The major league baseball All-Star game is a shell of it's former self. Pitchers like Justin Verlander and CC Sabathia couldn't participate because they didn't have enough "rest" since their last start, and even a baseball icon like Derek Jeter opted out -- evidently because he'd rather have the time off. Scribes and talking heads have used up a lot of trees and sound bytes raising hell about this, but none of them seem to have any ideas on how to fix it. I do.
1) Instead of 3 days, pick a week in July and set aside 8 days for the All-Star game. The last regular season games prior to the break will be played on a Saturday. The All-Star game itself will be played on the following Wednesday. That would give all pitchers almost 4 days rest. Besides, the most they have to go is 2 innings anyway. When the game is done, everybody gets about 5 days rest before the regular season resumes the following Monday. Also, it would give the players ample time to spend with family, go party, or whatever it is they wanted to do.
2) That would necessitate making an already too long season even longer, you say? I'm not sure starting a couple days earlier and ending a couple days later would be that big a deal anyway, but there's a better way. Have each team play one doubleheader every month throughout the season, and presto, that problem goes away. I think the poor dears could handle the terrible strain that would put on them, ahem, and the fans would love it.
3) Years ago, players voted on the All-Stars. Nobody knows players better than fellow players.They got it right. Nowadays, fans do the voting. Big market teams have an advantage. More people, more votes. While it's technically democratic, it often turns into a popularity contest that has little to do with how well a particular player is performing that year. Then again, the fans are the ones paying for everything in the end, no pun intended, so if they want to vote Alfred E. Neuman in as the starting shortstop, that should be their prerogative. Chances are he wouldn't show up either, but let's leave the voting process alone for now.
4) Now the toughie. What about the guys that are voted in, whether they deserve it or not, like Derek Jeter, that decide not to show up? (BTW, Jeter said he was too "mentally exhausted" to go to Phoenix, but somehow he manged to get to Miami -- go figure). A Commissioner with some kahunas, and obviously Bud-Man is not the guy, could solve that problem. A fine. Not the ordinary run-of-the-mill $10 or $25 thousand. To a guy making Jeter money, that's laughable. Why not do something that would get his attention? Base it on the fan voting. If he got a million votes and didn't show up -- that's what the fine is. A buck for each fan that voted for him. This would go to charity. However, it would be collected by the league as a fine and donated to the charity of THEIR choice -- not Jeter's -- so he doesn't get the tax write-off either. Now THAT woudl get his attention. Some hunky rookie phenom that's tearing up the league got about the same number of votes that he's due to make in dollars for the second half of the season? It wouldn't matter if a 100 Playboy bunnies were begging him for some "private time" on a desert island.
Do the math. He'd be at the game. Trust me.
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