Ways to Improve the All-Star Game Without Removing Home-Field Advantage Rule

along with more interviews with Heath Bell and Brian Wilson. The two are hilarious.

NO.

Our future DH Prince Fielder won the MVP and the guy from “The Hangover” closed the game out. What more do you want Brandon?

Name the rosters and that is it. Obviously if between naming and game there is a dl stint, find a replacement. But jeter and mo? Let them cameo or do not replace, it dilutes the game

is to eliminate Fan Voting.

As an older fan of the game the mystery to see Mays, McCovey, Koufax…. for the first time on a ball field was something special.

Today everyone has seen Pujols and Tulo highlights hundreds of times

I’m over the Brian Wilson thing. Really.

A lot of fans have grown to take the ASG way too seriously now due to Selig’s implementation of the silly home-field advantage rule. I have no issues with the tradition of fan voting…or if they decide to expand the roster to 100 or whatever.

Mmm, chaos…

But it’s a fun event to attend and it helps break up the season. Get rid of the ridiculous ‘this time it counts’ nonsense and it’s fine.

Want players to show up? Just write it into their contracts that they only collect their bonus if they show up (unless they’re on the DL). I don’t care how rich some of these guys are, a couple hundred thousand bucks will convince them to take a flight across the country to dick around in the city with friends for a couple days and play a max of 4 innings in an exhibition game.

Don’t want to deal with the tie conundrum? Just have a mini home run derby or some bullshit to decide the game after 10 innings so everyone goes home happy but you don’t need to wear out any of the pitchers.

If you get picked, you fucking go.

Is anyone surprised that the ratings were as low as they were? Well, if you are a baseball fan, then you were barraged with the constant stream of people NOT attending. It’s supposed to be the game of stars and that’s the draw. Dude. SIXTEEN players bailed on the All-Star Game. No Pujols, Hamilton, Jeter, Sabathia, Hernandez, Lester, Ichiro, Rivera, ARod, Price, Verlander, Hamels, Lincecum etc etc etc. (jesus that’s a lot of pitching!) Sure, some had legit injury reasons and such… but I find it quite annoying how easy it is to be ruled ‘ineligible’ to pitch in the ASG, or just to find a way to take the time off.
 It’s the age old cliche, but the All-Star Game IS for the fans and said fans pay serious $$ to attend the game.

I get that baseball is a supremely long season and I understand the importance of staying healthy and not hurting your own team by getting hurt in the ASG. I also understand that it’s tougher on pitchers because of innings, etc. But at the same time, I still find it kinda selfish in a way. Is anyone fooled by the aces who pitched Sunday? Like it was a coincidence? I mean, c’mon now. I applaud the guys who WANT to play in the game. Is it that big a deal to throw an inning for a pitcher? So you threw on Sunday… one inning. Not talking about a complete game.

The rosters are large enough to not force pitchers too much and not leave hitters suceptible. But that is how you fix it. Put the stars in the game. Don’t let them weasel out of playing. That was the whole point of the Home Field advantage remember. MLB wanted the game to be exciting. Sure maybe they went over the top some, but the idea of preventing teams from ‘mailing it in’ is worth it in my opinion as a fan of the game.

But not an obligation. No other sport requires their players to attend their respective all star games – why should baseball?

Part of the problem is the rosters are expanded enough to dilute the game to the point of it’s being a joke. Blame MLB, not the pitchers, for the Sunday rule – it greatly expanded the number of selected pitchers who skipped the game. The managers selected pitchers who pitched Sunday, knowing that the rules dictated those pitchers could not attend, which allowed them to select more pitchers who could not attend, and so on. I don’t think you can honestly say a pitcher like CC lobbied Joe Girardi to give him a Sunday start so he could blow off the game. If not for the Sunday rule, the number of pitchers selected would have been much less, and you’d not have seen David Robertson pitching in the second friggin’ inning of an all star game.

I have no sympathy whatsoever for any fan who shelled out $300 for this year’s game. None of what happened this year was different from last year unless you count the Jeter hoopla. You get what you get with an all-star game.

And I’m sure you know, there is always a risk of injury in any game, even an exhibition game. There are plenty of injuries in spring training, too. Jose Bautista had two plays during this game where he could have hurt himself. So, there is a risk to playing, and there is a definite health benefit to taking that time off to recover if you are an aging player with half a season’s worth of accumulated pain (a la Rivera and Jeter).