MLB's All-Star Game Is for the Fans—at Least According to the Media

(Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)

In 2005, I tracked the highlights shown on SportsCenter over a 22-day period. What was observed was not only a geographic bias, but also that certain teams appeared far more than other teams. 

While it cannot be directly applied to this year's All-Star selections, I doubt little has changed since that time.

In terms of the "featured" game highlighted on the 11 PM Eastern SportsCenter (i.e., first baseball game highlighted), an American League East team was involved 78.6 percent of the time. 

A National League Central team was involved in 66.7 percent of those highlights. In terms of the first five games highlighted, what could be dubbed "important games," there is still bias towards the AL East (50 percent), as well as the NL East (53.7 percent).

Now, there is an obvious reason why teams in the east are highlighted more often than teams from the west. By the time the 11 PM edition of SportsCenter aired, most games in the east had concluded and therefore were able to be highlighted. So, let's look at the 1 AM Eastern edition of SportsCenter.

With the 1 AM edition, the distribution of highlights is spread more evenly among the geographic divisions. The AL East was still involved in the plurality of featured and important games, but more games involving the two West divisions are highlighted. The issue, however, is many people on the east do not see these highlights.

One final point with the divisional breakdown: In terms of important highlights on the 1 AM edition of SportsCenter, most divisions see an increase in coverage when one of their teams is playing a team from the East.

• 56 percent of AL Central highlights were against AL East teams
• 58 percent of AL West highlights were against AL East teams
• 75 percent of NL Central highlights were against NL East teams
• 56 percent of NL West highlights were against NL East teams

For the East divisions, the distribution was fairly even across all divisions.

As for teams during this time, only four teams had every game highlighted at some point in the program—the Boston Red Sox, the New York Yankees, the Texas Rangers, and the Atlanta Braves. The Rangers were an anomaly at the time due to the Kenny Rogers-cameraman incident.

The Toronto Blue Jays and Seattle Mariners were the only teams to have less than 50 percent of their games highlighted. The Chicago White Sox, who had the best record at that time, were only highlighted 86.7 percent of the time, while the Oakland Athletics were highlighted 93.75 percent of the time despite having a losing record!

The reason the A's were highlighted more often than the White Sox had a lot to do with their opponents during this time frame.

Another interesting aspect is the SportsCenter reset, which recapped the day's top stories during the 1 AM edition. Of the 18 baseball games that were deemed to be a top story worth resetting, 16 involved teams from the east, and 11 involved either the Red Sox or the Yankees.

So, does the media, namely ESPN, play a role in who makes an all-star roster? The answer is partially.

In 2005, the Pittsburgh Pirates' Jason Bay had to make it in as a reserve despite strong numbers, while the Cincinnati Reds' Felipe Lopez did not even make the team. Both the Pirates and Reds received sporadic highlights on SportsCenter, 50 percent and 56.25 percent respectively.

Conversely, the Cardinals and the Houston Astros were highlighted roughly the same number of times. Despite this, Scott Rolen was selected as a starter from the Cards, while the Astros' Morgan Ensberg was a last-minute replacement, ironically for the injured Rolen. Ensberg was having a far better season than Rolen.

So there is some sway that is held by ESPN, but it is obviously not the only factor. Nevertheless, to hammer home the point that ESPN does hold some influence over who makes the All-Star team, let's look at Jason Bay.

Here are Bay's pre-All-Star stats for the four of the last five seasons. I have randomized them for the hell of it.

• Sample A: .284, 21 HRs, 66 RBI, 54 Rs, 56 BBs, 84 Ks, .927 OPS, 6 SBs
• Sample B: .287, 19 HRs, 53 RBI, 64 Rs, 56 BBs, 77 Ks, .917 OPS, 6 SBs
• Sample C: .265, 20 HRs, 71 RBI, 54 Rs, 51 BBs, 81 Ks, .915 OPS, 8 SBs
• Sample D: .299, 16 HRs, 44 RBI, 59 Rs, 45 BBs, 79 Ks, .930 OPS, 5 SBs

Now, Bay has made an All-Star roster three times—twice as a starter and once as a reserve. Sample A, when he was with the Pirates in 2006, and Sample C, his current stats, are the two times he was selected as a starter.

Sample D, again with the Pirates but in 2005, was when he was selected as a reserve. Sample B is from 2008, prior to his trade to the Red Sox, when he did not make the roster at all.

While his stat line with the Red Sox this season is not terrible, it is not as solid as A and could be considered worse than B, when Bay did not make the roster at all. I do not recall many Pirate highlights on SportsCenter or seeing Pittsburgh on Sunday Night Baseball. What this seems to suggest is that ESPN does promote/limit specific teams and players, even if it is unintentional on their part.

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