The All-Star Boondoggle

    Back in the 1930s, when baseball played its first All-Star games, it got people interested in the stars of the game and in the game itself.
    Now, we don't need no All-Star game.
    The long baseball season takes it's toll on everyone involved: players, coaches, managers, umpires and fans. And it's right that everybody take a few days off the week after the 4th of July, a little past the halfway point in the season. Everybody needs a break.
    But let's stop breaking up the break with the All-Star game.
    Back when players made $500 a month and got a bonus for playing in the All-Star game, great!
    Now players make $50,000 a month. They don't need an All-Star game bonus.
    And let's realize, please, that the All-Star game is just an exhibition. It doesn't count toward the end of the year standings or anything else. Yes, Commissioner Bud Selig has decreed that the league that wins the All-Star game will have home field advantage in the World Series. But that's just the second part of the joke! A pick-up team of players (very good players, yes, but they haven't played together before; it's really just like a team chosen up in a schoolyard) can win a game that means absolutely nothing and win the home field advantage for the team from their league, most of the members of which are not even in this exhibition game, in the premier championship series of the greatest game on earth?
    By playing in this exhibition game the players put themselves at serious risk, for nothing. I'm a Dodger fan, so I'll frame my thoughts this way: I would hate to see Clayton Kershaw hit by a line drive in the All-Star game, or Matt Kemp pull a hamstring while running to first base. I accept that those are risks during any game; but in an exhibition game that means nothing? I cannot accept that. An injury like that could put my team out of contention for the season. There were two injuries in the game tonight; we don't yet know how serious.
    I know the All-Star game brings lots of money into the city where it's played, and I know that an entire carnival sprouts up around the stadium in which the game is played. That's great!
    My proposal ( I know it will be ignored, but I just want to get it out there): let the players have their four or five days off, and fill those days with a national baseball carnival. Pick a city, or three or five, and encourage small towns to take up their part too! Have all the carnival, family-friendly events: see how fast you can throw the pitch, kids run around the bases, see if you can hit against Nolan Ryan; have fireworks and hot dog races and throw-the-ball through the clown's mouth! Get retired major league players out there to sign autographs and talk to the kids!
    Have clinics, play the college world series that week, or the little league one. Play lots of minor league games, with lots of promotions.
    The All-Star game was started to try to foster interest in baseball, and it worked. And when I was a kid, yes, I wanted to watch; I wanted to see this Mickey Mantle and this Ted Williams. But now I don't need an All-Star game to see. I can see every game every day.
    So I suggest we do away with the All-Star game and let our players rest up for the second half of the real season. And if we want to have some fun while they rest, let's have some other baseball!

Big Bat, No Rattle

   Dodgers lose again, 6 - 0 to the Mets. Mets have been playing well of late; I won't fault them for that. But Dodgers give up three homeruns and don't respond with a single score. They get eight hits and leave twelve runners on base! Shut out for their ninth time this season.
   I know if you listen to the Dodgers I'm not telling you anything new.
   But it's frustrating, and I need to vent.
   Every pitcher is gonna give up homeruns. The Mets hit three tonight, and that's not good, but that's part of the game. But the Dodgers had runners in scoring position several times tonight and didn't bring a single one home.
   They've now lost four games in a row.
   They are now firmly ensconced in last place in the National League West, thirteen games below .500, eleven games out of first place.
   It's the American way these days (especially since 9/11, or maybe it was the crash of the Exxon Valdez) to look for who's to blame and pin it on whoever you find.
   I'm not gonna do that.
   The Dodgers have a good manager and good coaches.
   They have good players, good hitters. They could use another one, I guess, someone like Manny at his prime, three years ago.
   I don't think it's the players' ability, though. I think the players are able.
   Maybe it's just luck... and I would never discount luck as a factor in a team's performance.
   With the turmoil in the ownership, I don't expect the Dodgers to acquire a catalyst of the nature of Manny. I don't expect them to acquire anyone.
   But Big Bat, No Rattle.
   Dodgers hit pretty well, but not well enough to bring home the runs when they need them.
   Not happy, here.