July 10, 2002
BUD MUST GO!--THE JEER THAT MADE MILWAUKEE FAMOUS :
Maybe Milwaukee baseball is jinxed. (Sean Hackbarth, 7.10.2002, American Mind)People like Brewer great Robin Yount can comfort Selig by thinking that people will understand his decision in time, but they don't put this snub in perspective. The All Star Game isn't about player accolades. It isn't about showing off a city to the rest of the country. The All Star Game is a treat for the fans. It's the one opportunity of the year to have the game's best players all in one spot. It wouldn't be much for a player to take a small risk and give the fans a winner.
Personally, I think All-Star games are fairly silly. The only one you can conceivably watch is baseball, because it's the only one where they actually play defense (in other words, they have pitchers). But, truthfully, even the baseball all-star game is mostly just an annoying three days break in the middle of the season where we're deprived of the two things that make baseball God's gift to man : games on the radio and boxscores. The only All-Star moment I can even recall is when Ronald Reagan called Bo Jackson's leadoff homerun (maybe in '88?).
On the other hand, if you're going to play the thing, finish it. Or, as I suggested in derisory jest during the World Cup, why not have Barry Bonds and Jason Giambi come out after 11 innings and have a HomeRun Derby for the whole enchilada. It would have been like the final shootout scene in Shane or High Noon. Sure, it would have been gimmicky and pointless, and traditionalists (like me) wiould be squealing like stuck pigs this morning, but so's the all-star game itself; at least you would have had drama and a winner at the end.
And, if that ended in a tie too, why not have the Polish Sausage and the Hot Dog race, each representing a League, to see who wins. Now that I'd pay money to see.
MORE :
For Baseball, a Tie That Fits Like a Noose (Thomas Boswell, July 10, 2002, Washington Post)