Comments on: My annual anti-All-Star Game rant

By: DGL

DGL — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 09:36:57 +0000

You don’t need to shrink the rosters or get rid of the “every team is represented” rule; all you need is one of the managers to take Bud at face value: You say the game matters, so I’m going to play it like it matters:
- If I think a starter is the best player at his position, he’s playing the whole game, unless I decide to pinch-hit for him late because of a platoon advantage or to put in a defensive sub.
- Conversely, if I think a starter isn’t the best player at his position, he’ll be out in the field for one inning or get one plate appearance because the rules say he’s a “starter”, then he’s gone.
- Every time through the order, I’m pinch-hitting for my pitcher. You’ve given me a dozen of the best pitchers in the league and 20 guys who can hit; that’s where I’m going to use them.
- Everyone else can be happy they’re here, and watch from the bench.
I would like to watch that game.

By: Old Gator

Old Gator — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 00:11:16 +0000

I found the home field advantage rule idiotic from the outset, but look whose idea it was in the first place. To call one of Bud Light’s ideas idiotic is, after all, like calling one of Niels Bohr’s ideas non-Newtonian. Otherwise, the game lost my interest a long time ago, not for any on-the-field reason, but because of all the cornball hoopla and horse poop that attends it, the insistence that we’re all tasteless and stupid and our attention can’t be attracted and held any other way. I mean, is this supposed to be a ballgame or another Michael Jackson tribute concert?
.
At one time baseball seemed to me the most significant single element of popular culture that was not inherently kitsch. It was mythic enough so that inferences of the grave and constant in human experience glimmered through it. Now, especially where the All Star Game is concerned, it’s just another grayish-green schmear of Madison Avenue cliches, presided over by a doddering fool who looks underdressed without his eyeball hat.
.
Pardon me, I’m going to take down my weatherbeaten little copy of Bart Giamatti’s Take Time for Paradise and try to remind myself what the game really is all about. With any luck, I’ll be able to ignore the white noise of the next four days or so as easily as I was able to ignore the smorgasbored of ennui that was the mercifully just concluded backandforthandbackandforthandbackandforthball cup.

By: Al

Al — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 19:25:52 +0000

I don’t have cable or an mlb.tv subscription, so I’m just looking forward to being able to watch a ball game on TV.

By: Al

Al — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 19:24:31 +0000

Can we please have a permanent moratorium on anyone ever saying “stay classy” again?

By: Utley's hair

Utley's hair — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 19:00:02 +0000

There goes old cranky Calcaterra again, out on his lawn in the tattered robe, yelling and shaking his fist at the blasted whippersnappers.

By: Ditto65

Ditto65 — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 18:32:45 +0000

We should let computers decide, like the BCS. Because that works so well…
Stay Classy, HBT.

By: jd1

jd1 — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 18:26:18 +0000

If by “prove his worth,” you mean strike out twice and prove most of the smarter baseball minds right, then yes, you are correct.

By: none

none — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 17:36:29 +0000

I don’t buy “they cared more back then,” but the AL-NL rivalry was real “back then.” Before 1959 there was no interleague trading (except waivers), so few players changed leagues. And of course no interleague games or free agency.
Paul Richards, who managed the White Sox and Orioles, moved to the NL as GM of Houston and Atlanta. When he went from Baltimore to Houston in 1961, his wife and daughter chided him about “going slumming” in the NL. You can find quotes from players such as Ty Cobb, Dizzy Dean and Ted Williams expressing loyalty to their league.

By: Secretary Cleary

Secretary Cleary — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 17:03:48 +0000

Levi hit it on the head for me. My parents refused to get cable, so I taped the NBC Game of the Week, with Vin Scully & Joe Garagiola calling the game, playing it over and over until the next Saturday. The All Star Game was a really big deal to see those players from my baseball cards actually perform on TV. And the Bo Jackson homer was awesome!! Now we have so much baseball online and on cable or satelite TV, and we’re just older and have adult responsibilities, that the All Star game isn’t as big a deal and doesn’t have the same excitement for me.

By: scatterbrian

scatterbrian — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 16:58:07 +0000

You are the first person I’ve ever heard supporting this rule. Which is cool, but I don’t think your reasoning is valid. If MLB removed the every-team-represented rule, that wouldn’t change how the fans or the players vote, or how the managers select reserves.

Or, you could always put a cap on the number of players from each team…

By: The Rabbit

The Rabbit — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 16:55:26 +0000

Amen to that!

By: JCD

JCD — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 16:30:35 +0000

Stop being an old crank

By: YankeesfanLen

YankeesfanLen — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 16:29:31 +0000

Maybe one of my fsavorite Yankees will appear since every team needs a representative.

By: Jonny5

Jonny5 — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 16:16:03 +0000

Don’t worry craig, The NL has it in the bag this season. Howard will also prove his worth, you’ll see. And you’ll ask “why do I watch”???? But love it all the same.

By: Levi Stahl

Levi Stahl — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 16:10:51 +0000

I’ve gotten to where I miss probably half the All-Star games; the break serves as a breather from baseball, a couple of nights at home without a game to distract me from getting things done. And I think it derives largely from Craig’s point about how we can see these guys all the time now: when I was a kid, not living in a major-league market, I knew players almost entirely from Cardinals radio broadcasts and baseball cards–which meant that AL stars were almost all unknown. Thus, the chance to see, for example, Bo Jackson in the All-Star Game was really exciting.

By: Md23Rewls

Md23Rewls — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 16:08:25 +0000

While I understand why some people dislike the All Star Game (and there are plenty of reasons to), I still enjoy it. When I was a teenager, we didn’t have cable, so we didn’t have ESPN, and it was just before MLB.TV came into existence. Or maybe MLB.TV existed, but I had no money, so it might as well have not existed. Anyway, for me, baseball was the FOX Saturday Game of the Week and the All Star Game. Those were the only games I got to watch, unless I went over to a friend’s house. Now I am twenty-three years old living on my own, have MLB.TV, can watch the Yankees (or whomever) whenever I feel like it, but I still feel this nostalgic pull when it’s time for the All Star Game. It’s just something that reminds me of growing up and how special it was to get that one baseball game during the middle of the week. I’ll always love the All Star Game, no matter how hard they try to water it down. It’s just one of those things for me.
Now, could it be improved? Definitely. Get rid of the home field advantage slant first off. It’s absurd that best record doesn’t get home field in the World Series. It’s 2010. It’s not like we’re in the horse and buggy era. Citing travel/lodging concerns (that’s always what Selig talks about, right?) just doesn’t figure. Kill the ‘each team needs to have a player’ angle. Cut down on the pompous pre-game stuff that always takes forty-five minutes. Other complaints that I can’t think of right now.

By: ben s

ben s — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 16:08:22 +0000

I honestly think that if they lessened the rosters, took out the home field advantage thing, and just picked the starters based on WAR. Huh? Huh?

By: Student of The Game

Student of The Game — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 16:07:15 +0000

But as I do I’ll be asking myself: why?
Because it’s baseball, and it’s on TV. That’s always my excuse.

By: Martin McKee

Martin McKee — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 16:04:39 +0000

I actually like the rule that all teams must be represented. Would you rather have the alternative, which would be that the AL squad would have ten Yankees, eight Red Sox, and the next time you saw a Royals uniform would be 2024? All you would have every year is Yankees/Red Sox vs. Mets/Cubs/Dodgers. The Reds are in first place, and I’d be surprised if any of them made the roster this year, being from a small market.
I agree that the ASG has lost some luster, mainly due to interleague play and the fact that Selig and the managers involved invariably have their heads up their rear ends when it comes to their decision-making.

By: Mark Armour

Mark Armour — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 15:54:07 +0000

I am sure everything you say is true. On the other hand, I think of the game as more of a celebration or event, and I like watching it for those reasons. Its a bunch of great baseball players having fun, and that carries the day for me.
As I get older, I find myself enjoying watching baseball games more, even as I care less and less about the who wins the games or who the shortstop should be, or who wins the awards, or what it all means. Not to go all-John Lennon on you, but just imagine that you are watching great baseball players play baseball, and tune the rest of the nonsense out. The more I can do that, the more fun it is.

By: Infinite Wisdom

Infinite Wisdom — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 15:50:57 +0000

If the All-Star game outcome is going to determine something so important, the teams should not be chosen by fans. The statically superior players should be selected.. Hell, do it electronically.. Don’t leave it up to any one person’s interpretation. The players that contribute the most to their teams success should play in the game, not the most popular players. Really? Yadier Molina over Miguel Olivo? Really? Do people want the NL to lose every year?

By: MG19

MG19 — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 15:47:19 +0000

took the feelings right out of my heart.