Hey Now, You're an All-Star

Well I know everyone has been waiting in eager anticipation for the results of my softball game this weekend, so here it is. My team took an early 2-0 lead in the first inning, only to surrender 6 runs in the next couple of innings. We battled back to cut the deficit to 6-4 before the wheels fell off and we lost by the score of 9-4. Yours truly went 2-3 and hit the ball about as well as I've ever hit a softball, so that was nice. Also while playing secondbase I made a handful of plays without an error. Now that that important bit of business is out of the way, we'll get on to the minor little event of the Major League Baseball All-Star game. Also, mark it down, I will be writing my first ever running-diary of a sporting event during this years All-Star game, and it will be posted shortly after the completion of th game, so be sure to check back for that.


The Mid-Summer Classic

I find that baseball's All-Star game is without a doubt the best all-star exhibition in sports. Not just the game itself, but also the entire weekend of festivities. Baseball is the one sport out of the big three in America, where players don't actively dodge participating in the game and in the entire weekend of events. When a player gets an invite to participate in the Home Run Derby, they usually accept it with arms wide open. When you watch the Home Run Derby, you are almost always seeing more or less one of the best collections of sluggers the game has to offer. This is a far cry from the NBA's Dunk Contest where the league can barely get rookies who never see the court to participate. With the exceptions of a few players like Manny Ramirez, whose actions can be explained only by someone with divine inspiration, it appears as though anyone who is selected to particpate is not only honored but actually thrilled to be involved. I have a theory about why this is the case. Baseball more than any other sport is very connected with its history. Legends and records of the past are still very much alive in today's game, mostly because its more or less the exact same game that's been played since the beginning. There was no invention of the shot clock or the 3-point line or the widening of the lane which dramatically changed the game the way it did with basketball. There was no introduction of the forward pass to revolutionize the way teams played offense. Baseball, even with its minor changes, and its cyclical pattern of big offense followed by pitching dominance, is more or less the exact same game through its history. There's very little speculation in baseball about things such as whether Pete Maravich would have scored 100 with a 3-point line, or what Shaq would do if he played with the same size lane that Wilt Chamberlain did. From Honus Wagner to Cy Young, to Babe Ruth, to Ted Williams, to Willie Mays, to Nolan Ryan, to Barry Bonds, the game itself is the same. The modern players look at those names, many of whom played in All-Star games, and jump at most likely the only chance they will ever have to be directly linked to the all-time legends of the game.

With all of that being said, there are a couple changes that baseball needs to make to its all-star game. First of all, this whole, every team needs a representative on the team is an absolute joke. Some years, some team just don't have anyone worthy of being an all-star. This is literally the only thing that can even somewhat taint the incredible honor it is to be selected. Because of this rule we have to forever remember that Ron Comer was part of baseball's immortal mid-summer classic. You ask who Ron Comer is? That's my point. He represented the Twins one year when contraction seemed to be a realistic option. With all due respect to Ron Comer, he should never be able to be mentioned in the same blog as the names mentioned earlier. For the integrity of the game itself (both the All-Star game and the game of baseball) this rule needs to be the boot and someone just needs to say, sorry Ron, you won't be heading to the All-Star game this year.

The second thing that needs to be changed is the whole "This time it counts" crap. As I have already mentioned the all-star game is already respected and means something to its players and to the fans, there is simply no need to up the stakes the way baseball is attempting to do. I understand that this whole thing was part of the backlash from the game ending in a tie in extra innings several years ago, but here's an idea, instead of awarding home-field advantage to a team who only had at most a few players even in the All-Star game to make sure it doesn't end in a tie again, just tell the managers, hey we're going to play until someone wins, so save a few of your players. That sounds pretty simple huh. This way the home field advantage in the World Series can be decided on more than just an exhibition game. Think it over Bud Selig, get back to me, we'll have a brain storming session.


That's all folks, hope you enjoyed.