With the MLB All Star weekend wrapping up it is a great time to discuss some thoughts and opinions about the weekend as a whole. Keep in mind this is my opinion, feel free to put your opinion and thoughts down in the comment section below, or start a discussion thread in the forums.
Futures Game
The very first event of the All-Star Week, even though not fully advertised as a top event, is the Futures Game. This game has a lot of meaning to not only the players that play in it, but also the coaches and the general managers.
Obviously, it means a lot to the players because it is their first real taste of the MLB. They play on a Major League field against other top minor league players who all have Major League talent in front of not only friends and family, but also more than three times the amount of fans they are used to.
For the coaches, it shows how far along these players are and how they are likely to do against top-tier talent. For the minor league coaches in particular, it shows how good they are at helping build players based on what skills they already had. This is a great event also for the front office, including scouts, to show off how good they are at finding top talent through the draft.
For the fans, this is just another great opportunity to watch baseball. As seen in other columns here at the All Out Sports Network, there is an influx of young talent coming into the sport right now and this is just the first game to see these young guys start to blossom. The game itself is fun because it’s baseball!
The Futures Game is not one of the biggest draws during the All-Star festivities, but that falls on the MLB and the lack of marketing the game compared to the All-Star Game and Home Run Derby. The game is a great thing for these young players and for the fans to see some future household names.
Celebrity Softball Game
The premise of this game is pretty unique. Get big celebrities to play a game tied to the sport, loosely I may add. There have been many big names in the game over the years and even the NBA has done a version of this on their All-Star Weekend. The big difference between both games is that MLB’s version includes athletes as well, as softball is less physically demanding and less injury prone than basketball is.
Since the softball game gets more athletes to come out and play it is more watchable, however that is offset by the “non-athlete celebrities” and ones that were former athletes, in high school, but not anymore. Yes, some celebrities take it seriously and try to make the game entertaining, others are just there to promote themselves and their brand.
The ones who are there to try are not the problem, the problem lies with the other camp, the self-promoters. Yes, some of the celebrities have fun, showboat, make others laugh and look like they are enjoying themselves. Other celebrities seem like they are there to promote their new item they are endorsing or their new album/mixtape/music. You can tell because the commentators almost never let you forget it, constantly bringing it up and interviewing them about it. Maybe an agent or the musician themselves are asking them to, or maybe that is what they know the audience wants to hear. That part of the game needs to stop, let the audience watch the game and not have to hear about someone dropping a new mixtape every five minutes.
Home Run Derby
Everyone has mixed feelings about the Home Run Derby, either you love it or you think it’s too long. Not too long ago, the MLB tried to implement a new set of rules to make the derby faster and not take as long, and it has helped a little. Obviously, it is too early to judge how much they helped as it is only the second year of the format, but the derby only took two hours this year. That is a great decline in time from four hours many years ago.
The format is nice as well, as we see a legitimate competition between guys. The only thing that is missing is the star power. Yes, there are “Stars” such as Todd Frazier, Giancarlo Stanton and Robinson Cano, but where is Bryce Harper, the Mike Trout, or Madison Bumgarner? Speaking of Bumgarner, why is it frowned upon to see a pitcher in the derby? I would love to see a format where it is a hitter against a pitcher in a bracket, how cool would that be? Picture this Giancarlo Stanton crushing 500 foot home runs like he does, then when his time is up, Madison Bumgardner steps up and beats him in numbers. I would love to see that in the stands, my only question is what do the fans do between batters?
All Star Game
This is the pièce de résistance and the biggest event of the whole weekend. Last year kind of was a bad event as Derek Jeter was voted in as a starter even though he was the worst shortstop on the year. My only gripe for that event is that the fan voting is broken. Last year, all the talk was about how the Royals’ fan’s stuffed the ballot boxes and this year the same happened with both Royals’ and Cubs’ fans.
Some fans actually did the voting right this year, as Red Sox fans voted their players, who were all deserving, unlike some Cubs players (looking at you Addison Russell). The Red Sox fans actually voted in the best center fielder, shortstop and DH, statistically, into starting spots and they were deserving of those spots. Most of the actual game play is fine, but one interesting thing is that the pitchers, relievers or not, work reliever type innings, in for one inning in the middle of the game, and it may mess with the pitchers at least for the game if not longer.
