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The Milwaukee Embarrassment Baseball got the All-Star fiasco it's been asking forPosted: Wednesday July 10, 2002 11:51 AM
Baseball got the travesty it deserved in Milwaukee on Tuesday night, the worst All-Star Game ever staged. You keep treating the contest like a glorified spring training exhibition and that's exactly what you wind up with, the major difference being that fans were gouged to the tune of $175 a pop for a competition not played to completion in a city that lacks the ambiance and the hotel rooms of Cactus League towns. Only in baseball and only in Milwaukee could a sport's premier event end up with angry fans pelting the playing field with garbage and chanting "Fans Strike!" in a publically financed stadium in the commissioner's own backyard. "He was shaking, literally shaking," said one baseball source near Bud Selig while the 11th and final inning failed to break a 7-7 tie. Let's get one thing straight: Selig made the absolute right call in ending the game after the 11th inning. NL manager Bob Brenly floated the idea of a mini home run derby to break the deadlock -- a diamond version of a shootout -- to Selig. AL manager Joe Torre said he never considered telling pitcher Freddy Garcia to groove hittable fastballs to make a tie-breaking run possible. "They're competitors," Torre said. "You can't tell them not to compete. And how is a rigged ending good for the fans?" Selig could not risk an injury to Garcia or Vicente Padilla, the NL pitcher who Brenly said was incapable of pitching a third inning. The real problem, however, lies with baseball allowing itself to be painted into such an awkward corner. "They tried to get everybody into the game," Selig said of the two managers. "That's the objective of the game." Bratwurst, Bud. Wrong, wrong, wrong. If baseball cared less about turning the All-Star Game into some democratic softball funfest at the annual company picnic and cared more about playing the best players -- the players the fans really want to see -- in a competitive environment that actually resembles a real game (basically, where we were only 15 years ago) then baseball would not have found itself in the Milwaukee Embarrassment. "It does have to be evaluated," Selig admitted, regarding the use of players. See, baseball has been devaluing the All-Star Game for years, so much so that FOX would trade it to ESPN for the Home Run Derby in a heartbeat. Interleague play has helped kill the game because we've seen many of the batter-pitcher matchups before. The players don't care. Many of them skip the event entirely or keep the engines running on their timeshare jets while gracing the fans with an actual at-bat or two. Check out the All-Star dugouts after the fifth inning. Empty. The biggest stars --- the ones the fans vote to see -- scram after three or four innings. If the stars don't stick around, why should we? So we get All-Star Games such as the Milwaukee Embarrassment in which fans get to see Randy Winn come to the plate more often than Barry Bonds or Sammy Sosa. Did you stay up for that Winn-Mike Remlinger smackdown in the seventh inning? It's ironic enough that baseball names the All-Star Game MVP Award after Ted Williams and then decides not to award it. But there is also this: Williams once said the highlight of his career was his 14th-inning homer to win the 1941 midsummer classic. The way the game is played now Williams would have touched down on the tarmac with his posse in time to watch the 14th inning on a television in his limo on his way to the ESPYs. Nearly all the talk after the Milwaukee Embarrassment from Selig and the managers was about protecting the players. Nobody wanted to talk about protecting the interests of the fans. Let's face it, the game has become a meaningless blur of substitutions because nobody cares who wins or loses any more, the name of the game is pampering the players. At least three elite All-Stars, for instance, threatened to pull out of all events if baseball didn't meet their ridiculous whims, such as, in the case of two elite players, granting field access to members of their entourage. Managers are most guilty of stripping the competition from the game. Apparently breaking a sweat is no longer permitted in All-Star games. The players' association is likely to file a grievance if anybody dares to use a pitcher for three innings, for instance. Got to get Johnny Anonymous from the Devil Rays an inning of work, people. "If players start to think they're not going to get into the game, then why come at all?" asked Yankees third baseman Robin Ventura. Hey, Mike Williams should be fetching coffee for John Smoltz at the All-Star Game, not enjoying some sense of entitlement to playing time. Selig talked after the Milwaukee Embarrassment about expanding the rosters with more position players and pitchers. Huge mistake. Sure, shoehorn a few more players into the game until it looks like the cast of Ben Hur. Adding a pitcher or two is fine enough. To really fix the All-Star Game, here is what else needs to be done. The rise of relief pitchers has hurt how long starters last in the game. Brenly, for instance, picked seven relievers among his 10 pitchers. (Starters Tom Glavine, Matt Morris and Randy Johnson all bailed from the team.) Relievers aren't trained to (gasp!) pitch two innings at a time. Many of the festivities were as disastrous as the game. Rain gushed from multiple leaks in the roof during the Home Run Derby. The annual All-Star Gala for players, media, special guests and corporate sponsors was scheduled at an outdoor venue -- with no tents rented. A vicious thunderstorm turned the party into a sad joke, with rain soaking the chafing dishes and guests alike. The annual postgame party was unlike anything since the days of Marge Schott: brats, chips and cookies. You know it's a lowbrow event when the catering is taken care of by left field bleachers surplus. And so it came down to this: The commissioner of baseball, tighter than a brat casing, sitting there in his orange polka dot tie like some Dr. Seuss character waiting for a Cat in the Hat to save the day, a leaky, taxpayer-funded roof over his head, a near riot going on in the stands, and most of the best players in the game long gone from the premises. David Stern, Paul Tagliabue and Gary Bettman must have fallen off their couches with laughter, if they stayed up that late. (OK, OK, and Donald Fehr, too.) Once upon a time the baseball All-Star Game was the best of its kind in sports. It was the only place, other than a World Series, to see if Johnny Bench could hit Catfish Hunter, or Reggie Jackson could hit Tom Seaver. It was the place to see if the National League really was better than the American League. Pete Rose cared enough to run into Ray Fosse. Ted Williams played the whole game. Now the NBA All-Star Game is a better showcase. So they don't play much defense. At least Kobe Bryant is going to be on the floor in the fourth quarter trying to win. Winning doesn't matter any more in the baseball All-Star Game. What matters is getting everyone playing time. What matters is getting the marquee players out of the game as quickly as possible. What matters is getting them on their jets before the fans realize they've been had. The Milwaukee Embarrassment should not have been a surprise. Baseball has been asking for it. Sports Illustrated senior writer Tom Verducci covers the baseball beat for the magazine and is a regular contributor to CNNSI.com. Click here to send a question to his Baseball Mailbag |
