July 15, 2005: More
of the Shame...that is...Same
By Ahchie
At
the 2005 Major League Baseball All Star Game, it was more of the same in that
we got the overdone Fox coverage we’ve come to expect. Even though the
pre-game was fairly long and they continued to force feed their latest movie
offerings, like the Fantastic 4, it was at least less overblown than last
season. The most glaring mistake made by Fox was in their handling of
longtime Tigers announcer and class act Ernie Harwell. They had a nice piece
on him during the pre-game, and then had him live with Kevin Kennedy and Jeanne
Zelasko. Kennedy asked him one question, about Al Kaline, then Zelasko cut
Harwell off after about 15 seconds, saying how much she would love to go on
and on. Harwell looked genuinely surprised and confused at being cut off mid-sentence,
then Fox went to a brief greeting from Smokey Robinson, then off to more commercials.
The playing of the British anthem was a nice touch, and what made it funny was that they skipped over the Canadian anthem and went straight to the Star Spangled Banner. Apparently Al Kaline and Willie Horton threw out the first pitch, but I don’t recall seeing it. Not airing the ceremonial first pitch is a big mistake by Fox – and this is not the first time Fox has ignored this time honored tradition. Before last year’s Game One of the World Series, Fox did not show the first pitch thrown by Yaz and before Game Two they did not throw the first pitches thrown by the trio of Bobby Doerr, Dom Dimaggio, and Johnny Pesky.
This may be a minor thing, but Scooter needs to go away. The Scooter animation explaining to us feeble-minded viewers the concept of a changeup is not appealing in any way and is just annoying. Obviously the target audience is the kids, but it misses the mark, as kids old enough to care what a changeup is are too old for it and kids who are young enough to like Scooter have no interest in what a changeup is.
It
has been said elsewhere, but needs to be reiterated – MLB and Fox need
to drop the “This One Counts” slogan. As has been discussed before
about slogans in general, it is not necessary to
have a slogan just because someone feels you need one. The “This One
Counts” slogan has been used every year since Selig threw his hands
up in the great All Star debacle of 2002. All it
serves now is to be a painful reminder of that horrific day in All Star game
history.
MLB thinks it solved a problem by making the All Star game decide home field advantage, but it really did not solve anything. Players still approach the game about the same, with some players wanting to win just because they hate losing, and other players taking a much more relaxed approach. If it was that important to them, they would make sure that Pedro was there, instead of taking his annual mid-summer vacation. Pedro is a seven time all star, and yet has only been to the game three times, as was pointed out in the pre-game by Kennedy.
Making the All Star game decide home field is just a bad idea. Home field should be decided as it is in other sports – by who has the better overall record during the season. It is simple and it works. The All Star game has, over the years, become more about the players relaxing, having a good time, and entertaining the fans with a little baseball included in the process. The last thing a player wants (as well as the teams they play for) is to get injured. It is what it is, and it is not going to be like it was in the old days, no matter how hard you try to force it. It is as if MLB is not sure which way they want to go. They obviously want the All Star game to be a multi-day celebration, with the Home Run Derby and other festivities, but they also want the players to treat the game like a real game (as long as they include at least one player from every team and every player gets to play.) Every player should get to play, if possible, but the problem, ironically, is that the roster is too large now. The roster was expanded so that the teams would have enough players in the event of an extra inning game, thereby avoiding having to end in a tie because you ran out of players. But instead of approaching the game that way and ending with a number players not playing, the managers still feel compelled to get everyone in there.
Naturally, all of this could have been avoided had Bud Selig handled the tie game situation better as it unfolded. All he had to do at that moment, when the managers came to him and said that they used all their pitchers and could not continue, was to tell each manager that the game would continue until there was a winner. He should have told them that he did not care if a position player was brought in to pitch or if they just left in whatever pitcher was currently in. If he had laid down the law then and there, we would not have the “This One Counts” and the home field advantage nonsense. This is not hindsight talking, nor is it second guessing after the fact – it is how Selig should have addressed the situation as it happened. It was as clear as it was happening as the time Grady Little decided to leave a physically spent Pedro in when everyone watching knew he should come out.
The solution?
The
game itself was fine – there was nothing particularly spectacular and
nothing really bad. Brad Lidge striking out the side in the 8th with only
11 pitches was impressive, as well as the Mark Teixeira at bat where he fouled
off a bunch of pitches before hitting a home run (his first home run from
that side of the plate this season).
The quote of the day came with the first batter of the game: Tim McCarver talking about Bobby Abreu, “He crushes the ball with the Midas touch. There’s nobody on either team, perhaps in the big leagues, whose left hand on the bat is any lighter – almost like a pianist’s – than Bobby Abreu.” Hmm, wonder if he would have said that if Abreu did not perform in the home run derby the way he did.
And finally, even though he did grow up in poverty, is it really necessary to give a brand new sportscar to a multi-millionaire for being the MVP of the game? It used to be that the award itself was enough. Giving away a car to an elite professional athlete is kind of like giving a Blockbuster gift card to the average person. It's nice, but it seems like a much better gesture would be to make some kind of donation in the name of the player who won the award. Miguel Tejada seemed genuinely surprised and it is certain he appreciated the gesture, but the car maker's true motive was to get some extra advertising, as, instead of getting reaction from Tejada, as well as a decent interview, we got to see a car commercial.
Other examples of Fox overdone coverage as noted by the BMTG in the
past:
2004 World Series coverage
2004 baseball playoffs
2004 baseball all star game
Previous All Star Coverage:
2002
2003
2004