The All-Star Game And What It Used To Be
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by user Aharner
As I sit and watch this year's All-Star Game in the 8th inning, I have realized this game isn't what it used to be.
It would've been amazing to be a kid in the 1960's and see outfields made up of Clemente, Mays, and Aaron. To watch Gibson, Koufax, and Drysdale pitch. To see Mantle swing, Rose run, and of course a Kaline home run. To see players who want to play nine innings. A different game. A fun game. An exhibition.
To be a kid in the 70's and watch the players from the Big Red Machine dominate the American Leaguers like Robinson To watch the careers of legends end. To see Ray Fosse get destroyed by Rose. Reggie Jackson's bomb in Detroit. Ryan, Palmer, Carlton, Seaver, and more.
To see games from the 80's where young players like Brett, Smith, Gwynn, Boggs, and some guy named Ripken were just getting their starts. A Henderson steal. Young flame throwers named Gooden, Clemens, and Saberhagen. To see the underappreciated players from the decade like Murphy, Garvey, Rice, and Blyleven.
I have seen the 90's though. I have seen The Wizard of Oz flip. Puckett swing. Ken Griffey Jr. I watched as Sandy Alomar Jr. homered in Cleveland in 1997. I saw Randy Johnson Vs. Larry Walker in '98. I watched McGwire go nuts in the Home Run Derby in '99 and stared in awe as a feeble Ted Williams met players on the field the next night.
And then the new century. Who could forget '01? Watching A-Rod trade spots with Ripken in the first inning, and the storybook ending that followed. This is all the stuff of legends.
But, then there was the tie in Milwaukee where everything started to go wrong. For one night, let the starting pitchers back in. No is the answer. "On this night, we will go one more inning, and if it stays a tie, it shall be ruled a tie." No runs score.
Then came the destroyer of the All-Star Game. "The winner of this game shall have home-field advantage in the World Series," he says in 2003.
That decision made the game no longer a game. It used to be an exhibition. Now it's a competition. It used to be a night full of fun (remember Bonds and Hunter in 2002? How about John Kruk and Randy Johnson?). Now it's a night of strategy, pitchers who pitch just one inning, and ensuring you have a stud at the end.
This isn't what I want to see. I want to see Peavy tell Guerrero to expect picthes at his eyes to hit. I want to see a planned pitch-out to watch Pudge try to throw out Reyes. I want to see pitchers throwing as hard as they can against the biggest sluggers in the game.
Maybe I'm just too old-school. Maybe I'm right. Maybe I'm wrong. But as I watch the National League stage a comeback this year in the ninth, I have to ask myself, what has happened to this game?
