Fixing Baseball's Mid-Summer Classic

I love baseball. At any level, it is a great sport.  It’s actually my favorite professional sport.  That doesn’t mean that there aren’t some flaws in how things are done in the sport.  This week, one of the biggest flaws in Major League Baseball is on display.  The All-Star Game.

The Major League Baseball All-Star Game is by far the best all-star game out there.  The NFL Pro Bowl is glorified flag football and now that it is played before the Super Bowl, players from the two best teams in the league don’t even play in it.  The NHL All-Star game is a joke too.  Part of what makes hockey fun and exciting is the aggressive and physical nature of the game, yet in the all-star game they don’t hit each other.  The NBA All-Star game is no better.  This year there were more 3-point shots taken in the game than 2-point attempts.  There was 321 points scored in this year’s NBA All-Star game, almost double what was scored in an average regular season game.

One of the great things about baseball and their all-star game is that the play on the field is the exact same as in a regular season game.  It is not dominated by the hitters, because you have the best pitchers in the world on the mound and their sole job is to get batters out.  It also is not dominated by those pitchers, because the hitters that are at the plate are also some of the best in the world, and those guys rake even against the best.

The problem with the MLB All-Star game is not what happens on the field, it is what happens leading up to the game and in the clubhouses and dugouts during the game.  The game itself is fantastic, but how it game is put together is the problem.

Major League Baseball has overthought the process and the ideals behind their all-star game.  And like many things wrong with baseball, we have Bud Selig to thank for the errors in the all-star game as well.

Ever since the 2002 tie game in Milwaukee, the MLB All-Star game has had added value and meaning.  Due to the uproar of not playing until there was a winner in that 2002 game, Major League Baseball decided to not only always play the game to completion, but to also reward the winning team by giving that league home field advantage in the World Series.  For over 100 years, home field advantage in the World Series alternated between the two leagues.  Suddenly, because of one bad decision from the former commissioner (calling the game a tie after 11 innings), he over reacted and made another (giving a showcase game that is meant to be an exhibition real importance).

If the all-star game is going to be an important game that has significant meaning, (which it is, that is toothpaste out of the tube at this point, there is no going back) then let’s play it like a real game.

ROSTER SIZE

Yes, that is Kevin Correia on an all-star roster.

From 1969 until 1997 teams had a 28 man roster for the All-Star Game.  That number has been expanded 4 times in 18 years.  In 1998 they expanded to 30.  In 2003, the year following the 7-7 tie debacle, they expanded to 32 players.  In 2009 it moved to 33 per team, and now we have a 34-man roster.  Why do we need 34 players per team to play 1 game of baseball?

During the regular season, there is 25 guys on every team.  For the All-Star Game each team has 34 players.  If this game is going to have as much importance as a regular season game in late September, shouldn’t we be playing by the same rules in both games?  If Game 7 of the World Series has 25 men per team, don’t you think the way we decide who the home team in that game should also be played with 25 men?

Last year 81 players were selected for the game, including 13 that chose not to participate.  In 2011, 84 players were selected due to injuries and/or player unavailability.  In the 3 of the last 5 All-Star Games 80+ players were declared “all-stars”.  That means we are now considering over 10% of the players in baseball to be “all-stars” on a regular basis.  Since when did Major League Baseball become some rec soccer league giving out participation medals?

FAN BALLOTING

Sorry fans, but you are out. 

This game now means something, we don’t need fans from random city stuffing the ballot box to get some schlup that can’t bat his weight into a game that determines who hosts Game 1 of the World Series.

Derek Jeter had a great career and was a great ball player, but last year he had career lows in hits (147), runs (47), RBI (50), doubles (19), home runs (4) and batting average (.256) as well as being a career worst 0.2 Wins Above Replacement.  Last year he was elected the starter to the American League team.  I understand that it was his swan song since he was retiring at the end of the season, but if you are playing for keeps, you can’t be sentimental.

While we are at it, let’s leave the fans out of it too!

TEAM REPRESENTATION

You want to know how we cut the rosters back to 25 from 34, we get rid of the rule that every team must be represented in the All-Star Game.  Guess what, if your team sucks, you may not get a player on the team, it really is that simple.

SELECTING THE ROSTERS

Who knows the players in the league better than the players themselves?  Well, I guess maybe the managers, coaches and GM’s.  So let’s have those groups of people make these important decisions. 

If you want to still have starting in the game mean something you select the teams this way:

PLAYERS - Every players from every team can cast one ballot for their league.  The top vote getters amongst players are the starters in the game.  What better honor than to be selected by your peers to start in an all-star game?

COACHES/MANAGERS - Every Managers and 4 other coaches from each team can cast one ballot for 1 hitter, 1 starting pitcher and 1 relief pitcher.  Again, the top non-starters in each position, make the roster.

TEAM MANAGER - Manager of the all-star team adds 1 player from the 3 positions voted on by the other managers and coaches in the league.

GENERAL MANAGERS - Every General Manager, with the help of the team manager for the game, select the remaining bench players for the game.  This could be done via ballot or conference call type discussion.

If you build the team with 2 players at every position in the field that allows you to have 9 pitchers and still be at 25.  I’d even be willing to expand it to 26 if you are using a DH (which now they use every year anyway).

When you consider what is at stake in the game, these really are some easy fixes.  Let’s make it happen!

RANDOM RANTING

BASEBALL, AMERICA’S PAST PASTIME
I love baseball. As many of you know, it is my favorite professional sport. However, once again I am amazed at how poorly the sport is being run. Bud Selig is killing Major League Baseball. Not only is it the only professional sport in America in which money is the biggest factor to fielding a winning team (Yankees 2009 payroll is $201,449,189, Phillies is $113,004,046. Both in the top quarter of the league), but now Selig is apparently in support of not always getting the right call on the field.
Today Bud came out and said that he is not a fan of expanding replay, “I do like the human element and I think the human element for the last 130 years has worked pretty well.” Well that is great, let’s never move forward for the betterment of the sport. The playoffs this season have been scattered with blown calls and this is how the commissioner of the league reacts to it, unreal! What is more shocking is that the owners just extended his contract and he will continue to be in charge for another 3 season, minimum.

Hey Bud, if you are looking for things to not change about baseball due to the way it worked over the last 130 years, here is a list I have put together for you:
*Do away with the DH. It is a joke of a position and is not how the game was meant to be played.
*Don’t play until November. Who wants to sit outdoors in NY, Philly, Boston, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Minnesota, Denver or Chicago to watch a game that will drag on early into the night? Sorry, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Minnesota, and Cubs fans, I know you will never play in November due to the financial set-up of the game (and for simply never winning for the Cubs fans) but those were the cold weather cities with outdoor stadiums that I could think of.
*Cool it with all the off days during the playoffs. These guys play for weeks at a time during the regular season they don’t need a day off every time they get to a new city. The Yankees will have more off days in the month of October then they will have played games by tomorrow night. Not only do they have off days every time the travel, but twice they had off days to stay in the same city.
*Speed up the game. I know that MLB will do just about anything for the TV networks, but can’t you put a limit on the length of time between innings. You know it is bad when the game ended last night, I thought to myself, “wow, that was a fast game,” and it took 3:25!

PARITY IN THE NFL IS GONE, IT WENT BACK TO COLLEGE
In the past 10 years or so the NFL has been about as even a playing field as you can get. In that time every team has had at least a little success, I mean even the Browns have made the playoffs in that time frame. In the last 10 Super Bowls 14 different teams have been represented. Not this year. This season parity has only grabbed hold of about 10 teams that are incredibly average. This season, there are more bad teams then I can ever recall at one time. We are approaching the eighth week of the season and there are still six teams that have not won more then once so far. And if it weren’t for the Washington Redskins (2-5) there may be more. Last week was the first game of the season that the Redskins opponent had a win coming into the game.

While this is happening in the NFL the college game has gone the opposite direction. What happened to the 66-3 wins that Texas and USC used to put up on teams? What happened to Urban Meyer being up by 40 on his conference rivals? What happened to Ohio State dominating every game until their BCS game? This stuff just isn’t happening anymore and I can’t decide if it is good or not for the sport. It is always fun to be able to watch a team play and be in awe of how easy they make the game look. You also can’t match the excitement and tension as you watch a team about to pull off an unthinkable upset versus someone in the top 10. Unfortunately we haven’t seen much of either this season. The dominate teams, just aren’t that dominant and the upsets aren’t happening because ranked teams seem to do just enough to squeak out a win despite playing terribly all game. Here is a brief overview of my thoughts of the BCS conferences this year and how disappointing they have been.

ACC- Minus Georgia Tech they have nothing. It is a bunch of teams that beat each other up, but nobody that could win against anybody near the elite level from another BCS conference.
Big XII- This conference was supposed to have all the fireworks and be the one to challenge the SEC, guess what, they haven’t! Texas is good, but no one really knows how good, because everyone else in the conference has just been BLAH so far. If OK State can hang with UT tomorrow we can add them into the group, but right now it is completely just a one team conference.
Big East- Cincinnati, West Virginia and Pitt are carrying the torch this year for the Big East, but after those three there is nobody. USF did its annual rise to the rankings before getting pasted by Cincy and Pitt (WVU tonight). Rutgers was a huge disappointment as well.
Big Ten- Iowa? Really you are going to give me Iowa? With all the hype behind Terrelle Pryor and Ohio State or Rich Rod at Michigan or Penn State when the season starter how is it that Iowa is the face of the Big Ten this year? And after Iowa (which looks as vulnerable as any top 5 team in history) you have a very good Penn State defense (not sure about that Spread HD this year, looks like low definition so far), a very inconsistent Ohio State offense and a RichRod led Michigan team that doesn’t know what they want their identity to be.
PAC-10- I’m going to actually utter the words, The Pac-10 is the second best conference in college football this season. Ugh, I can’t believe I said that, and that it is actually true. You can’t argue the depth though. USC, Oregon, Arizona, Stanford, Washington, Cal and Oregon State can all play with just about anyone on any given day.
SEC- Yes, we all know the SEC is the best conference in college football. I’m glad to see that the folks at Sports Illustrated are finally catching on too. But to be honest, the powers in the SEC aren’t looking so powerful. Florida is 5-0 in conference play, but four of those games have been decided by 10 points or less, compare that to the fact that their closest win in conference play last year was a 30-6 win at Tennessee. Alabama is solid too, but their offense is full of question marks. They have not scored a passing TD in their last 3 games and have struggled to beat average Tennessee and South Carolina teams. After those two, I think LSU, Georgia, Arkansas and Mississippi can be good, they just haven’t been consistent enough or showed me enough to prove it.

IT’S BACK
Every year around Labor Day I get duped into believing that my favorite sport is college football. I enjoy college football as much as just about anything, except college basketball. I attended the Pitt Blue-Gold scrimmage on Tuesday and now I can’t wait for the rest of the games to get here. Sunday is their first exhibition game vs Slippery Rock. What a great way to spend a non-Steeler Sunday. Heck, in my opinion that would be a great way to spend a Steeler Sunday too. I can’t wait for all of the preseason tournaments to kickoff and all the big-time non-conference match-ups. Heck, I won’t even mind hearing Dickie V yell some incomprehensible non-sense about how AWESOME everything is for the first few times. Because for once he is right, college hoops is AWESOME BABY with a capital “A”!