July 12, 2006: All Star 2006 - Give Manny a Break
Thoughts on the All Star game
By White Russian & The Diesel

Manny Ramirez

White Russian:
Manny Ramirez bowed out of playing in the All Star game to rest his knee. It’s not the first time someone has missed the game to rest and it won’t be the last. But Bud Selig wastes his time criticizing Manny because he can’t figure out how to deal with the real issues he faces.

Check out this article written about Manny Ramirez…
Manny Ramirez - Perception vs. Reality by Bruce Allen

The Diesel:
Great article. Great points and observations on how his talents are belittled ("mindless hitting savant"). The guy rips the media without reservation. I didn't know Manny was so high on those lists, especially the grand slam list. With Ortiz, the championship, and Manny bashing, it is easy to lose perspective on how good he is. If he was playing in San Francisco in place of Bonds he would be a God as his skills would shine so much brighter than the team and negative media (or lack of it) around him. I hope this article gets some play in Boston.

White Russian:
No wonder he always wanted to leave in years past. He seems content now and his agent says he wants to stay for the duration of his career. Even though it seems to make the reporters angry, not speaking to the media is great for him so he can focus on baseball and just ignore them. Hard to believe that Ted Williams was not liked by some reporters (seems like the same treatment they gave Nomar when he was there).

Player Representation

White Russian:
Speaking of Nomar - he didn't even get to play in the All Star game last night. Carlos Beltran played the entire game and five players on the NL team got 3 or more at bats, while Nomar and Andruw Jones sat on the bench.

The Diesel:
If they would have saved the bench like that in every All-Star game they would never of had a tie. I would have liked Nomar to play but I think it's cool when some guys are left sitting.

White Russian:
I agree that not all players should get in the game, but Garner left 8 players on the bench (4 pitchers, 4 position players). Wouldn't it be a good idea to at least put Andruw Jones in for defensive purposes late in a one run game? [Scott Rolen also rode the bench]

Bud Selig

White Russian:
That tie game was such a joke that even four years later, Selig still doesn't know how to deal with it. Having the game decide home field is a bad idea. The event is a multi-day fan fest and the game is an exhibition. That is all it is. Growing up, the All Star game was something I always looked forward to because there wasn’t nearly as much baseball available to watch on TV. You didn’t get to see your favorite players all the time. Highlights were limited to the two minutes every night at the end of the local news, This Week in Baseball on Saturdays, and the Sports Machine once a week. Plus, with no interleague play and far less player movement, the All Star game was the only time, other than the World Series, when you got to see the best of one league go against the best of the other league. The All Star game was naturally much more compelling than it is now.

Granting home field advantage to the winner is not going to change it. Home field should be decided by best record throughout the long 162 game season. Isn't that one of the reasons they play so many games - to see who the best teams truly are? A one game sample, in an exhibition, where the game is interrupted for made up awards, and pitchers throw one inning apiece, is going to decide home field advantage for the championship of the league?

It’s like he throws an idea out there without thinking about it and hopes it will stick. He will continue to insist on the home field advantage thing and now has thrown out this idea – let’s have pitchers named to the All Star teams be held out of games the Sunday before the All Star game.

More Bud Selig and the Annual Mid Game Interruption to Give a Made Up Award

White Russian:
What is the deal with interrupting the game in the 4th or 5th inning so Bud Selig can ramble on and on and give an award to Roberto Clemente’s widow? Shouldn’t that stuff be left to the bloated and sluggish pregame? They did the same thing two years ago when they interrupted the game to give Roger Clemens some made up award [after he had gotten shelled earlier in the game].

Fox will be doing the All Star game at least through 2013, so potentially we have 7 more mid-game made up awards in the next 7 years.

The Diesel:
Somehow Selig gets away with his fabricated moments. As good as Clemente was it’s not enough for his widow to get an award 30 years after his death. Obviously, with him being a minority, a life long Pirate, a HOF'er and dying in a humanitarian effort led to good PR for Selig.

I'm fine with diversity, but Selig comes across as disingenuous and opportunistic in this award and retiring #42 some years ago. I'm surprised he wasn't surrounded by a throng of orphaned crack babies to show his compassion.

White Russian:
Here's what The Cooler (A-Rod) had to say about Clemente:

From the Boston Globe (Gordon Edes):
"He's our Jackie Robinson," Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez, who is Dominican born, said of Clemente, who is perhaps Puerto Rico's greatest sports hero. "All we knew growing up was Roberto Clemente, the way he went about playing, the way his career ended, the way he died helping others. He was a true role model for me. There's going to be a piece of Roberto Clemente watching over all of us."

It should be noted that after a quick bit of informal research to see just how big a role Roberto Clemente played in The Cooler’s formative years, it is found that Alex Rodriguez was born in Manhattan, his parents were from the Dominican Republic, he lived in the Dominican Republic for three or four years (moved there at the age of 4), and the majority of his youth was spent in Miami. His idol growing up was Cal Ripkin, Jr., and he is a big fan of the University of Miami Hurricanes. Other sports idols were Dan Marino and Michael Jordan (no mention of Clemente anywhere).

During the ceremony, instead of showing Carlos Beltran, Ivan Rodriguez, and Alex Rios, who are Puerto Rican, like Clemente, Fox decided instead to show MLB’s poster boy, the New York born and sometime Dominican A-Rod, as well as shots of Venezuelan Ozzie Guillen wiping the tears from his face.

The Diesel:
I assume that A-Rod was making light of the way Clemente died in a plane crash and his remains strewn over many acres of jungle when he said, "...There's going to be a piece of Roberto Clemente watching over all of us."

With the 60th anniversary of Jackie Robinson's debut coming up next year and the game being in Frisco we should see another mid-game tribute from Selig. The oafish Selig will likely be presenting the gray-haired grandchildren of Mr. Robinson with a First Annual (fill in blank with something distinguished) Award. Selig has demonstrated numerous times that he lacks the necessary leadership for Major League Baseball, yet he remains. His annual feel good photo opportunities serve only to eternally resurrect an honorable past, as the only significant moments created during his watch are either tainted or riddled with unwritten asterisks. Since it is difficult for Selig to reap any significant kudos from his own tenure, handing out newly created awards to aging relatives of long dead players allows him to artificially bridge the gap between baseball’s past and his own well documented failures. It's unfortunate that Selig's true motivations are so self serving, as the men he pretends to honor sacrificed much for the benefit of others, including Selig.

Previous All Star Coverage:
July 9, 2002 - MLB All-Star Mockery
July 17, 2003 - MLB All-Star Mockery Revisited
July 15, 2004 - MLB All-Star Mockery Revisited Again
July 15, 2005 - More of the Shame...that is...Same

return to news