This is a discussion on Great article about the All-Star Game within the North American Sports forums, part of the Sports Forums category; From baseballprospectus.com (my thoughts to follow):
<table align="center" border="0" width="720"><tbody><tr><td rowspan="2" valign="top" width="620"> All-Star Game Wrap
by Nate Silver
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From baseballprospectus.com (my thoughts to follow):
Quote:
<table align="center" border="0" width="720"><tbody><tr><td rowspan="2" valign="top" width="620">All-Star Game Wrap
by Nate Silver
</td><td class="ctrsmall" valign="center"> To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 20 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. </td><td width="30"> To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 20 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. </td></tr><tr><td class="ctrsmall" valign="center"> To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 20 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. </td><td width="30"> To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 20 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. </td></tr></tbody></table><table align="center" border="0" width="720"><tbody><tr><td width="720">SAN FRANCISCO – I’ve never had particularly strong feelings about the All-Star Game. I remember being passionate about it as a kid, and less passionate about it as an adult, and that was pretty much that, until I got an invitation to cover this year’s game from AT&T Park.
If you watch the All-Star Game on television, it’s hard to be anything but indifferent. FOX produces the game such that the focal point is anything and everything except for the action on the field-- To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 20 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. ’ kayak in McCovey Cove, To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 20 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. ’s favorite type of pasta, Scooter the Talking Baseball. But a lot gets lost in translation. The fans are genuinely invested in the outcome, and the atmosphere at the park is genuinely tense--not quite postseason tense, but well above regular season levels. When I left the park at the end of the game, the To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 20 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. /National League partisans on the Muni Metro looked genuinely dejected. The All-Star Game is a genuine baseball game, and it deserves a genuine outcome.
Indeed, one of the wonderful things about baseball is that it’s a sport that is hard to play indifferently. Basketball players pace themselves. Football players don’t pace themselves, generally speaking, but they live in the shadow of injury, and it’s irrational to expect them to risk life, limb, and their non-guaranteed contracts for the sake of an exhibition contest. Baseball, on the other hand, is a reaction sport; with a couple of minor exceptions like a close play at home plate (or To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 20 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. ’s jumping-the-shark moment against To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 20 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. ), a baseball player is going to have a hard time giving less than 100 percent. Half of a second between the time the ball leaves the pitcher’s hand and crosses home plate isn’t enough time to be lazy.
Not that the 64 men on the All-Star rosters would have deigned to be lazy in the first place. This was a game played at max effort. The pitchers weren’t leaving anything in their tanks, taking advantage of the knowledge that they only had 15 or 30 pitches to throw by pouring the most into every offering. There were three stolen bases in this game, one of which came from a guy who is supposed to have a bad hamstring, and another of which came from a guy who has just three stolen bases on the season. The players get it, the fans get it… it’s the people that come in between that don’t.
Some of the people that come in between, of course, are the executives and broadcasters at FOX. Consider this: why are To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 20 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. continuing to decline at a time when the sport as a whole is as popular as it has ever been? Could it have something to do with the fact that FOX treats the game with less than the respect that it deserves? You can point out, certainly, that postseason ratings are down too, but this has an obvious counter: FOX’s coverage of the playoffs is similarly misguided.
The second group of people complicit in the problem are those at 350 Park Avenue. I believe that Bud Selig and his coterie have good intentions, but they’ve given the All-Star Game an impossible mandate. Expanding the rosters has made it harder, rather than easier, to play to win, since few managers other than To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 20 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. are going to be willing to let a substantial number of players rest on their bench for nine innings. To some extent also, the uncertain disposition of a game that goes substantially beyond nine innings is a problem. It’s clear that a tie is an unacceptable outcome, yet what is the alternative if the game heads into the top of the 13th with the score even? Do you stretch pitchers out for more than three innings? Do you allow players to re-enter the game? Do you call it a night and resume the game the next day (which doesn’t resolve the aforementioned problems)? Or do you give up and declare the game a tie after all, determining home field advantage by coin flip? The rules are ambiguous on this question, and the precedent is non-existent.
We’ll revisit this dilemma in a moment. But first, let’s not give a free pass to the managers. Or more precisely, let’s not give a free pass to To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 20 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. . It was clear from the first inning on that Jim Leyland was playing to win. As To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 20 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. reports, Leyland went through a scientific process to determine his starting pitcher, and he let him pitch for two innings. He pulled To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 20 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. with two outs in the ninth inning, risking a bruised ego in his process. He deployed his bench in relatively rational ways: his most valuable starters were the last ones out of the game, and he made superb use of the double switch. It was clear that Leyland had done his homework.
The same cannot be said of his opposite number in the National League dugout. Tony La Russa outlined a magic bullet theory about how he was precluded from using To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 20 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. before extra innings because of an injury to To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 20 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. ; never mind that he had nine innings and a thirty-two man roster with which to come up with alternatives. La Russa refused to let To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 20 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. go more than one inning, even though there is an unusually large differentiation between Peavy and the rest of the NL staff. He pulled To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 20 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. from the game–-or let Barry Bonds pull himself–-after just two at-bats.
I happen to believe that La Russa was being stubborn for reasons that may never be entirely known to us; perhaps he and Pujols came into the game with some baggage. Nevertheless, La Russa does have a pretty good excuse, which are those disconnects that the current structure of the game bring to the surface. If baseball is serious about making the All-Star Game count, it ought to do the following:
Reduce roster sizes to 28 men per team, at least 12 of which must be pitchers, eliminating the one-player-per-team requirement. This provides for plenty of room for maneuvering, while at the same time reducing the burden on the managers to exhaust their bench. I can understand that if a player makes an All-Star roster, he’s probably going to play. But I’ve never understood why so many players need to make an All-Star roster in the first place. If you surveyed fans, and asked them whether they’d rather see as competitive an All-Star Game as possible, or see as many players play as possible, the sentiment would be overwhelmingly in favor of the former option. In fact, I suspect that a solid majority of fans would feel this way, even if it meant that a player from their favorite team didn’t get to play. Indeed, there’s less incentive to let fans “see everyone play” than there used to be, given interleague play and the proliferation of TV viewing options. Is anyone’s All-Star Game experience going to be cheapened if they don’t see To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 20 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. or To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 20 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. ?
Mandate that games that progress longer than 12 innings will be resolved by a Home Run Derby. Although this might seem to push the needle further in the direction of “exhibition game,” it’s probably the best of a series of poor alternatives. There is a pragmatic limit on the number of innings that an All-Star Game can go anyway. At least this way the fans can be assured of a winner, and the managers will know how many innings they need to plan for, providing for more aggressive strategy earlier in the contest.
Select the managers based on the standings through July 1, rather the previous season. It’s tempting to ask whether La Russa might have managed the game differently if his To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 20 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. had To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 20 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. of reaching the playoffs. Hand over the reins to the manager who has the most to gain with a victory, which means the team with the best record in either league heading into the contest.
The All-Star Game can return to its rightful place as one of the best moments of the baseball calendar, but in order to do so, it needs to reflect those things that make the sport great in the first place. That means that the distractions must end once the first pitch is thrown, and that the managers need to be equipped with a set of rules and expectations that allow them to show off their skills just as the players do.
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I think the most brilliant thing in this article is about Fox's atrocious coverage of the game (and the playoffs). It's the same problem ESPN has in their coverage. The broadcast is about everything EXCEPT the game.
It's about the new "Bronx is Burning" miniseries, or the upcoming season of 24. Or Joe Morgan reminiscing about the Big Red Machine for 3 hours. Or Emmitt Smith on Dancing With the Stars.
I tune into the ASG, or Monday Night Football to watch sports. I dont give a shit about Eric Byrnes and his dog hanging out on a boat in the SF Bay (although it was pretty funny when the dog jumped into the Bay and started swimming away into the bay). You get NO genuine insight into the game.
Also, Tony LaRussa did an absolutely awful job in both roster formation (Brian Fuentes? Freddy Sanchez?). Then, leaving Pujols on the bench with two outs and the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth is unacceptable, especially considering Pujols is one of the biggest stars in the game, and somebody that the fans would want to see up in a big situation (unlike Aaron Rowand...no offense to Mr. Rowand)
I also like the authors explanation of how there is no room for the lazy in a baseball game, so the players actually try hard in the MLB ASG, as opposed to the Pro Bowl and the defense-starved NBA ASG.
Anybody have any thoughts?
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Last edited by Dr. Giganto; 07-11-2007 at 10:43 PM.
Basically.. Tony is a fucking sore loser is what he is.. The Cards are having a miserable year so he just threw his hands up and gave baseball a big Fuck you.. When he's not lecturing someone for 4 hours at the podium, he's blowing playoff games with stacked lineups.
I do agree but not according to most fans as he's one of the best coaches ever, which is bull because just like Bobby Cox he chokes in the big game and under pressure.
Yeah, the Braves have won a WS and some playoff series but I'm speaking about the majority of their playoff appearances in the last 15 years. But out all those years they lost more in the first round of the playoffs then won after having an excellent seasons, so I blame that all on the coaching staff for not being able to adjust.
The only time they ever had a great closer was with Smoltz and that took away from the rotation. I think it's harder to win the world series now then it's ever been..
In the 1950's the Braves wouldn't have had to play so many tough teams in a row..
Another reason why the Yankees 26 championships are a bit misleading..
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