Derby Day
Here's me in March... "This whole steroid scandal will blow over, but these Congressional hearings will be the end of the Home Run Derby."I wish I had been right. Watching the Home Run Derby wears me out. Maybe it's the lack of nuance in the competition. Maybe it's the legacy of damaged swings and damaged shoulders (Jim Edmonds.) Probably it's Chris Berman. I keep waiting for the event to go the way of the Slam Dunk Contest. It just goes to show, though, that the people (and ESPN) still love the long ball. As I write this, Bobby Abreu is posting an opening round, record-breaking total of 24 home runs. The fans are enjoying it.
Major League Baseball also did a clever thing in changing the competition this year to a battle of nationalism. It's a dumb idea to match the players by home country, and at least one deserving player was denied a chance to compete so that Hee Sop Choi could get his swings, but it did succeed in changing the topic of conversation away from steroids.
The All-Star festivities are always intriguing for me. It's fun to count the number of teams that have hosted the game two or three times since the Cardinals last hosted it in 1966. This year the game is in Detroit. I remember as a kid (1983) watching Fred Lynn hit a grand slam at old Tiger Stadium. In 1971, Reggie Jackson hit a home run off the light tower at the old ballpark. Good times.
I might be the only Bud Selig opponent who supports his decision to give World Series home field advantage to the league that wins the All-Star Game. Major League Baseball was a much more rewarding product back in the day when there was such a thing as "league pride." It may seem rather random to reward or deny a team such a critical advantage based on a game played in July, but it seems disingenuous to criticize it when there was no previous movement to do away with the old system. Home field advantage used to alternate each year. You can't get more random than that.
Awarding home field advantage to the team with the best record isn't a perfect system, either. I happen to believe the American League is much tougher than the National right now, but the NL has been tougher throughout most of history. The Yankees beat up on such weak ballclubs for so long that it would have been very unfair to reward them home field each year.
Also, MLB was bound to tinker with the exhibition after the tie-game debacle in Milwaukee in 2003. We should all be grateful Bud Lite chose this solution instead of dividing the teams by nationality, like this year's Derby and the NHL All-Star Game. That would really blow.
I'll be watching the game tomorrow night. Possibly big implications for the Cardinals!
7/12 Correction: The '83 All-Star Game was played in Comiskey Park in Chicago, not Detroit. This is only the second Mid-Summer Classic played in Motown since '66. In my defense, though, if you've seen one rickety old American League ballpark, you've seen 'em all.
posted by CM @ 8:14 PM
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