The Red Sox are three games ahead of the Yankees in the AL East, and the starting outfielders for the Yankees would still be playing in Columbus if the baseball gods hadn't decided it was finally time to smite the Bronx Bombers. I would like to think that the continued existence of George Steinbrenner is the only thing wrong with the world, but another problem is fast approaching. Tuesday night's All-Star Game is fundamentally flawed and is polluting the purity of America's pastime.
A few years ago, Bud Selig and the other fearless leaders of Major League Baseball made newsworthy changes to the midsummer classic. Perhaps as a ploy to boost fan interest in the game after it ended in a tie in 2002, the powers that be decided that the league that won the 2003 All-Star game would be given home field advantage in the World Series.
The new weight placed on the contest, which was previously less notable than the home run derby that precedes it, made headlines. It was unlike anything any other major U.S. sports league had tried. There is a reason for this. It's a worse idea than playing "just one game" of pong.
The main problem with the current situation is the motivation of the players. With at least one representative from each team on both rosters, there are a lot of All-Stars who are getting to the point where they're playing for the back of their baseball cards more than for the front of their jerseys. On the surface, this doesn't look that bad. I'm sure that a lot of different things motivate major leaguers over the course of a 162-game season.
However, with the new emphasis on the All-Star game's outcome, the league has effectively asked many of the stars of the league to go out and bust their tails for the benefit of their division and league rivals who are still in the race. That the league is basing what could be a World Series-altering advantage on the performance of players not in any way involved in the contest is ludicrous.
Also ridiculous is the fan influence on the All-Star game and, through it, on the World Series. The fans get to vote on the starting lineup for each league. The uninterested players is one thing, but having fans make baseball decisions that have actual ramifications on the outcome of the season is absurd. Fans don't get to phone in hit and runs or e-mail in trade demands, and the fact that we determine the lineup in what has become an important game highlights how absurd that new emphasis is.
Even more ridiculous is the voting system. In most states in the U.S. an individual can only vote in one party's primary, ostensibly because voting for the weaker candidate representing the party you do not favor isn't a constructive election process. If you're a govy major about to write a letter to the editor explaining exactly why I'm wrong, don't bother. The point is that there's some reason it's done that way. However, MLB decided that this reasoning wasn't particularly sound. Building on that logic, no safeguards were put in place for fans maliciously voting absolute bums from one league or another into the game, other than the hope that true fan enthusiasm will outvote the slightly more spiteful.
Basically, I don't understand what's going on. Bud Selig managed to bring the league back from one of the lowest points in its history, the strike of 1994. He enjoyed the attendance boom that followed in the wake of the home run binges of the rapidly expanding McGwire, Sosa and Bonds, and yet has managed to convince pretty much everyone that management hadn't heard even a whisper of the use of performance enhancing drugs. Why can't he realize that a game that showcases the finest talents in his sport doesn't need World Series home field advantage attached to it to get fans to tune in?
