On July 11th, baseball’s best will come together under the bright lights for the 88th time in league history. A game that historically held more meaning than the rest of the sports world’s All-Star games has lost some of its luster following new rules. The Midsummer Classic undertook a new look in 2003 when it was determined the winning team would hold home field advantage in World Series. After only 14 games with these rules (11 won by the American League), the rules have shifted as the All-Star game has fallen into irrelevance like all other All-Star games.

It was expected that a rule change would be put in place following 2016’s disappointing All-Star effort. The game captured less than 9 million viewers. This was the first time in five years that the game has failed to hold an audience of at least 10 million. What the higher-ups failed to appreciate is that those numbers still won out against the three other major sports. The NFL (which holds the largest revenue of the four) brought in 8 million viewers with the NBA (7.6M) not far behind. Hockey continues to climb in relevance, but its numbers cower in comparison.

A Flawed System

The game’s outcome is one of only a handful off issues with an event that has seen a downturn in attractiveness over the past few years.  Major League Baseball has made an effort to excite the populous as fan voting dictates who starts games, but large rosters and a game that sees more dead time than football struggles to hold attention. In an attempt to understand the game’s major dip in 2016, here are last season’s rosters:

2016 All-Star Rosters

A major part of the league’s roster makeup is that all thirty teams have a representative. The structure of a full 25-man roster allows for this to easily be achieved, but at the sacrifice of the game’s stars. Heading into last year’s game, the league’s top 20 in jersey sales were:

1. David Ortiz                                                             11. Salvador Perez
2. Kris Bryant                                                             12. Eric Hosmer
3. Clayton Kershaw*                                                 13. Jacob deGrom*
4. Anthony Rizzo                                                       14. Andrew McCutchen*
5. Mike Trout                                                             15. Alex Gordon*
6. Buster Posey                                                          16. Madison Bumgarner*
7. Jake Arrieta*                                                          17. David Wright*
8. Yadier Molina*                                                      18. Lorenzo Cain*
9. Bryce Harper                                                         19. Josh Donaldson
10. Noah Syndergaard*                                             20. Dustin Pedroia*

*Player did not appear in All-Star Game

In the league’s quest to satisfy every market, they managed to leave out some of the biggest names in the sport (that people wanted to see). Adding to this problem, those who delivered on that Tuesday night were limited in their exposure because of the exhaustive rosters. Five players recorded extra-base hits in the game last season (all starters). Despite these players contributing the major excitement in the game, only Eric Hosmer saw three plate appearances. The effort to include too many players have left fans desiring more of their favorite players. Baseball, similar to golf, draws much attention from seeing the biggest names take their respective swings. The All-Star game seems oddly designed to only offer a glimpse.

Resolving the Problem

A simple solution is to tighten the rosters and offer more playing time to the players fans want to see. Fans already have the ability to decide who starts the games, that is something that should remain in place. However, the number of reserve positional players needs to be cut down. There is already a system in place to offer fans a chance to pick one of five players that rounds out the roster. The process used to pick these five should be rushed to the top of the list with that quintet being the only reserves. Coaches will elect two outfielders, two infielders, and one additional catcher to add to the roster. In an effort to mirror a standard roster, a dozen pitchers are added to round out the squad. The arms consisting of six starters and six relievers, half of which are fan determined.

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Less is More

Minimizing the rosters offers fans a greater look at the players they want to see, both at the game and at home. Some of the fan favorites may be left out. However, the player make-up on the field will be less dictated by managers. The game itself is likely to see a drop in viewers from the sheer fact that the outcome no longer means anything. It is imprudent to already go against the recent change, so rosters is the next option. Fans may argue that they want to see their players represented. The response to that is the same to those of Browns and Sixers fans: win games and the rest of the league will take notice.