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July 16, 2012 BP UnfilteredFixing The All Star Game After Saying It's Not FixableToday I took an untimely look at the All Star game and suggested that we all stop trying to fix it because it’s fundamentally flawed and not fixable. Now watch as I try to fix the All Star game! The premise of my article (which you can find here) is that the All Star game is an exhibition and because it doesn’t count in the standings and is played by multi-millionaires who don’t care about the difference between the winning team’s check and the losing team’s check, there isn’t anything that can be done to create a competitive game. Baseball tried by putting home field advantage in the World Series on the line, but, to obnoxiously quote myself:
Winning the game doesn’t matter because even though Baseball says it counts, the game doesn’t really count. So here’s my idea: what if the game did count? Like what if it counted in the standings? The franchises represented by the players from the winning team would get a win while the franchises represented by the players from the losing team would get a loss. That would create genuine incentive to win the game because, for the first time ever, it would make the All Star game an actual baseball game and not an exhibition. As with all suggestions of this nature, it comes with its own set of problems. The first is that if everyone in the American League gets a win and everyone in the National League gets a loss, who cares? That won’t impact the standings at all. So, to get around that, the players would have to be divided into two teams irrespective of their league. That creates logistical concerns that I have no intention of solving here. We’ll leave it at this: the only way I can come up with to create a genuine game atmosphere played between All Stars is to make the game actually count in the standings. So, what am I missing? Why is this a bad idea?
Matthew Kory is an author of Baseball Prospectus. Follow @mattymatty2000
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I agree there is no way to make the all-star game mean anything in its current format. The only solution would be two all-star games. Eff it, double-header baby!
Have the fan voting and the usual game with the circus atmosphere they have now. Play the game just about how it's played now. Expand the rosters by a few more players and you'll have plenty to go around. Have a few more pitchers throw 2+ innings, especially starters pitching in relief.
Then Game 2, this one COUNTS! Same managers and coaching staffs but they get to pick a 25 man roster of whomever they feel are the very best players. Pick the 25 man roster when announcing the pitching staffs.
Use of bench and bullpen should approximate any normal Yankees-Red Sox game. So expect a close game at 4+ hours with benches used. If Verlander and Cain start, for example, they should be expected to pitch a normal 7-8 innings as they normally would.
MLB pays travel expenses and TBD bonus (negotiated with union) for being on the 25 man roster. No contract bonuses allowed. Not allowed to skip the game unless a valid injury occurs. Playing in the game if selected part of the standard player contract.
You'd never get the players to agree to a doubleheader. So scrap the first current-style game.
But I like the idea of picking teams playground style. So go ahead and select players as currently selected, but no one knows who they're going to play for until 1/2 hour before the first pitch, when the managers pick teams. I think the competitive juices of the players would kick in with this more impromptu and (to my mind at least) fun approach. They'd get fired up during the picking, and that would sure be a lot more entertaining to watch than the boring call them out to the baseline to tip their hats stuff. Picture players calling out to the managers lobbying to be picked early, the revelation of who the managers really think is best (aside from their own guys, of course), and the poor guys left at the end trying desperately to avoid being the last picked.
You mean like they are doing in the NHL? It's a gimmick that is kind of interesting once, and then just as boring as the rest of the exhibition.