All-Farce Game

I didn't watch the All-Star Game last night. Nor did I watch the Home Run Derby the night before. I stopped caring a long time ago.

But 2 thoughts.

1. I heard that MLB Owners Association president Bud Selig might overreact to the Kansas City fans' booing of A.L. HR Derby captain Robinson Cano for leaving out of Kansas City's top slugger from the HR Derby team (apparently, these events took place in Kansas City) by making a rule that the home team has to have an entrant in the HR Derby. Could you imagine if such a rule had been in place in a fantasy world in which the Mets hosted the HR Derby in 2009, in a season when, in reality, Gary Sheffield led the team with 10 Home Runs (move over Home Run Baker)?
2. One extra thought...when the hell did the HR Derby have player-captains choosing the squads? That sounds almost as ridiculous as having fans choose the starters for the actual All-Star Game.
3. The other thought, as promised, is actually the tweet of the night, that I had in reply to something that MLB said after the game last night...
   

   . @MLB wait! this game actually meant something? oh man, if i had known, i would have watched it. it's just a FREAKING EXHIBITION GAME!!!

   — Jason Bornstein (@DyHrdMET) July 11, 2012

   
   I heard the NL won last night. I think I heard that it's now 3 in a row. But please, for the love of God, don't make this game actually mean something in the grand scheme of the season.
   

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The Only All-Star Game at Shea Stadium

I asked my readers on facebook for an idea of what to write about as a feature for the All-Star Break. Something not related to the 2010 Mets, but still of interest. Last year, I posted something short about Gary Cohen called "Gary Cohen, Hockey Announcer". You get the idea. My friend Coop suggested that I write about the 1964 All-Star Game at Shea. Perfect.

So what do I know about it? From my Mets History classes, I know that the 1964 All-Star Game was played at Shea Stadium as part of the ballpark's first season, along with the 1964-65 World's Fair that was taking place next door. Ron Hunt was the first Met to start an All-Star Game (remember, it was only the 3rd year of the team's existence, and well, the Mets rosters of the 1960's overall were not filled by good players). I found out today that Casey Stengel was a coach for Walter Alston's NL squad.

I've never seen a highlight from this game. I've never seen a replay. Remember that it took place in a time in which there wasn't video tape of every game like there is now. Replays of live events from that era are pretty rare. MLB Network recently showed the 1965 All-Star Game. I wish that I could include a video clip of Ron Hunt getting hit by a pitch in the 1964 game (after all, that's one thing he was famous for as a Met). But that didn't happen. Hunt did go 1 for 3 with a strikeout playing second base.

Johnny Callison, Outfielder then with the Phillies hit what's know known as a "walk-off homerun". I highly doubt that Lindsey Nelson or Buddy Blattner used that term on the NBC telecast. Callison won the Game's MVP Award for his performance that day in front of 50,850 at Shea.

From Baseball-Almanac.com,

Red Sox ace Dick Radatz was on the mound and had already thrown two hitless innings. Willie Mays, in a tough at-bat, got the walk and then stole second. Orlando Cepeda followed with a soft looper to right field scoring Mays due to a bad Joe Pepitone throw to the plate. Two quick outs and a walk later, Johnny Callison hammered a fast ball into the right field stands scoring three runs, giving the Nationals their sixth win in seven games and finally evening up the series.

The winning HR went out towards the Subway in RF. Soon-to-be Hall of Fame Umpire Doug Harvey was officiating down the LF line.

Not much else has been written to tell the story. Nothing with pictures or video that I could find. Shea never hosted another All-Star Game for whatever reason. Citi Field is likely to receive the next game assigned (2013 I believe).


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Fixing the All-Star Game

I was inspired by a post on Morgan Ensberg's Baseball IQ about how the "All-Star Game is Broken". So inspired in fact that I wrote a nice big comment. Morgan is asking for ideas from his readers on how to fix the game. (Morgan Ensberg for Commissioner?) Are you watching the game next week?

You're right that the All Star Game is broken. I think you left out a few players from your example, but no matter since you got your point across (and it seems like this happens every year). I'll give a few ideas, both big and small, on how to fix this (some seem contradictory to each other):

The fans today choose the starters, and in a way, influence the reserves (but position players only). The fans vote like it's a popularity contest rather than voting for the most deserving player at each position. They vote very early, and often. First, I'd let fans vote for pitchers. I don't know how many pitchers are taken for the game, say 11 or 12, and vote for 9 starters and 4 relievers. Second, start the voting later in the season. With online voting widely available in many forms, voting doesn't need to start in late April just a few weeks into the season like it did 20 years ago when fans had to go to the games to vote. The internet changed that whole model. April is too early to figure out if a player is great. Start voting on Memorial Day. Third, get rid of the rule where every team should be included. It dilutes the product on the field.

Fourth and biggest, I'd take it out of the fans' hands and give the vote to the sports writers and baseball broadcasters. It kills the marketing of the ASG, so I see it as somewhat controversial, but give it to the people most capable of determining who deserves to be an All Star. In the end, it will make for a better game, one worthy of letting the winner determine who's league has home field in the World Series (and if you don't go with change #4, then remove the implications of winning). Maybe we can let the fans have a say to influence tiebreakers (but see also changes #1 and 3). I'll go a step further and say that the new class of voters also selects the manager and maybe even coaches (still mostly being other managers).

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Mike Pelfrey, All Star Snub

A few things that I wrote on facebook earlier today after the All-Farce Star Game. Discuss...

Mike Pelfrey deserved to be an All Star, and was snubbed. Putting aside the part where he's scheduled to pitch on the last day before the break and can't pitch in the All-Star Game itself, he deserves to be on the NL pitching staff. Now I thought there was a new rule that starting pitchers pitching on the last day before the break couldn't be added to the roster. Even without that stupid rule in place (if I didn't make it up), select players based on merit, so they can be introduced on the field before the game with everyone else, and then make them ineligible because they pitched on the Sunday, selecting another player in their place. Douche move not to include Pelfrey simply because he will pitch on Sunday. What if it rains between now and then?

On the matter of Charlie Manuel, I thought there was a rule that a manager couldn't manage the All-Star Game 2 years in a row, which Charlie Manuel is going to do. Now I'm not advocating Jerry Manuel to be managing, though he would like all the pitching changes, but the the game has become a farce.

One other thing I never understood was why the fans don't vote for pitchers. MLB can make a rule that after the top vote-getters are announced that a taxi squad could be announced with it to replace any pitcher actually pitching on the Sunday before the game (or choosing not to work in the ASG).

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Vote Early, Vote Often

Inspired by this post at TheRopolitans.com...

I stopped voting for the All-Star Game and for the most part, stopped watching the game all together. Early/mid April is too early in the season to even start to think about All Star Game voting. With the internet and other ways of mass voting that are easier than heading out to the ballpark, you don't need to lay out the ballot boxes and start the voting until probably now (think about how it used to be 20 years ago). And of course there is the farce of the winner's World Series getting more home games in November than the loser's (ok, that's a double farce). It was done to make the players take it seriously.

As Andrew Vazzano leads me to with the stats and votes, what gets the fans to take it seriously? It's a popularity contest among the fans, the game is a joke, and viewer numbers are down.


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A crazy way to fix the All Star Game

This whole idea of having the All Star Game, an exhibition game in the schedule, determine home field advantage for the World Series has been ridiculous since day 1. Thank you Bud Selig.

The game needs to go back to being just an exhibition. This much is true. Something also needs to be done about the National League's 13 game losing streak. If the game is going to mean something, it needs to be more balanced.

Do away with the current structure. This idea kind of plays on Bud Selig's sense of logic. No more National League vs. American League. No more winner gets something. Play it gym class-style. Have one ballot, pooling all the potential starters into one vote (that is, one vote for each position). Vote for 2 Catchers, 2 Shortstops, etc. Get your 2 winners at each position (6 outfielders), the best of the rest, the best pitchers, and whatever it takes to get a player/pitcher from each of the 30 teams, into a 64 player pool (I believe the current rosters are 32 players on each team). Then have the managers split the pool into 2 arbitrary teams.

It won't have the same NL vs. AL theme, or something like the NHL's experiment of North America vs. the World (same thing done at the Future Stars game). It'll be purely a random exhibition seeing the best players split evenly. The result shouldn't matter, why should the teams.