Tuesday, July 12, 2016

We're All in Agreement: The All Star Game's Rules Are Stupid

Just last week, I wrote about the MLB All Star Game has become a shadow of its former self. I mentioned that in an effort to boost the excitement for the game, the MLB has had the All Star Game decide who gets home field advantage in the World Series since 2003. So for example, the American League beat the National League in the All Star Game, which led to the Kansas City Royals getting home field advantage in the World Series (The Royals beat the Mets in 5 games). 

Just about everybody thinks that this is a bad idea, yet tonight's All Star Game will be the 14th that decides home-field advantage in the World Series. Go on any sports website/blog and I promise you that you will find multiple articles stating how ridiculous this rule is. 

For example, Nate from Barstool Sports wrote an article today about how Jose Fernandez said publicly that if he faces David Ortiz tonight, he will intentionally throw Ortiz three fastballs right down the middle so that Ortiz can hit a home run in his final All Star Game (Ortiz is retiring after this season).

Nate (we don't know his last name) hits the nail on the head by saying:
 "it should be a fun game, the players treat it like a fun game, but they keep claiming 'it matters'. It doesn’t matter if the players in the game openly say it doesn’t matter to them".

Nate writes for Barstool Sport, which is a blog designed to supply non-politcally correct commentary on relevant sports and pop culture topics. The blog is not for everybody, as it is intended to replicate the people would converse at a sports bar (thus the name "Barstool"). The articles almost always include curse words, and is often intentionally vulgar.

It also uses a large large amount of satire and hyperbole, which makes it easy to be misunderstood by those who are not familiar with the site.

The blog is great because it offers a refreshing change to the way sports articles are typically written. For example, go on ESPN and Fox Sports and you will be able to find articles criticizing the poor set-up of the All Star Game, but you will not find an article that calls it "without a doubt the dumbest, most illogical, most irresponsible, most nonsensical, most idiotic rule in all of sports" like you will on Barstool.

The blogs are usually designed to be comedic, but they usually are very accurate as well. The blog on Jose Fernandez and the All Star Game is impossible to disagree with, as it references the absurdity of a pitcher saying that he will deliberately allow a batter to hit a home run off him in a game that is supposed to "count".

The Marlins are currently tied for a Wild Card spot in the National League. That means that if the season ended today, the Marlins would be in the playoffs. They have just as good a shot as anyone to make the World Series. As a player on the Marlins, you would think that Jose Fernandez would care that the game decides home field advantage in the World Series, which could end up being very important to his team.

However, Fernandez clearly does not care about the outcome of the game, which proves that the whole idea of All Star Game meaning something is a failure. Even with this rule, players still do not take the game seriously, and its hard to blame them. If the players don't care about the outcome of the All Star Game, why should we?

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