It’s been eight years since there have been more hits than strikeouts in MLB. It looks like this year will go right dow to the wire:
23,874 Strikeouts
23,862 Hits
Rays will be playing home playoff games at Steinbrenner Field
Speaking of the Rays: reports are that their owner, Stu Sternberg, has reached an agreement to sell the team to a new ownership group, led by a Jacksonville-based real estate developer.
This ESPN article indicates that Rob Manfred and other owners have been pressuring Sternberg to sell the team in recent months; it sounds like, between the damage to Tropicana Field in last fall’s hurricane, and the costs of developing a new stadium (which was put on hold shortly thereafter), Sternberg may have been financially strapped.
The deal is still subject to league approval, but the potential new owners apparently plan to keep the team in the Tampa area.
Given the reality that interleague play is now common, and player mobility between teams and leagues is also now common, ISTM the whole All Star shenanigans has outlived its usefulness and should be shut down as an affront to player safety.
Take the same ~week long break mid-season and let everyone rest. Players, umps, coaches, equipment folks, TV crews, …, everyone. Then come back for the second half after a relaxing “halftime”.
If you just gotta have some stupid meaningless exhibition event(s), do it the way the NFL does and have the “pro bowl” after the season and championship tournament has ended. Players can participate or not, phone it in or not, as they see fit.
Players, and teams, have too much at stake to waste it on players playing oddball stunts competitively mid season when their durability is already on the wane with lots more work to come.
Make it 1.756 billion and fix the damn roof.
I like the All Star Game. It’s the only sport where it’s at all like the actual game. It has lost some luster since interleague play but I still find it a fun watch.
But let’s acknowledge how awful the Home Run Derby is. Sure some of it is the fact that most of the best home run hitters sit out. It’s mostly because the broadcast is horrible. It seems to be getting worse. What’s the point of the Home Run Derby if you can see the home runs? Seeing Judge hit 500 footers was fun. Watching the camera trying to and failing to track a ball is not fun. It seemed like they were able to show 1 in 5 home runs actually going out.
Former major league pitcher Dan Serafini has been convicted of first degree murder in the shooting death of his father-in-law, which left his mother-in-law injured. She would die from suicide a year later.
The Minnesota Twins selected Serafini, a native of the San Francisco area, with the No. 26 overall pick in the 1992 MLB draft. He made his debut in 1996 and went on to appear in 104 games (33 starts) with the Twins, Padres, Reds, Rockies, Pirates, and my beloved Cubs.
I was just saying this to my wife. If Raleigh wasn’t in it, I couldn’t have watched it. The long and obnoxious intros (this isn’t WWE for god’s sake), the attempts to fill the airtime by announcers, and the problems you note with actually seeing where the ball lands. Also, weird “bonus” round rules that seem unnecessary.
I also like the game itself. I was able to go in person in Seattle a couple of years ago. It’s fun seeing the top players having the chance to get together like this. (and I’m not too worried about injuries, although it’s certainly a risk)
Are you sure?
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/74178331/2225140718.0.jpg)
Then why did Cody Rhodes give the championship belt to Cal Raleigh?
Could they do anything more to slow the ASG? Rap music, dancing girls, kids on the field before the game, the Mastercard promo disguised as the hokey Stand Up to Cancer, Aaron tribute, endless 7th inning super patriotic bullshit… Jesus just play the fucking game.
In general I agree with you but I thought the Aaron tribute was very well done.
Yeah I don’t begrudge Aaron his due.
How were the swing off hitters chosen? Why weren’t Judge and Ohtani in the AL and NL groups?
They declined to participate.
I thought it looked amazing.
So the game ended with batting practice? Exciting.
According to ESPN:
On Monday, both managers – Boone and the NL’s Dave Roberts – were required to submit their list of participants and alternates to MLB should the game need the swing-off after nine innings. Knowing starters usually shower and leave the ballpark well before the end of the game, the managers opted for reserves.
That last sentence from ESPN clearly shows the importance of the game to the participants. Zero. Less than zero actually; In baseball there’s lots of tradition, of ancestor worship, and sense of obligation to the Game, but even that doesn’t extend to ASG & its trappings.
When the game gets to the point that only the up and coming rookies trying to raise their profile are willing to play, we’ll know the sell-by date has truly come and gone.
Which gives me an idea: make it a Triple A all-stars game. So we can see the players of the future on the big stage.
It seems to me the correct level of play in the All Star game should be between what we see now and Pete Rose violently running into Ray Fosse in a home plate collision.
I agree let’s make it the AAA players.
What a suckwad way to end the game. In my book, it was a tie. I hope the powers that be don’t look at this and say “Hey, that was fun! Let’s end all our 9 inning ties this way!”