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Change is good

If you look at facts, new All-Star Game format makes sense

Posted: Tuesday July 15, 2003 12:16 PM
Updated: Tuesday July 15, 2003 5:09 PM

This is all you need to know about the importance of the All-Star Game in recent years: Alex Rodriguez admitted he has watched the end of games on his living room couch in Miami -- games that began with him in the starting lineup. It's been de rigueur for stars to take one or two at-bats, shower and hop a private plane home with the game still in progress. If the players themselves didn't care who won and didn't want to watch, why should we?

The Midsummer Classic had become a meaningless exhibition in recent years, so much so, Rodriguez said, that managers didn't even bother giving players any signs before the game

"The more that's at stake, the more fun the game is," said Rodriguez, who noted that the playful hug-and-carry Barry Bonds gave Torii Hunter last year probably won't happen anymore. "Now they're going to kick each other," he said.

Commissioner Bud Selig is an easy target. It's easy to blame him for many things, but putting World Series homefield advantage on the line at the All-Star Game is not one of them. It's an idea worth trying. Here are the biggest misconceptions about the new format:

Selig overreacted to the embarrassing 7-7 tie last year. Fact: Baseball had been talking about a change of format for more than a year before last season's game in an effort to put the brakes on the event's declining TV ratings. And Fox, baseball's television partner, wanted this new system as badly as the owners did, if not more so. And, yes, the players agreed to the change on a two-year experimental basis. It would not have happened without their OK.

One game should not decide something as important as World Series homefield advantage. Fact: World Series homefield advantage had been determined by the whim of the calendar -- alternating leagues on an annual basis. There was no system of merit in place before. Some players on Monday argued that the team with the better record should have the advantage, completely ignorant of the fact that it's logistically impossible for baseball to wait until the League Championship Series are over to find out where the World Series will begin -- not to mention the fact that the AL and NL teams play completely different schedules.

This Time It Counts. Fact: It always counted. Tell Ray Fosse and Pete Rose it didn't count when they did their impression of a two-car collision at home plate in the 1970 All-Star Game. Tell Hunter, who last year made an amazing catch to rob Bonds of a homer, or Sammy Sosa, who tried to hustle from first to third on a single to left in 2002. The problem has not been so much with how the game has been played as how it's been managed. As Selig said, ever since Cito Gaston failed to use Mike Mussina in Baltimore in 1993 -- the former Blue Jays skipper teased Orioles fans by having Moose warm up in the bullpen -- managers have felt the need to get everybody into the game, Little League style.

"I feel everybody should play,'' Bonds said. "We're not here not to play.''

Baloney. Being selected as an All-Star is an honor. Playing in the game is a privilege. The rotation of players needed to be tightened up. But rest assured: when players are in the game, they are trying their best.

Having more pitchers averts the possibility of another tie. Fact: Expanding the rosters only serves to give managers more headaches when it comes to getting people into the contest. Again, the problem was with how managers ran the game, shuttling pitchers in and out. You don't need 12 pitchers per side. And, for goodness' sake, get rid of the ridiculous rule that says every team must be represented. Armando Benitez, Mike Williams and Lance Carter, for instance, have no right being All-Stars. Because of roster expansions and injury substitutions, there are 70 players who can call themselves All-Stars this year. Rosters should be tightened -- say, to the traditional 25-man teams -- rather than expanded to ease the burden on managers and reward only the deserving stars.

So let's give the new system a chance. Nothing sacred is being messed with here. The old system was so great that the 1997 Marlins, a wild-card team, had World Series homefield advantage over the AL Central champion Indians. The All-Star game needed a jolt to generate interest, having degenerated into a shapeless church picnic softball game. The players' association signed off on the new format. Give it a test spin. Just maybe players will feel a sense of league pride. Just maybe they (and a few more viewers) might actually care enough to stick around to see who wins.

"I won't be at home eating Doritos on my couch at midnight," Rodriguez said. "This [the new format] is going to make guys take the ninth inning very seriously. I have my own ideas about the [format], but I like what it's doing for the game. It's a good start."

Seen and heard in Chicago

For all the talk about messing with the All-Star Game, Seattle second baseman Bret Boone came up with his own idea on how to improve baseball: get rid of Bud Selig as commissioner.

"That's the number one thing wrong with the game," said Boone, who sees Selig's role as a conflict of interest, given his previous role as owner of the Milwaukee Brewers. (His ownership stake has been placed in a trust.) Boone is an old-school guy who wanted to keep the All-Star Game as it was and who wants to get rid of QuesTec, too.

"People are trying to manipulate the game now," Boone said. "I'm not a fan of a lot of things they're doing. I'm not a fan of Bud Selig being the commissioner. I want a non-biased person running the game, not someone who's interested in what's best for the owners or what's best for the players, but what's best for the game."

Marlins phenom Dontrelle Willis on what he had planned to do if he had not been an All-Star: "Go home and sleep. Turn my phone off." Willis, by the way, said he would like to improve his mound presence, citing Eric Gagne, John Smoltz and Kevin Millwood as pitchers who "strike fear" in hitters. Said the 21-year-old left-hander, "I think I'm too nice."

Bonds held an entertaining, expansive session with reporters Monday, speaking most passionately about the Negro Leagues Museum in Kansas City, Mo., which he recently visited. "We should put our stuff in that," he said, referring to memorabilia from black ballplayers, adding that he would also like to see it displayed in Cooperstown.

"Yet, you say there's no segregation in baseball?" Bonds asked rhetorically. "We are an extension of that museum."

Bonds, by the way, in the same vein of conversation, said Hank Aaron can keep his record of 755 home runs. It's Babe Ruth who Bonds wants to take down from his pedestal.

"The one I care about is Babe Ruth and 715," the six-time MVP said. Asked why, Bonds replied, "As a left-handed hitter, I knocked him out. That's it. Because, according to baseball, Babe Ruth is everything. I got his slugging percentage, his on-base percentage, his walks, and when I take his home runs, that's it. Don't talk about him anymore . . . I'm the next generation of the Negro Leagues. Hank Aaron can have those 755 home runs.''

Baseball made the right move in getting Roger Clemens to the All-Star Game -- "It's like making sure Michael Jordan is in the All-Star Game," Rodriguez said -- but, typically, stubbed its toe in doing so. Nobody bothered telling Barry Zito, who threw 106 pitches in his start on Sunday, that Clemens was taking his spot. That left the A's left-hander in the awkward position of taking questions from reporters about being replaced before he'd heard anything about the switch

"I just want to know the reason," a perplexed Zito said. "Is it because someone in Oakland told them I wasn't available, or is it that they don't have confidence in me?"

Rest assured, Barry: any team would love to give you the ball at any time. Don't take it personally. It's just the way Major League Baseball -- and, in this case, a lack of communication from the Athletics -- manages to create a snafu, even when it's doing the right thing.

Sports Illustrated senior writer Tom Verducci covers baseball for the magazine and is a regular contributor to SI.com. Click here to send a question to his Mailbag.

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