A genuine star treat
MIAMI — It’s no secret that football surpassed baseball as America’s No. 1 sport. The NFL Network could hold a taffy pull with all NFL teams and people would watch.
But there’s one area in which Major League Baseball not only crushes the NFL, but does so in embarrassing fashion: It knows how to put on an All-Star Game.
The 88th edition of MLB’s All-Star Game tonight at Marlins Park won’t get the killer ratings it got back in, say, 1970, when Pete Rose memorably crashed into Ray Fosse at home plate. But rest assured it’ll be very, very good baseball, played by athletes who genuinely want to put on a show. They won’t be going through the motions, which, face it, is what the NFL’s godforsaken Pro Bowl is all about.
The very things that make football so appealing — it’s brutal, it’s barbaric, it’s violent — combine to doom the Pro Bowl. Who wants to go risk a careerending injury in an exhibition game? Everyone is in on the joke.
In baseball’s All-Star Game, players bust tail without worrying much about busting their tails. The Rose-Fosse collision is certainly an exception to the rule, and, yes, Ted Williams fractured his left elbow crashing into the scoreboard at Comiskey Park while catching a Ralph Kiner liner in the 1950 Game. But with all respect to insufferable whiner David Price, who keeps saying baseball is hard, it’s not so hard that you’re putting your career on the line playing in the All-Star Game.
Tampa Bay righthander Chris Archer, a second-time All-Star, said the Pro Bowl “should be banned,” simply because of the risks involved. Yet he’s thrilled to be a late addition to the Game, even though he pitched 62⁄ innings against the Red Sox on Sunday and thus would work on a day of rest if he were to make an appearance tonight.
Archer is just thrilled to be here.
“It’s a chance to be with the best,” he said yesterday, after which he proved he knows his Rays history when he gestured toward teammate and fellow AllStar Corey Dickerson and said, “There have been only three All-Star starters in Rays history — David Price, Evan Longoria and Corey Dickerson. And to be here with Corey is pretty special.”
Dickerson, elected by fans to be the AL’s AllStar designated hitter, was humbled by the honor.
“It just shows how much the fans care and how it’s still a fan’s game,” he said. “I play for a small-market team, so it means that much more to me.”
He wouldn’t rather have a true four days off ? “No way,” he said. The same question was heard by veteran San Francisco Giants catcher Buster Posey, who will be playing in his fifth All-Star Game.
“What, you’re asking me if I’d rather have the four days off?” he asked. “Really? I’d rather be here.”
Though just 30 years old, Posey is a future Hall of Famer. He has been National League Rookie of the Year and Most Valuable Player, has won a batting title, a Gold Glove, and is the proud owner of three World Series rings. And yet he’s so happy to be playing in this Game.
Why do players love the All-Star Game so much?
“I’ve been asked this a few times, and I really don’t know what the reasoning would be for it,” said Posey, who then revealed he knows the reasoning. “It’s a fun couple of days. It’s an honor, whether you’re voted by the fans or selected by the manager. It’s fun to hang around with the guys you compete against all year. Every year I’ve been here, that’s been the vibe: That people are happy to be here.”
The best thing about this year’s All-Star Game is that the lords of baseball have ash-canned the practice of using what, in the end, is really just an exhibition game to determine whether it’s the AL or the NL that gets home-field advantage in the World Series. It was always a silly, contrived idea.
Let’s call it one of the dumbest ideas in modern baseball history, right up there with the White Sox wearing shorts and the Cleveland Indians’ Ten Cent Beer Night fiasco of 1974.
Unburdened by the pretense of playing hard because of home-field advantage in the World Series, the players can play hard because they love the game.
What a great idea.