The All-Star Game always starts off kind of weakly with the
Home Derby the day before. Not that the
event is bad in and of itself, but it has its negatives. It is simply a very artificial made-for-TV
event that tends to ruin the swings of the players involved. Of course the main negative is that it’s
produced by ESPN. They actually do a
decent job of broadcasting ball games, but this event is all ESPN. The problem with that can be summed up in two
words: Chris Berman. Perhaps its not
fair to single one out one questionable broadcaster, who if we were sitting in
the stands next to each other at a game, I’d be looking to move by the bottom
of the first inning. He’s just
emblematic of everything wrong with the Four-Letter network: all style, all
self-promotion, no substance. But with
all my reservations, I did see some of the Yoenis Cespedes orbital launch
party. Pretty spectacular.
If ESPN Radio executives actually listened to their own
product, I’m sure they would have been thrilled that they sent Collin Cowherd
on location to New York
for the game. In the hour I listened,
Collin talked about Johnny Football’s off-the-field problems, Nick Saban, NBA
off-season moves, and complained about hotel rooms that don’t let you play with
the thermostat. He did talk some
baseball, unfortunately. Collin managed
to embarrass Bruce Bochy with some impressively ignorant questions, and CJ
Wilson, who wasn’t actually at the game and was only on the radio to promote
his sponsor’s promotion, with some prickly questions about steroids.
Since Collin brought up this tired subject a couple of
times, I feel the need to address it as well.
“Why should the winner of this EXHIBITION game get home field advantage
in the World Series? The team with home
field advantage wins at a 60% rate.
That’s way too much of an advantage to be gained because of an
EXHIBITION game.”
Apparently, some people have forgotten how we got to this
point. It was at the end of the 2002
ASG, Bob Brenly and Joe Torre went to Bud Selig in the stands and asked, “We
know it’s a tie game right now, but we’ve both run out of pitchers. Since we’re not comfortable with
overextending other team’s players, can we just stop playing now?” Bud should have looked both of them in the
eye and said, “You still got position players.
Play ball.”
Now, this incident would have caused a rules change even if
that unlikely scenario had happened. The
problem is that the All-Star Game has gotten away from the old days of Pete
Rose running into the catcher at home plate.
It’s all about getting the invitation, deciding if you want to go or
fake an injury (or pitch on the Sunday before) and send a sub, and then being
assured that you’ll get some playing time if you do go. The manager’s job primary consideration was
to use everybody, but not overuse them, and win the game, if it’s
convenient.
No. The baseball
All-Star Game is an actual game, even if it’s an exhibition, not a glorified
scrimmage or a reenactment of a Harlem Globetrotters game. Certainly, getting everyone in the game and
players snubbing the invites are still issues, but if home field advantage is
the carrot, winning the game regains its paramount importance. I’m all for it. Besides, if the theoretically better team in
the World Series doesn’t get home field advantage, if they’re really the better
team, they should still win.
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