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All-Star Game has lost its luster
Posted: Wednesday July 12, 2000 10:27 PM
The All-Star Game Tuesday night proved that what has been the definitive showcase in sports is sadly degenerating into just another glitzy exhibition. The edge baseball used to have over its other sporting brethen was the competition. League presidents would prowl the clubhouses before the game and rant about the importance of winning. The American League would bristle about ``National League superiority.'' You would tune in waiting for Reggie Jackson to match up against Tom Seaver or Mike Schmidt to take his hacks against Jim Palmer. Tuesday only proved how long gone those days are. Yes, the absence of Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Ken Griffey Jr., Mike Piazza and Alex Rodriguez robbed the event of electricity. Only Sammy Sosa's apppearance in the batter's box brought the fans in Atlanta to a heightened sense of anticipation. (The at bats by Andres Galarraga were heartfelt and the highlights of the night, but not in the same vein as wondering if McGwire would change the course of the game with one bolt.) Otherwise, it was a night of too much that we've seen before. How can baseball expect the All-Star Game to retain its uniqueness when it constantly waters down the importance and identity of the leagues? For instance, when Oakland's Jason Giambi stepped in against Arizona's Randy Johnson in the first inning, who couldn't help root for something similar to those slapstick at bats by John Kruk and Larry Walker against the Big Unit? But Giambi, because of interleague play, had already faced Johnson two days earlier. He whiffed on three pitches. Likewise, check out the most important at bat of the game. The Yankees' Derek Jeter stepped in against the Mets' Al Leiter in the fourth inning with one out and the bases loaded in a tie game. Yankees vs. Mets? It was the perfect setup -- except for the fact that fans have seen this matchup over and over again. Jeter even said he knew what was coming from Leiter: a cut fastball. He pounded a two-run single. This was not Ron Guidry facing Lee Mazzilli. Mystery Theatre has closed. Everywhere you looked hitters were facing pitchers they'd seen before, either because of the increased player movement due to trades and free agency or because of interleague play. Johnson, for instance, faced four batters. Everyone had seen him before. And players, no matter what they say, don't care much about which team wins. Why would so many of them rush for flights to get out of town while the game is being played? Griffey Jr. provided the most damning indictment of the All-Star Game. He was healthy enough to take 41 full-blown hacks in the Home Run Derby but too hurt to take one at bat in the actual game itself. His actions confirmed how the game has been swallowed by its former sideshow. The Home Run Derby has become a bigger ticket than the All-Star Game. That event strips down the casual fan's wants to their very core: the longball, and the longer the better. The All-Star Game used to have such an edge and newness about it that no one ever could have seen a glorified batting practice session upstaging the actual competition. But then, more NBA fans can tell you who won the Slam Dunk Competition than the actual NBA All-Star Game. The NBA All-Star Game doesn't give you one-on-one matchups you've never seen before -- quite the contrary, you get familiar matchups only with less intensity (especially on the defensive end) than you see during the regular season. Baseball is beginning to suffer from the same diminution caused by familiarity. The trend will only continue as interleague play loses its own novelty and baseball keeps moving toward an AFC-NFC kind of homogenization. What can be done about it? Interleague play doesn't seem to be going away, even though baseball keeps scheduling games at the wrong time (before and after the All-Star Game, which should be the epitome of interleague play) and it works only in a few select markets. Baseball ought to consider the U.S.-vs.-the-World format used in the Futures Game on Sunday, which is similar to the current NHL All-Star Game setup. In that case you tap into players' pride and fans' national interest (a factor that explains the attention given Olympic sports once every four years while no one cares about them the other three). The game could even be staged outside the U.S. and become a key event in promoting the growth of the game internationally (that's if owners could ever give up the boost in season-ticket sales that traditionally goes with the awarding of the game.) The World team would include players outside the contintental U.S., which would allow places such as Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, San Juan, Mexico City, Caracas and Santo Domingo, for instance, to host the game every other year or even once every three years. Here are two lineups you could have put together Tuesday night, even considering the injuries:
The first All-Star Game of the new century shouldn't cause knee-jerk changes. But baseball has to watch what's happening to one of its showcase events. The U.S. vs. World format should at least be considered and the logistics studied. Meanwhile, the All-Star Game will only continue to lose its juice to the Home Run Derby and interleague play. Yankees fill needsThat was a great trade pulled off by the New York Yankees to get Denny Neagle. The Yankees moved quickly and got themselves the best available pitcher on the trade market, one with postseason experience. In addition, everybody knows what lefthanded pitchers can do in Yankee Stadium. The Yankees were able to pull off this deal because of -- surprise -- money. For one, they have the cash -- their farm system is stocked with amateur players who would have been problematic for most teams to sign, such as Drew Henson -- and that includes international free agents such as Alfonso Soriano, Jackson Melian and Ricardo Aromboles. For another, they can toss David Cone into the bullpen if they wish, or even the No. 5 spot in the rotation, and replace him with Neagle. That's one $12 million pitcher cast aside while signing on another at $5 million. How many teams can do that? The Yankees also improved their bullpen with this deal. Now Ramiro Mendoza, when healthy, goes back into the bullpen, which once again will be the best in baseball. Let's give the Reds credit, too. GM Jim Bowden didn't delude himself into thinking that a team playing under .500 in the middle of July is going to end up in the World Series. The deal signed by the Twins' Brad Radke ($9 million annually) cinched the fact that the Reds couldn't afford to keep Neagle, who assured them he would at least explore the free agent market. Bowden found a deal he liked and moved quickly. And so the Yankees answered the question that faces more and more teams now that the superstar players are demanding $15 million and more per year, eating up bigger and bigger chunks of a team's payroll: would you rather have two good players that address two needs or one big-time superstar? The Yankees decided they'd rather have David Justice and Neagle rather than just Sosa.
Around the hornCount Greg Maddux among those who would consider raising the mound to offer pitchers some help in this age of hyper-offense. But Maddux disagrees with the common perception that a higher mound would help only power pitchers with overhand fastballs. ``I think it will give better sink to pitches and better break to breaking balls,'' said Maddux. ``You're throwing the ball on more of a downward plane. It can only help.'' ... The Yankees' Roger Clemens elicited very little sympathy from all-star players for the pitch that beaned Mike Piazza last Saturday -- even from his fraternity of pitchers. Said one NL pitcher: ``There's nothing wrong with pitching inside, but you never, never go up there. If a guy's hitting .750 off you, so what? Find another way to get him out.'' ... A source close to Sosa said the slugger hasn't ruled out a trade to another club. "The process can't be done in public like it was last time'" the source says. "That just wore Sammy down. It has to come together privately.'' ... Veteran all-stars often throw off that "it's-no-big-deal" air of hipness about being at the midsummer classic. That's why it was so refreshing to see some first-time all-stars act as if they'd just hit the lottery. At the interview sessions Monday at a downtown Atlanta hotel, several first-timers -- including Dye, Tim Hudson and Mike Sweeney -- were so happy to be there that when the interviews were over they walked off with their cardboard nameplates as souvenirs. ... AL manager Joe Torre on not selecting Frank Thomas of the White Sox: ``He's a DH. If he played first base it might have been possible. But Frank's been here before and he'll be here again. I'm just happy we were able to get guys here who deserved to be here and never had been here before, like Mike Bordick and Tony Batista.'' ... When it comes to all-star snubs, no one took a harder hit than Arizona's Byung-Hung Kim, who was the best reliever in baseball over the first half. He held opposing hitters to a .155 batting average and recorded a strikeout in virtually half the at bats against him: 71 of 144. Those are Little League numbers, folks. ... Memo to NBC: spring for a new radar gun, preferably one without a windup device. A Kevin Brown fastball at 74 mph? A Jason Isringhausen heater at 63 mph? Even the average baseball fan's intelligence is insulted. Sports Illustrated senior writer Tom Verducci covers the baseball beat for the magazine and writes a column for CNNSI.com every Tuesday. Click here to send a question to his mailbag. The opinions expressed here are solely those of the writer.
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