It didn't have to be that way.
The 2002 All-Star game, held on July 9th of that season, was coming at an awkward time for the game. The players and owners were staring down the barrel of more labor issues...another strike. I remember this because I was a few days away from going on a 12-day baseball road trip and was considering making a sign to carry to games, "No Balls, Two Strikes, We're Out". I did not make this sign, somewhat out of laziness and also I thought it would be inconvenient to carry that sign around everywhere. Where was I....oh yeah, awkward times. The last thing the MLB wanted at this point was some controversial occurrence to mar everything that promised to be with the All-Star festivities.
Some of the best MLB players were on display*, a who's who of the steroid era: Bonds, Sosa, Giambi, A-Rod, Manny.
Bud Selig had nothing to worry about...right?
No way. In fact, the game started out with one of the best All-Star plays in recent memory, as Torri Hunter scaled the wall to bring back a Bonds dinger in the first inning of the game, prompting a rare playful Bonds to run out to the outfield to launch Hunter over his back.
Who would have known that play could be one of the reasons why the All-Star format changed the following year? The use of 19 pitches (10 NL/9 AL) in the following 10 innings, and Bud Selig declares the game a tie in front of the Milwaukee fans, who greeted the news from their former owner by showering the field with beer bottles and tremendous hostility.
In 22 half-innings of baseball, Joe Torre and Bob Brenly managed to run out of pitchers to use. In less than a years-time, the two skippers go from battling in a memorable seven-game World Series (won by Arizona) to being the center of the ugliest non-steroid story that baseball has seen since the 1994 strike.
Why did they use all of these pitchers? Well, one of the traditions at this time in these games is to make sure as many of these All-Stars get to play as possible. A look at the box score shows that only two pitchers between both teams threw more than 30 pitches (Mark Buehrle & Freddy Garcia). Those two were among only five pitchers who toed the pitching rubber for multiple innings. It is understandable that managers do not want to burn these pitchers out in an exhibition, but to have 14 of 19 guys pitch an inning or less lends itself to a catastrophe such as this. Without increasing the total of pitchers allowed on the roster or allowing some of these guys back on the mound in case a game goes long, you were bound to have this happen at some point.
When Garcia struck out Benito Santiago in caught-looking fashion to end the eleventh inning, it was Selig and other MLB brass who were left caught looking at a result (a tie game) that could have easily been prevented. Whether it be forcing the managers to have better management of your pitchers, allowing pitchers to re-enter the game, or allowing for the addition of more pitchers, there were ways around avoiding this tie.
The irony of people booing at the end result of an exhibition game oozes with the tragic irony that Shakespeare plays thrived upon. It was the sole reason that Selig vowed that a tie would never happen again, bestowing home field advantage in the World Series to the team that won the glorified exhibition game.
And despite this World Series stipulation, the commissioner's office made sure to keep some of the format of previous games (i.e. mandatory one player from each team, no matter how undeserving the team may be) that directly conflict with the best of each league playing for the rights of the extra game for their league (ideally one of the players' every-day team).
It made no sense when it started in 2003. It still makes no sense now in 2013.
For a sport that is usually so rooted in the past that traditionalists have a hard time adjusting to changes in the game - interleague baseball, wild card, sabermetrics, instant replay - one item that it should revert back to its traditions is making the baseball an actual exhibition game, just like it was in 2002. Let every team continue to be represented. Let the game be fun, where even guys like Bonds can enjoy themselves without the extra burden of having to play for its league's right to earn the World Series home field.
Never thought I would say this, MLB, but for once, don't embrace the change you made ten years ago.
*couple interesting notes:
- Three current Sox were selected for that game - Paul Konerko, Robin Ventura (as a Yankee...and a player) and Adam Dunn (Reds). If you count A.J. Pierzynski, there were four White Sox members in 2012 who were involved in the game played ten years earlier.
- Five of the nine AL Starters (Giambi, Alfonso Soriano, A-Rod, Hunter, Ichiro) and two of the NL starters (Todd Helton & Jimmy Rollins) are on active MLB rosters. An additional nine AL bench/pitchers and two NL bench players are still active.
