The Major League
All Star was recently completed. Over
seventy players from the major leagues gathered in Anaheim, CA, with at least
one player from each of the thirty-two teams participating. Some were appearing for their first time
while others had been three, four, five, even twelve or thirteen times over
their careers.
Hall of Famer
Hank Aaron has the most times being named on an MLB all star roster with
twenty-one followed by Stan Musial and Willie Mays with twenty each. Most every player who appeared on more than
ten all star rosters is in the baseball Hall of Fame. The ones who aren’t are mostly not yet
eligible. There are a couple of exceptions
to this but ten all star rosters seems to be a reasonable point to say that
someone is on a path to the Hall of Fame.
The 2010 game had
no home-runs but not every child who pitches a ball against the garage door
dreams of hitting a home run to win the All-Star game. If the kid throwing the ball against the
garage door is good enough, he may be causing enough damage to the door for his
parents to have to call the garage door repairman to come out and fix it. Or maybe the door gets damaged because the
garage door is the backstop for a sandlot game for the neighborhood kids.
The most common
dream is hitting the home run to win the World Series. The All Star game is just the extra-added
attraction for most players. The
baseball All Star game, like the NBA and NHL all-star games, occurs at roughly
the mid point of the six-month season.
There’s a lot of
contention as to just what the All Star game should be for. Is it for the fans to see their favorite
players? Is it based on career statistics
or is it based on performance on the field in the first half of the
season? Is it a mid-season exhibition or
is it a serious game? Should the
managers mange as they do regular season or playoff games, to win or should
they treat it like managers of Little League or T-ball managers do and make
sure everyone gets in. Of course, on
that last point, if managers treat it like a T-ball game, then Major League
Baseball may well end up like they did in 2002 with a tie. (Note: the second All Star game in ’61 was
also a tie due to rain in the 9th inning. – There were 2 All Star games in ’59
– ’62).
Whatever happens,
there are little boys today, throwing a baseball against a garage door
somewhere in America, dreaming of their future Major League careers and All
Star games.