In honor of the supposed slowest sports day of the year, a post!
Yesterday, the American League and the National League got together and played a little exhibition game to give a lot of players a break. This tradition goes back to 1933, predating I am guessing every reader of this blog. While it started out as a good idea, the All Star Game has grown bloated, over hyped, and irrelevant. The All Star Game is slowly creeping into Pro Bowl territory in relevancy in the American Public and within the sport itself. Bud Selig(the second worst commissioner in pro sports) grew the rosters to 34 a piece this year. Baseball managers are used to dealing with 25 players, usually 12 hitters and 13 pitchers. I understand that Bud wants every team to be represented but I disagree with this assessment. While you might lose some fans, its better in the long run for just the 25 best players in each league to play. The reason I am calling it Pro Bowl irrelevant is the number of stars skipping this year who were voted or picked to be on the team in the first place including the best closer in baseball, Mariano Sandman Rivera. Anyone familiar with the Pro Bowl knows that the starters are rarely who is voted in now with many of them skipping. Tom Brady, I am looking at you!
The voting itself is flawed as is all fan voting. Ichiro will always be the starting OF as long as he plays as he has an entire country behind him, just like Yao in the NBA. There has been problems before the internet with stuffing the ballot box, most notably when the Reds in 1957 with 7 starters and the A's in 1988 when Terry Steinbach was elected starting catcher. Yadier Molina was elected the starting catcher this year, echoing the sentiment of the writers in 88 that decried Steinbach's election. Molina was replaced at C in the 5th inning by Brian McCann, who won MVP this year do to his 3 run double in the 7th. McCann has been having the better year statistically than Molina. To be fair to Terry Steinbach, he won the ASG MVP that year!
The reserves are picked between player and manager votes plus MLB has their Final Vote promotion where fans get to vote on the last player for each league. MLB and the Managers hand picks 5 or 6 snubs for this role.
Last but not least, the real reason its overhyped is that Bud caused a boo boo when he ended the 2002 All Star game at a tie in extra innings. After that, to repair the damage he added the marketing strategy of which league wins the ASG, gets home field advantage in the World Series. Bud basically decreed that an exhibition game counts so much. Shouldn't it be based on who has the best record, that gets home field. It works for every other sport. If its supposed to count, Bud should shrink the rosters and make sure the managers actually play their best players and try to win it. I think though that it should be a welcome break and an exhibition of the best players. I generally like All star competitions and watch all 4 major ones.
For once, the game was actually good. Lets hope the rest of the season is.
Great first post here A-Mac! I cannot agree with you any more! The All-Star game has become little more than a gimmick to unfairly determine home field advantage in the World Series! Record should absolutely determine home field, but Bud would rather get ratings for a meaningless, yes that is what exhibition means Bud, game than be fair to the teams that bust their rear end to get the best record. This game is meaningless and it needs to be changed. Great first post!
ReplyDeleteI have no problem with the home field rule, or with the 34 man rosters (I honestly like the Pirates, and this is about the one time a year I get to go...OOOH A PIRATE!).
ReplyDeleteMy problem is that the coverage of the game makes it seem more important than it is. It's a fun little game in the middle of the season, I don't need to be introduced to every body, or hear God Bless America in a warble by an up and coming pop star, and GOD KNOWS I don't need Joe Buck and the rest of Fox to do anything more than shut the hell up and jerk off to football like I know they want to.
I say: make the all-star game an opportunity for the best of baseball to shine, bring in the 34 or so best ballplayers (I don't want anybody getting hurt after all) and let winners of the Ford Frick award/living legends of the booth call the game, just like they would anything else. I'd watch if Vin Scully or Bob Ueker were calling it...I'd watch if it was just a good ballgame between two good teams and not as an excuse to try and sell me craptastic tacos.
Rant Mode Disengage
Then my question would be this, Ben. Do you really want a bad excuse to try and sell you some craptastic tacos to be the thing that determines home field advantage in the most important series of the game?
ReplyDeleteThough I completely agree with you on the fact that it is completely and totally overhyped. They deifnitely need to play it down more.