Looking forward to watching the All-Star Game later today, the one without Felix Hernandez in it. There's always Ichiro and that Texas Rangers lefty. Speaking of which...

We've heard a lot about Justin Smoak the hitter, ever since the Mariners traded all-star Cliff Lee to the Texas Rangers to get him. Not as much about Smoak, the person.

We can use all kinds of colorful words to describe a guy. But sometimes, a personal story tells it best.

Here's one from a guy named Jeffrey Brown, who runs the sox1fan.com website over in Boston. I've blanked out the name of the "bad guy" in the story, just because I have no way of checking to see if it's true and it doesn't matter much in the end because it's not the point of the letter. Here we go:

Geoff,

I thought your readers might want to know a little bit about the key piece they got back for Cliff Lee.

I run a Boston Red Sox website. Two years ago I went out to the Arizona Fall League to visit with Clay Buchholz, who I had become relatively friendly with, only to miss him by a couple of days (he had left for LA to get together with the DOND model who would eventually become his wife). Undaunted, I decided to make the most of my trip, and set about interviewing as many of the top prospects I could while I was in the Valley of the Sun.

I interviewed Matt Wieters and Tommy Hanson and Brian Matusz and Logan Morrison... and made arrangements to talk with (blank) of the NY Yankees. When I arrived in Surprise, I also talked with Justin about doing an interview with him... I explained I had an interview to do with (blank) he agreed to sit down with me the next day. When I showed up in the clubhouse, (blank) and Smoak and two of their teammates were playing cards. The P/R guy went over to (blank) to tell him I had arrived. (blank) responded with disinterest, and the P/R guy said: "You agreed to this interview". (blank) asked the guy where I was from, and he told him I have a Red Sox blog. (blank) responded he wasn't going to do an interview "for any (expletive) Red Sox fan".

The guy came over to tell me what was going on, though I already knew because I had overheard (blank), and as he was talking with me I saw Smoak get up from the card table in the middle of his game. He walked over and asked me if I wanted to do the interview -- then and there. I asked him if he was sure, and he said "Yeah, it's just a card game. You came all the way out here for an interview and you should get an interview". He spoke with me for about 20 minutes.

Just a small item about 20 minutes out of a guy's life. But it makes a difference to people. On that day, Justin Smoak showed us a lot about who he is.

Enjoy tonight's game.