Thank your lucky Stars
Young faces of MLB give ASG meaning
FEPA OR ALL the talk about the need for change in baseball, I thought the sport had a great couple of days in Miami, especially in showcasing some of its spectacular young talent. And it was able to do so largely because Rob Manfred had the good sense to get rid of the “This Time It Counts” theme to the All-Star Game.
Put it this way: I’m not big on shtick, but I thought the best moment of the night was Nelson Cruz handing his iPhone to Yadier Molina and convincing Joe West to pose for a picture at the plate.
It was funny mostly because Cruz specifically wanted a picture with West, the notoriously grumpy veteran umpire perhaps known best for once complaining publicly about the length of Yankees-Red Sox games.
Because the game didn’t count for homefield advantage in the World Series anymore, in fact, it felt like we got to know the players a little better, and baseball needs that as much as it needs more action in this era dominated by strikeouts, walks and home runs.
That doesn’t mean we needed Alex Rodriguez sashaying around the infield in a suit between innings, chatting briefly with the infielders. Even A-Rod seemed to realize how dopey that TV gimmick came off.
But FOX did some good things as well. I didn’t mind Joe Buck talking to George Springer and Bryce Harper while they were actually playing the outfield, as the players wore microphones and earpieces.
Actually, Harper came off as more likeable than his reputation, sounding like your average football fan at one point when he asked Buck about Cowboys’ quarterback Dak Prescott.
And while players wearing microphones rarely produces any of the real inside-thegame type sound that the networks hope for, on this night it did deliver a gem:
After walking against Dellin Betances, who is hav- ing major control issues of late, Harper told the first-base coach, “I feel like he’s a guy you can go up there and just take. He’ll walk you.” Ouch. Have to wonder if Harper realized FOX was airing his comment, because it’s not the type of blunt assessment a player normally would make publicly, but it was exactly what FOX wanted.
As it is, FOX’s microphones did bring fans closer to the game than ever, it seemed, especially when you could hear Max Scherzer grunting when he delivered his fastball as clearly as if you were standing behind him on the mound.
Which, of course, brings us back to the game itself.
Hard to believe without home-field advantage at stake, I know, but players were still trying to win.
In fact, the individual pitcher-hitter matchups assure a level of competitiveness that means baseball’s All-Star game will never become the unwatchable mess that we see now in football and basketball.
You think Scherzer wasn’t trying to strike out the world in his one inning of work? You think hitters weren’t grinding so as not to be embarrassed by Chris Sale at the start of the night, all the way to Kenley Jansen and Andrew Miller at night’s end.
No, players never needed the dumb idea of home-field advantage in the World Series to take their performances seriously.
They did need to understand it’s important not to act like divas, and baseball has gotten that message across to its young stars, which is why the days of A-Rod and Barry Bonds being in their private jets on their way home by the seventh inning seem to be long gone.
On Tuesday you saw the likes of Judge and Harper up on the rails of their respective dugouts as the game went to extra innings, rooting for a win long after they’d been pulled from the lineup.
In short, MLB couldn’t have asked for a better image.
Of course, in keeping with the theme of this season, the game could have used more action. But unlike so many regular-season games, the pace was fairly crisp, with pitchers working quickly, and uncluttered by pitching changes during an inning.
In the end, the game was dominated by strikeouts — 23 for both sides — and decided by home runs, as Molina tied the game at 1-1 and Robinson Cano finally won it for the American League in the 10th inning. aseball needs more action, no question, and there’s no easy solution when high velocity pitching and swing-for-the-fences hitting ensures a lot of deep counts and walks as well, as pitchers try to avoid contact.
More important than that, however, baseball needs to humanize its best players, somehow try to make them as cool as fans seem to perceive NBA and NFL players.
Judge moved the needle for his sport by himself in Miami, showing himself to the nation during the Home Run Derby to be as likeable as he is freakish in size and talent.
And while Judge went hitless on Tuesday night, it felt as if the All-Star Game carried over the vibe from the Derby, as America got to know players a little better.
In that sense, it counted a lot more than when home-field advantage was at sake.
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