The Futility Infielder

The Futility Infielder's All-Star Weekend, Day 4: The All-Star Game

Well, THAT was weird. On a gala night featuring baseball legends such as Hank Aaron and Willie Mays as well as its brightest stars, in a game which highlighted dominant pitching, clutch hitting and breathtaking defense in its signature moments, all that lacked was a decision as to which team won. And in a no-lose situation borne from providing four memorable days of exhilirating entertainment for baseball fans in his own backyard, Bud Selig found a way to lose.

The Commissioner of Baseball's decision to call the All-Star Game a tie after 11 innings wasn't an indefensible one, given that the health of pitchers' arms was at stake and the rosters of both teams were depleted. But it certainly made for a strange and bitter ending to the night, with a stadium full of people referencing a Bad News Bears movie as they chanted "Let them play!" in unison for several minutes. That is, when they weren't too busy chanting "Selig sucks!" or showering debris on the field.

We all expected to see winners and losers at the All-Star Game--this isn't soccer, after all (roll Simpsons clip from episode 5F01... "And ties? You bet!"). The sentiments being showered on Selig weren't just a reaction to the unresolved outcome. They were ventilation for years and years of frustration on the part of baseball fans with the way Bud has embarrassed the game: the 1994 strike, wave after wave of unnecessary expansion, routine extortion of taxpayers for stadium money (let those whose teams play ball in glass-panelled retractable-roof stadia cast the first stone), this past winter's contraction fiasco, the impending labor woes, the constant denigration of the product on the field, the perception that steroids are an epidemic-level threat to the sport, and now THIS.

How dumb do you have to be to hold a pregame memorial tribute to a recently-deceased legend, tout the naming of an award after the dearly departed as part of said tribute, and then NOT bestow it to a deserving player or players in its inaugural game? Any one of several players were worthy, and given the situation, even a co-award would have been an acceptable solution. By denying that recognition, Bud panicked and did everything but try to erase the box scores out of people's programs. To borrow a phrase from Jerry Seinfeld, this is a man who is out of ideas.

That's my take on it, at least from this very travel-weary vantage point. Up until the end of the 11th inning, I saw a great ballgame last night. Curt Schilling's pitching, Torii Hunter's catch, and Barry Bonds' home run will resonate in my memory along with all the other incredible baseball I've been priveleged to witness over the past twenty-five years. If nothing else, I was at a ballgame which will go down in history: the first non-weather-related tie in All-Star Game history. Still, I can't help but feel that baseball fans and the citizens of Milwaukee deserved better than that.

I'll be writing up a more lengthy report of the game, accompanied with what I hope turn out to be some good photos of the whole weekend, in the next several days.