MLB All-Star Game: 6 Changes That Would Re-Energize the Midsummer Classic

In the hierarchy of professional and collegiate sports in the United States, Major League Baseball ranks fifth in terms of popularity. Football is king in America and basketball takes the silver medal. Baseball has gradually lost its appeal and consequently, part of its fanbase.

Professional baseball’s downhill slide in the U.S. is no more evident than a quick look at television ratings. The MLB All-Star Game peaked in 1970 when it earned a 28.5 and its ratings have declined ever since, according to Thom Loverro of The Atlantic. 

The one area in which MLB triumphs over the NFL (7.7 rating) and NBA (5.9 rating) is the All-Star Game, according to Sports Media Watch.

While the MLB All-Star Game draws a larger audience and it’s the only one of the three major All-Star Games to feature any defense, the Midsummer Classic can be even better. 

Major League Baseball can be proactive to make changes that will re-energize the All-Star Weekend. The modifications involve the stakes of the game, the voting process and the addition of skills competitions.

According to Sports Media Watch, the past three All-Star Games’ overnight ratings have been the lowest in the history of the game.

"

The five lowest MLB All-Star Game overnights have taken place within the last decade — 2005 (9.8), 2010 (9.3), 2012 and 2013 (8.1) and 2011 (7.9).

"

However, MLB doesn't have to fall victim to this downward trend. It has the most popular All-Star Game in the U.S. and the Midsummer Classic features the best product. 

All Major League Baseball needs is the right combination of new All-Star Weekend events and a modification of the All-Star Game’s purpose in order to appeal more to fans and players.

The "Exhibition" Status and Team Representation

The biggest change for the All-Star Game is to remove incentive that the winning league gets home-field advantage in the World Series.

The current stakes of the All-Star Game make the game very hypocritical. The event is described as an exhibition but by giving a reward to the winning squad, the word "exhibition" is used loosely.

There is a major prize attached to the game yet at the same time, every team is guaranteed to have at least one player and a fan vote decides a large portion of the rosters.

In the words of ESPN Radio host Colin Cowherd, the MLB All-Star Game is an “exhibition with benefits.” Major League Baseball can’t have it both ways.

The All-Star Game should be an exhibition with no stakes attached to it. Instead, the team in the World Series with the best overall record deserves home-field advantage.

For example, it’s not fair to a team that wins the AL pennant and has the better record of the remaining two teams if the lone Houston Astros All-Star, who is representing his team that is 28 games below .500, drops a pop fly in a close game and his blunder causes the American League to lose.

According to ESPN's Baseball Tonight, home-field advantage has proven to be important in recent years, which is why it shouldn't be decided by an exhibition. 

"

The team with the home-field advantage has won 22 of the last 27 World Series and the last 9 World Series Game 7s.

— Baseball Tonight (@BBTN) July 17, 2013"

The change wouldn’t decrease the quality of play in the game. Players would still try their best for personal pride, to try to win the MVP award and because of their competitive natures.

To go one step further, not every team should be required to have at least one player in the All-Star Game. It should be a goal but when teams are 20 games out of first place in their division by the All-Star break, they may not have any players worthy of All-Star Game selections.

As Amanda Rykoff of ESPN W wrote, fans have countless opportunities to watch baseball's best players, which removes the need to represent every team in the Midsummer Classic. 

"

This rule made sense when the game served as a showcase for players fans might not otherwise get a chance to see. But thanks to interleague play, MLB.TV and many more national games on ESPN, Fox and TBS, baseball fans don't need to rely on the Midsummer Classic for a chance to see players from all over the league.

"

Every year there would be the new storylines of whether or not lower-level teams would have All-Stars. This would allow for the most deserving players to be recognized rather than Major League Baseball accomplishing a side agenda to satisfy fan bases of bad teams.

Modify the Voting

The All-Star Game is meant for the fans and the reason why MLB’s version of the game gets better ratings than that of the NBA and NFL is because of fan support. However, the nature of online voting allows for fans to stuff the ballot box. Voting essentially becomes a popularity contest.

When Major League Baseball released the All-Star Game voting standings for the AL on June 22, New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter was in fifth place for his position despite not playing a game this season up to that point. 

"

All Star results, we take seriously. Voting, not so much.

— Mo Egger (@MoEgger1530) July 6, 2013

"

Voting revolves around a player’s career accomplishments just as much as it does his performance for the first half of that season. Players who interact well with fans or play on teams who create public voting campaigns will yield better results.

Instead of leaving so much power in the hands of the fans, voting should be left to those who work in and around the game of baseball. Every player, manager and general manager, as well as a handful of established beat writers and analysts, should get a vote.

Once the votes are tallied and rosters determined, the fans should then be able to vote who starts. Since the final player vote has been a hit over the past few seasons, each All-Star manager should continue to pick five players to compete for the final roster spot and a fan vote will decide who gets the nod.

It makes more sense to leave the voting in the hands of people who are around the game every day and who watch players from across country. Fans vote for their hometown players and players with whom they are familiar, which can lead to unfair All-Star snubs. 

Three Skills Competitions

One aspect of the NBA All-Star Weekend that Major League Baseball could look to imitate is a skills competition.

The NBA has a three-point shooting contest and a skills competition. The MLB All-Star Weekend could add several new challenges to revitalize the experience. Three ideas originate from the Cooperstown Dream Park National Invitational Tournament. An outfield throwing accuracy competition, a base running contest and an around the horn team challenge wouldn’t compare to the home run derby but they would add more exciting elements to a special weekend.

Hip-hop artist Nelly brought up the possibility of a skills competition on ESPN's First Take and it drew a positive reaction on Twitter, which shows that fans would be on board. 

D.J. Chandler wrote about Nelly's thoughts on Hip-Hop Wired.

"

“I just think they do a terrible job at marketing and really getting deep into the problem of training kids from the very beginning,” added Nelly, who also wants to see the MLB All-Star Game add a skills competition similar to what the NBA does in their All-Star showcases.

"

These new competitions would also allow for players who are not nominated to the All-Star Game to be able to compete, similarly to how Oakland Athletics’ left fielder Yoenis Cespedes was chosen for the Home Run Derby despite not being an All-Star. For the future, this would be an outlet to give rising stars, such as Yasiel Puig, the ability to be involved in the festivities even if they didn’t make an All-Star roster.

Great defensive plays in baseball are not limited to diving catches or slick double plays. Long and accurate throws from an outfielder to gun down a runner trying to advance are awesome plays to watch. MLB could select a few outfielders from each league, place them at different spots in the outfield, launch balls to them with a pitching machine and then have the players try to hit a target at each base.

Have you ever wondered how fast Jacoby Ellsbury, Evereth Cabrera, Starling Marte or another one of the league’s stolen base leaders can run the bases? How long would it take a MLB speedster to leg out an inside-the-park home run? These questions would be answered by a baserunning competition. Both leagues would have four or five players who would run the bases. There would be three rounds and each player would get two attempts per round.

The finals skills competition would be an “around the horn plus” drill. The sequence would start with the pitcher, then go the catcher, third baseman, second baseman, first baseman, catcher, second baseman, right fielder, second baseman, center fielder, third baseman, left fielder, catcher. The contest would be timed and the fastest team or league to finish would win.

These three skills competitions would help display all five tools of baseball and they would add an entirely new dimension to a slowly fading All-Star Game. Major League Baseball has a new wave of talented young stars—Mike Trout, Bryce Harper, Manny Machado and Puig to name a few—so it needs to make the most of their talents and take the All-Star Weekend to new heights.