This That and the Other Thing

These Nimrods Again

The National League is never going to win another All Star Game, I think we can all agree on that.  The SportsNation poll on ESPN Monday was “How should Home Field in the World Series be determined?” With the answers being a) best overall record  b) winner of the All Star Game  c) better interleague record.  I actually surprised myself for voting for B.  Since the 2003 THIS TIME IT COUNTS rebranding the MLB All Star Game has actually meant something-compare to the NBA which is just for fun and feels like nothing more than a glorified pick up game, which his nice but can you tell me who won this year?  The year before?  No, because it doesn’t matter.  Prior to 2003 home field in the World Series was just determined on an alternating year basis, isn’t that actually worse than the winner of the ASG?  There’s a bit of drama there in the MLB game, even if you know the AL is going to win, again.

And why do they keep winning anyway?  Pres. Obama asked both Joe and Tim McCarver when he was in the booth and McCarver responded first with an intellectually dubious “The AL keeps winning because they have an advantage because of the Designated Hitter” response.  Yeah, good deductive reasoning, Timmy.  The AL has an advantage in interleague play and the World Series because of the DH but a) this game was in an NL park so there was no DH (which is stupid, btw) and b) there’s no shortages of guys that the NL could throw in to DH if they wanted to.  Does McCarver actually think before he’s asked a question or does inane drivel just spew out of his mouth nonstop?  Joe Buck gave the slightly more enlightened answer of “The AL is just the better league” which is probably close enough to the truth that it really doesn’t need elaborating.  With such established power bases like NYY, BOS, ANA and the geniuses in Tampa Bay you’re going to have to spend a boatload just to have a prayer of contention.  In the NL things are a little more fluid-you can make a case for over the half the teams in the league to be in contention over the last two weeks of the season, meaning less dramatic moves (read: not as good of players) are necessary to put your squad over the top.  And then you lose All Star Games.  For the rest of eternity.

Happy Black Wednesday folks-only day on the entire calendar without a professional sporting event.  Here’s a few ideas about how to spend the day.