Friday, March 2, 2012

The REAL All-Star Fix

It seems within the last week, every writer on this site has put forth their all-star game fixes except for me.  Well, the time has come:

CANCEL THEM ALL!

Historically from what I understand, the all-star game, particularly in baseball, was a big deal.  It was a chance to see the best players in the league on TV and ............STOP!  I think I may have just figured out the problem.  This is more a guess than a well researched opinion, but I think the lost allure in all-star games might have something to do with television.  Put yourselves back in time 20 or 30 years ago (or many more).  You couldn't turn on your TV and watch sports center 30 times a day to see superstars, or have multiple nationally televised games on every night.  Further, there was no internet with blog posts and newspaper articles and streaming video.  If you wanted to see the best players in the world, your best shot may have been the all-star game.  Again, I could betotally wrong on this one, but I think the overall lack of exposure in the day caused the all-star game to be a much more anticipated spectacle.  Today, we all see Albert Pujols and Dwight Howard, and Evgeni Malkin, and Tom Brady practically everyday.  Why tune in too watch them play in a meaningless exhibition game.  Yes, I hear the screams now: "THE MLB ALL-STAR GAME IS MEANINGFUL!"




Yes, unfortunately the MLB All-Star game is meaningful, with the winning league clinching home field advantage for the World Series.  Is there a stupider ploy in sports?  The game is "meaningful" but the fans vote on the participants, a player from the Pirates and Padres has to be on the team, pitchers can't pitch if the game falls off their normal schedule (and never pitch more than 2 innings regardless), and players routinely opt out of the game to go on vacations with their excessively hot wives and girlfriends.  Are you kidding me?  This bold idea needs to hit the scrap heap.

What about the other all-star games?  Well, I'm pretty sure that I would have a better shot at recording a sack of the QB than any of the all-star lineman that stand there and don't even pretend to try and play.  So what's the point of playing the NFL game if no one is going to try?  The NBA and NHL all-star games suffer from similar defensive ineptitude.  These are not so much "games" as scoring exhibitions.  They are boring.  They are stupid.  They need to go.

Also, football is the only sport that actually does one thing right.  They name the all-stars after the season.  Frankly, I don't care if a player had a really good 2 or 3 months.  I want my all-stars to be the players that had the best seasons.  The other sports should follow suit.  Then, instead of having an all-star game, just have NOTHING!  Name the team and give the players the honor.  Just like an MVP award or a gold-glove award.  Why play the game?  If the sports still want to have a skills competition, fine.  But please get rid of the games!

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