Exhibitionists

Baseball errs in taking its All-Star Game seriously

Baseball's All-Star Game occupies a unique place in American sports culture, generally regarded as more important -- more telling -- than it should be, and held to a higher standard than its Big Four counterparts. The NBA and NHL All-Star Games are little more than defenseless exhibitions devoid of drama (unless Magic Johnson is in the midst of a comeback or some young buck like Kobe Bryant or Michael Jordan is frozen out by the veterans). The NFL Pro Bowl, played in Hawaii after the season, is an utter joke. To be voted into the Pro Bowl is an honor; to actually play in it is anticlimactic.

But baseball's All-Star Game -- the Midsummer Classic, if you will -- has always been accorded a respect withheld from the others. The reason for this is unclear. Perhaps it's because baseball is at its core an individual game (hitting, fielding, pitching) wrapped in a team uniform, so All-Star combatants theoretically can still perform at their highest level. Maybe it's a leftover artifact from the days when baseball was king in America; the All-Star Game was part of the rush, and we've been too slow to let go of the concept.

I grew up cherishing baseball's All-Star Game. I remember the 2-1 game in '67, when Tony Perez hit a home run in the 15th inning to end it. I remember Pete Rose running over Ray Fosse in 1970. I was a Mets fan and I rooted for the National League, but I despised Rose. That was a tough year. The All-Star Game was figuratively circled on my calendar from Opening Day. I couldn't wait to see which Mets would make the team, and I got goosebumps when they entered the lineup. During an era when televised baseball was rare, the All-Star Game was a nighttime, national event.

The sports world is now a dramatically different place. My son can choose from among a half-dozen televised baseball games a night, which is a great thing for any fan. (Although TV ratings and ballpark attendance suggest that there are fewer fans every year.) Player-team loyalty has been dead for two decades, which is to say that I'm not sure how many Cleveland fans gave a rat's butt about whether Jim Thome made the National League All-Star squad as a Phillie. Overall, there is a widespread perception that athletes are far too egocentric to care about an exhibition game that interrupts their summer. True or not, that's the perception.

Result: The All-Star Game is irrelevant, except as whatever Fox or ESPN can spin together into a television show. It's not an athletic contest by any conventional measure.

And I'm cool with all of this. Times change.

Then came last year. Too few pitchers. Too many innings. Game ended in a tie. Public relations disaster.

The solution is spectacularly flawed. Now, Tuesday's All-Star Game will determine home-field advantage for the World Series. Managers and players have been encouraged by commissioner Bud Selig to take the contest seriously.

It's not a serious event. It's an exhibition. Players aren't loyal to teams, much less leagues. Maybe when the Brooklyn Dodgers and the Yankees were bidding for New York's loyalty in the mid-'50s, but not anymore. Armando Benitez, this year's token Met, is supposed to give a hoot about getting home field for the Braves or Giants when he pitches to one hitter in the eighth? Please.

It would be nice if Benitez gave a hoot because he's a professional with pride and passion. Maybe he will. Maybe all of the players will. But the All-Star Game is an exhibition, an opportunity for pomp and circumstance and star-gazing. It should never end in a tie, but adding pitchers would have fixed that. Selig's attempt to make it something more smacks of desperation, a gimmicky grab at Band-Aiding a struggling sport and a hopeless reach for a past long dead.

Let the game be what it is. Just don't let it end in a tie.

Sports Illustrated senior writer Tim Layden is a regular contributor to SI.com. Click here to send him a question or comment.

 

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