The All Star Game

when did the all star game die? who killed it? when did we stop caring aboout it?

It has totally fallen off the radar.

clothier wrote:

when did the all star game die? who killed it? when did we stop caring aboout it?

It has totally fallen off the radar.

My 7...or is he 8..year old son is VERY excited about the game, as was I when I was 8 or 7. He watched the home run derby last night and loved it.

I think the issue may be that with so many games on cable every night, the ESPN and MLB-TV coverage of baseball and all of the various highlight shows we just have too much access.

When I was a boy watching the Mets on TV I didn't get to see the AL stars much at all and getting an additional oppurtunity to see Mays, Clemente, Aaron, etc. do their stuff was really welcome.

And 13, the other part of this is that none of us will ever be able to re-capture the excitement of being an unjaded 7 year-old baseball fan.

pastrami-on-wry wrote:

I think the issue may be that with so many games on cable every night, the ESPN and MLB-TV coverage of baseball and all of the various highlight shows we just have too much access.

When I was a boy watching the Mets on TV I didn't get to see the AL stars much at all and getting an additional oppurtunity to see Mays, Clemente, Aaron, etc. do their stuff was really welcome.

And 13, the other part of this is that none of us will ever be able to re-capture the excitement of being an unjaded 7 year-old baseball fan.

You are sure right about the last part. He doesn't care about contracts, agents and the other financial nonsense that has made me less of a sports fan. Also good point about the access to players. The all star game gave a chance to see people we never saw.

pastrami-on-wry wrote:

When I was a boy watching the Mets on TV I didn't get to see the AL stars much at all and getting an additional oppurtunity to see Mays, Clemente, Aaron, etc. do their stuff was really welcome.

Bingo!

As much as I love Baseball Tonight, SportsCenter, Best Damn Sports Show or any of the other countless sports info-tainment programming out there, there is too much opportunity to see Pujols, Jeter, Youkilis, Wright, etc. on television every night. Living in NY, I could watch both the Mets and Yankees games - and would sometimes choose based on who the opponent was. If I had a chance to watch George Brett, I would definitely watch the Yanks that night (or at least flip channels when I thought he might get to bat). The only other chance to see "random" guys was on the Saturday afternoon national broadcast.

I suspect that the only All-Stars that I have not seen play this year (live or TV) may be a couple of the AL pitchers (Bailey, Edwin Jackson, Felix Hernandez come to mind). Other than that, at some point, I have probably seen all of them.

I never much cared for the Home Run Derby, but I can surely see how a 7 y/o would think it is the best thing since buttered popcorn. I will watch tonight - at least the pre-game ceremonies, and the first few innings when the real all-stars are playing.

Forgot one quick thing....

While I am usually loathe to all things Red Sox, the locals here will all be pulling for local celeb and all-around do-gooder, Mr. Tim Wakefield.

He is the only alum of my alma mater to have ever played in the bigs (to my knowledge - certainly the most successful). We have had a couple of guys drafted, and one senior from this year's team signed with California as an UFA. Nonetheless, Wakefeld still holds the school record for career home runs hit and donated the money to buy us a new field when the old one had to be torn down to make way for the new engineering complex.

He'll likely pitch second or third, depending on how the manager decides to make some moves, from what we hear.