also oart fo the staff.L.
• This is the fifth consecutive year the Pirates will send multiple representatives to the Midsummer Classic. Before that, they went 20 years with either one or two AS players (and 14 times, it was just one).
• Here's the list of Pirate All-Stars throughout the years. 
• Game stats: The AL has won two in a row and 14 of the last 18, including nine of 12 since the event became tied to home-field advantage in the World Series. Despite that recent run, the NL still holds the upper hand in the all-time series, 43–40–2.