Changing the All-Star Game

This week marks the “Mid-Summer Classic”, which I’ve always thought was a terrible name for the MLB All-Star Game.  Certainly, the game happens around the middle of summer time, but does anyone consider it a “classic” anymore?

The answer is likely no.  Interleague play is partially to blame for this, as fans can now see sluggers facing off against great pitchers (think Jeter vs. Maddux) during the season.  They don’t have to wait for the All-Star Game or the World Series to see that, it can happen any week of the season.

But it isn’t just that which leaves many people to approach the All-Star Game with indifference.  Spoken bluntly, the game doesn’t matter.  While MLB created a unique (and gimmicky) policy of the winning League also having homefield advantage for the real Classic – which is the one in October (at least it should be October, but often bleeds into November) – we all know the baseball playoffs are really a tournament of luck.  In that context, what’s the point of watching a game that matters only as a break from an otherwise run-of-the-mill season?

Baseball is not alone in this regard.  Think on all the other all-star games, they are more unwatchable.  The NFL almost sunk the Pro Bowl over the last two years due to a noticeable lack of effort.  And if Roger Goodell sees poor performance…something is going exceedingly wrong.  What about the NHL or NBA?  No checking and no defense, and yet those leagues continue to perpetuate the talking point that their mediocre efforts every season are all for the fans.

For a while we as fans have swallowed such nonsense, that collectively we actually want this drivel every year.  And the players themselves maintain this, on every interview ever done about any all-star game.  Watch for it this week, every time a player is asked what it’s like to play in All-Star Game, the phrase “this is all for the fans” is bound to appear somewhere.  (On a sidenote, specialty events like the Home Run Derby and the Dunk Contest do actually have some value for fans, and should stay in their current forms).

The numbers bear out fan indifference towards these games, particularly those for hockey and basketball.  Since 2010, the NBA All-Star Game has averaged 7.6 million viewers, a far cry from the 18 million average viewers of the NBA Finals over the same period.  For the NHL, their three All-Star Games since 2010 have averaged 1.43 million viewers, which is short of one quarter of the average viewership for the Cup Finals.  While I prefer not to acknowledge the Pro Bowl as anything worthy of sports inquiry, it has outstripped the other All-Star Games in pure viewership at around 12 million…but the Super Bowl just one week later is the most-watched event in America, and average viewership of the NFL season, according to The Atlantic, is 17 million.

So how can All-Star Games change for the better? 

First, after taking all this time to savage these games as unwatchable, it would be fair to ask me why I care.  The reasoning is simple: the honor bestowed on individual players for these games is important. When determining Hall of Fame entrants, how often do we hear talk about All-Star or Pro Bowl selections?  It's fairly ubiquitous, even if it isn't the most important piece of the resume.

As far as the perfect system for All-Star games, it’s easy: eliminate fan voting.  Those who know me personally (and disagree with my political or cultural sentiments), won’t be surprised that I want to keep the vote from the common man, but some of the most egregious cases of All-Star honors have happened because of fan voting.  In the NHL last year, fans voted in Zemgus Girgensons of the Sabres, who had a whopping 30 points the entire season.  Back in 2011, the fans voted Yao Ming into the starting lineup, despite him playing only five games to that point in the season, and Kevin Love putting up ridiculous numbers.  And does anyone remember the one guy who voted for Nomar Garciaparra 39,000 times?  Ballot-stuffing is a real problem, and tarnishes the selection process.  There’s lots to like about the NFL process here, as fans, coaches, and players count for one-third of the ballots.

Without fan voting, the majority of emphasis should go to coaches.  These are the people who prepare, observe, and adjust according to the strengths of their opponents.  Their expertise adds further emphasis to any selections they make.  Throw in a prohibition on coaches voting for their own players, and it’s perfect.

There is one aspect of the All-Star Game unique to baseball, which is the rule that every team have one representative.  Admittedly, this world is no meritocracy, but this is complete nonsense.  Fans of one team will not change their viewership patterns of the All-Star Game based on one player from their hometown team.  None of the other leagues have this rule, and given the numbers, nothing says the rule will help viewership.  It should be the best players, regardless of team.

This would all lead to the best reform of all.  Less fan stake means fewer people who care, which means fewer reasons to even hold an All-Star Game.  Which might mean the end of All Star Games, Pro Bowls, and anything in between.  And that’s the way to fix them…get rid of them.