Reviving Baseball's All-Star Game

As I watched the Home Run Derby last night, I went through my normal routine: I enjoy the pre-game show with Barry Larkin and Bobby Valentine being ridiculous, I wonder why they need a band to play to open what should be one of the most entertaining events of the season, I yell a lot when they show Chris Berman for the first time, I yell some more when he does a terrible job introducing the contestants, and then I grin and giggle for the next 90 minutes.

Seeing men hit baseballs out of a park will forever make me smile, unless it’s against my beloved Cubbies of course. This thrill of the long ball is part of the reason steroids tarnished the game over the span of the last 20 years, but it’s also what makes the game fun, especially on the night where home runs are the only things that matter.

There are vivid images in my mind from Derby’s past: Junior Griffey, with his hat turned backwards, hitting a ball off the warehouse in Baltimore, Barry Bonds bat flip as he won in 1996, Mark McGwire’s moon shots over the Green Monster in Fenway, Sammy Sosa putting on a show in Atlanta, Bobby Abreu, coming from nowhere, to hit 24 first-round bombs in Detroit, Ryan Howard hitting balls into the river in Pittsburgh, Josh Hamilton’s fireworks show in Yankee Stadium, and, after last night, Robi Cano and his father sharing an embrace after winning.

Last night’s Derby did not disappoint. I was intrigued, as I always am, for the first 90 minutes; Adrian Gonzalez, Prince Fielder, Robinson Cano, and David Ortiz were putting on a show. And then you reach the point where things get boring. By the second round, you’re tired of Berman exclaiming about the balls that go 12 rows deep and seemingly ignoring the balls that are hit to dead center, you’re tired of the players taking five pitchers between swings, and you’re tired of constant Gatorade breaks and pep talks from whoever seems to be closest.

The Major League All-Star game and festivities are two of my favorite days of the year. There are no other sporting events going on to compete with them, so all eyes are on baseball. But over the last eight or ten years, things have changed. The Home Run Derby gets boring and/or obnoxious, the All-Star game started counting for something more than a night of fun, and don’t get me started on what ESPN and MLB did with the Legends and Celebrity Softball game this year. Taking a few queues from what the NBA has done with their All-Star festivities, here a few suggestions to help MLB follow suite:

1. The game cannot count for anything.

This could take a while…

After an 11-inning tie in the 2002 Midsummer Classic, Bud Selig and his crack team decided that the All-Star game should decide home-field advantage in the World Series. I hated the idea at the time and I still hate the idea today.

An All-Star game, in any sport, should not have any affect on the regular season and especially not on the postseason. This should be an evening of baseball’s best and most popular players having fun with one another. We should be able to see things that make the game fun, like Randy Johnson whizzing a fastball over John Kruk, that might not happen anymore with the game having an impact on the World Series.

If fans are going to have the ability to vote in whomever they choose, the game can’t matter. Derek Jeter probably didn’t deserve an All-Star start this year, but the fans voted to see him play so he had the opportunity to represent his league. Does this give the American League the best chance to win? No, but this game is for the fans.

And if the “best” players are going to play only the first two or three innings, the game isn’t played the way it would be otherwise. In a game that matters, I would want Albert Pujols and Adrian Gonzalez at the plate for my team in the 7th, 8th, and 9th innings, not the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd.

It’s also fairly obvious that many of the players don’t seem to care that the game counts. The list of players not on the DL who declined to play in this year’s game proves that point. I’m fine with them wanting to rest in the middle of a grueling season, but a game this easy to sit out of shouldn’t have any importance behind it.

Aside from these changes, the game itself is fine. It’s hard to mess up a baseball game once the players take the field.

2. Players voted in by the fans are required to be in attendance.

It’s as simple as it sounds: if you’re voted in by the fans, you’re at the ballpark in uniform for the announcement of the starting lineups before Tuesday’s game. Obvious exceptions would be taken into account here such as family emergencies and injuries that don’t allow comfortable travel, but outside of those circumstances the players that are voted in by the fans will be in attendance to represent their league and their fans.

I’m talking to you, Mr. 3000.

3. All-Star Monday can not grow stale.

As mentioned above, the Home Run Derby is one of my favorite events, but it could be better. Here’s how you fix it:

1) A hometown player must be featured. Nothing keeps the crowd excited like watching one of their own at the plate. No matter if he hits zero or 13 homers, the crowd would be buzzing for at least 15 minutes straight. (Justin Upton was made for a home run contest; Prince dropped the ball on this one)

2) Contestants only get one quick break after their fifth out. I understand letting bad pitches go and how tiring this event can be, but these guys do not need to step out six times over the course of 15-20 swings. This event needs to keep moving in order to keep its energy.

3) ESPN is only allowed a commercial break halfway through the first round, after the first round, and before the finals. Again, we have to keep the event moving. Don’t give me a chance to see that Braveheart is playing on HBO.

4) Remember several years back when MasterCard (I think) had targets up around the park and if they were hit, a fan had a chance to win $1 million? (I think that was the promotion, I could be wrong about the details, but it was very similar.) This needs to come back. There should be no less than 15 targets spread throughout the outfield at both attainable distances and locations, and a few just out of reach of even baseball’s strongest men, but with large enough rewards to keep the fans excited. If one of Price Fielder’s bombs had hit the Ballpark Franks logo and given every fan in Section K a free hot dog, the place would have exploded. If Adrian Gonzalez had missed the Red Bull sign in deep center by 10 ft that would have given one lucky fan a new car, the roof might have caved in from the noise. Even if it was a free foam finger for one kid, the fans would love it. There are sponsors willing to play this game and Major League Baseball has to take advantage of this.

Along with the Derby, there needs to be other exciting events for both the fans and the players:

Throwing accuracy relay: Set up a series of targets at home plate for pitchers to throw at. Once two different pitchers from each league have exploded their plates, we move to two of their teammates trying to hit larger targets on longer throws into the outfield. The first team of four men to destroy all of their targets wins. This would create excitement for all of the players and the fans, and would also involve at least four players from each league that would not be involved in the festivities otherwise. Can you imagine Justin Verlander, Felix Hernadex, Rick Ankiel (I know, it’s a stretch to have him anywhere near the All-Star game, but his arm is phenomenal), and Ichiro hurling balls against Jair Jurrjens, Roy Halladay, Jason Heyward, and Jay Bruce?

First to second contest: Speed is a huge part of the game and one of the most fun skills that a player can possess. Let’s put Michael Bourn, Jose Reyes, Carlos Gomez, and Tony Campana (a biased Cubs pick) from the NL against Jacoby Ellsbury, Brett Gardner, Austin Jackson, and Peter Bourjas from the AL in a race from the batters box to second base. In a bracket tournament, we’d put two men in each batters box and have them race from home to somewhere around second base (we obviously couldn’t have two men colliding at second). Players would drool at the chance to be named the game’s fastest man.

These two events peppered between rounds of the Home Run Derby would make the Monday before the All-Star game phenomenal and also help from keeping the Derby grow boring and drawn-out. Between the three contests, the league would have at least 24 players on display (unless we find ourselves in a situation where Ichiro is in all three contests), which is something Major League Baseball needs. With only three of four true recognizable superstars in the game currently, putting 24 fresh faces in front of a huge audience would be a great marketing tool.

4. Don’t mess with the Legends and Celebrities Softball Game!

Over the past four or five years, this has become one of my favorite events. It’s always shown at least an hour later than it’s supposed to because the Derby takes so long, but it is also always a fun event. Seeing Freddy Lynn and Rollie Fingers play on the same field with Meatloaf and Nick Jonas is fun, there’s no way around it. But this year, they changed things.

The Legends were still Legends, but the celebrities missed the mark. In the past, there were players like the previously mentioned Meatloaf and ESPN’s Kenny Mayne; guys who came out to have fun and knew they were there for that reason. This year, it was an ABC cavalcade of “stars.” I didn’t know who 75% of the “celebrities” were because I don’t watch ABC’s lineup of romantic dramas.

And the worst part? Gary Thorne was no longer calling the game, so no one was there to even tell me who the unknown man at bat was. If this game is going to be shown on air, there needs to be someone calling the game, to some small degree, and letting us know who the players are. Ernie Banks was the third base coach for the National League team last night and he was never recognized on the broadcast. All we got was Erin Andrews and James Denton, who I wouldn’t know if not for his reoccurring appearances at this game, random comments as they played in the game.

There you have it: four things (three of which are serious and the last being a personal request) that could easily transform the All-Star break into two days of baseball perfection.

Go Cubs! Go National League! Go baseball!