My opinion is that yes, Bud Selig is a moron and he never deserved to be Commissioner. That said, I really don't argue with the decision. Look, if we treated this game as they did 100 years ago where the leagues hated each other and used this game to spill their bad blood and beat each other up, then yes we would have a legitmate complaint. But everyone here knows that the Allstar game has moved far away from that stage and became an exhibition. It's become such a farce that guys like Big Unit and Pedro are staying home for non injury reasons. Would I mind seeing it being a knockout, bloody rivalry again? Sure, I'd love it. However, with the way it is currently viewed around Major League Baseball I really can't fault the decision. One thing I will say is the way it was handled was pathetic. You don't decide the half inning before it's going to end no matter what and then announce it over the PA before that inning was officially over. And I do think a CO-MVP would've been appropriate. Bonds for the NL-two ab's, 2 deserving bombs but one was robbed by Hunter. Either Hunter or the guy who hit the 2 rbi double to give them the 6-5 lead for the AL. Back to my thoughts on protecting pitchers. I don't care if Garcia and Padilla are capable of pitching 9 innings, unless we revert back to treating this game as a war between leagues they shouldn't be pitching more than 2 or 3 innings max. You want to be the one to tell Lou Piniella his ace got hurt at the AS game or that say they play NY after the break immediately, that he can't pitch in that crucial series? I didn't think so. There is a very easy solution to all this and it's called expand the rosters. I'm not calling for cheapening the meaning of being an All Star but here are some players who barely missed out and deserved to go: Brian Giles, Jim Thome, Pat Burrell, Albert Pujols, Ryan Klesko, Roy Oswalt, Bartolo Colon, Javier Vasquez, Ramon Ortiz, Jarrod Washburn, JC Romero, AJ Burnett, Cliff Floyd, Kip Wells, Larry Walker, Jose Jimenez, Armando Benitez, Troy Percival perhaps, Billy Koch could've. Also Jim Edmonds. Yes some of the latter guys belong on a 2nd tier list, but my point is valid. If you are going to make every team be respresented like the DRays even if they don't have an All-Star worthy player(Sorry, Randy Winn) then you need to expand the rosters.
Don't know if you know this, Ric, but right now, it rotates. How ridiculous is that? That means the yankees could win 150 games in a year, but if it's a year that the NL gets the home field advantage in the World Series, it WOULDN'T MATTER. So, your argument that Padilla should play no part in determining who gets home field doesn't really work for me. At LEAST any braves or NL player who plays in the game would have SOME sort of impact on getting home fieldfor the NL, rather than it just being a freaking coin flip. NJRocket- actually, like every year, if the fans didn't select the starters, several players would be left off altogether. Hell, Cal wouldn't have made that team last year if it wasn't for the fans, and the fact that he was retiring. Ozzie Smith for YEARS was a fan fave who got voted in, but didn't always put up numbers indicative of an all star game. I still kinda like that every team has to be represented, but if they want to add importance to the game again, i wouldn't have much of a problem if they eliminate that rule, as long as they make sure that the host city has a player in the game. that would work for me.
Exactly, jungle (on the rotating home field point)...something needs to be done so that the game means something..I mean, did you see the shot of Schilling telling A Rod that he was throwing all fastballs...CMON...gimmie a damn break!!! I sort of liked the way that Halliday was backing Sosa off the inside of the plate...as far as the voting...im sure it will never change..but in the case of Ripken, did he really deserve to be there last year?
There's no tying in baseball. If you charge people to see a baseball game, they should see a baseball game. Letting it stay tied robs the fans of the game. If you don't want to risk injury, don't have the game. They could have suspended the game, and finished the next day if need be. Add pitchers to game if need be. If I was FOX or a fan with a ticket (especially for out of towners), I would consider suing, maybe. I think there are more important things than baseball, but I consider it unethical to charge a price for something and then only deliver a part of it. There was no fat lady and if there was one, I didn't hear any singing.
First, you can't expect Padilla or Garcia to keep going out there. First of all, I believe one of them just pitched on Saturday. There's a reason starting pitchers don't pitch every 2 or 3 days - it's dangerous! Second, what if you do send Garcia out another inning and he struggles. Let's say he's getting hit hard. Do you just let him stay out there and blow up his arm? Do you call the game in middle of the top of the 12th inning? That's why you do it before the potential problem arises. Third, there is an EASY solution to this that does not involve expanding rosters like people were b****ing about yesterday. There are, what, 11 or 12 pitchers on the All-Star team? They can ALL go 2 innings. That will get you 24 innings. Run the best pitchers out there first so the best get to play. If the game ends after 9, the 5 or 6 worst pitchers didn't get to pitch. Big whoop.
The only solution I can see to this outside of just expanding the rosters is to designate one pitcher on each side whose team won't be effected if he is "spent." Meaning that, if this player were to pitch 5, 6 or maybe even 7 innings, he would still be plenty rested for his next start (if the teams were okay with that...I don't know, maybe they won't be...it would be easiest to choose a pitcher from a team that is either way out of the race, or way ahead). These two pitchers are then the designated "finishers" of the game. They are the last to go in, around the 8th or 9th inning...wherever the managers decides to put them in. Then, in the unlikely event that the game is tied and goes into extra innings, they will then be willing to pitch into the 14-15th innings or so. If the game is still tied at that point, THEN call the game. But I seriously doubt that a game would remain tied for that long with all the amazing hitters on each club.
In a side note, I found DEANBCURTIS on ESPN's "Fan's ideas to fix the tie": Every team must have a knucleballer on the roster. Said knuckleballer can only come into the game after all other pitchers have been used. I mean, I always thought Tim Wakefield should be an All-Star anyway. Michael Hing New York
