All Star Game Rant

I was going to hold back, but after reading Jacob’s post, I shall rant, I must rant:

The frequency of the players entering and being substituted for made the game almost impossible to follow.  The fact that the innings were so short only exacerbated the problem too.  Joe Buck hardly had a chance to introduce each new pitcher before he was out of the inning, let alone go over the subs in the field and pitch hitters.  Less players on the rosters would lead to less shuffling and better viewership.  Also, with technology these days, surely they could put up a graphic showing me the current line-ups and each player’s position?

Whats the point of having a mandatory player from each team, if the those fans aren’t going to even know if, when or where he is playing/batting?  Neither Pittsburgh Pirate player got in – why Zach Duke was even on the squad is beyond me – nor did Oaklan’s representative – Andrew Bailey.  Fine, these are small market teams, who cares, you may say.  Even the Cubs Ted Lilly didn’t smell the field.  The Cubs fans are die-hard and spend a lot of money, keep them happy.

And don’t even get me started on the ‘homer-decisions’ of the coaches.  How Shane Victorino goes from 33rd player on the squad to starter is absurd.  If Charlie Manuel was going to end up playing Jayson Werth there out of position anyway, then why not start him there?  Standing behind the ‘he’s the only actual Centerfielder on the squad’ is ridiculous.  Braun started the game out of position in Left Field.

Joe Maddon on the other side was no less guilty.  Every Tampa Bay Ray got in to hit and play the field except for Carlos Pena, who had his 15 minutes in the sun in the Homerun derby.  He also seemed to an anti-Boston agenda too.  Youkilis, one of the better defenders  in the league at either 1st or 3rd base, never played the field.  Wakefield was told ahead of time that he would only play if the game went extras, and Beckett never even lifted a foot.
The purpose of this game isn’t to showcase last season’s World Series participants, its to showcase the game’s best and brightest, though the Coaches seemed to miss that point.

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