Help me get this straight. Does the Major League Baseball All Star Game matter or not?
The Mid-Summer Classic, played Tuesday night after our Press deadline, determined which league will have home-field advantage in the World Series.
So why did Matt Harvey, a brilliant young pitcher for the New York Mets, start the game ahead of the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw?
Kershaw’s numbers (8-5, 1.89 ERA, 0.90 WHIP) slightly edge out Harvey’s (7-2, 2.35 ERA, 0.92) on the season. But Harvey is the bigger story, especially for the fans at Citi Field, where the game was played.
Surely, in a game of such significance and with the Mets (41-50 through the break) unlikely to factor into the postseason, shouldn’t the most qualified player start the game?
For that matter, shouldn’t they play as long as possible, instead of having nearly every player on the 36-man rosters shoehorned into the lineup throughout the game?
In truth, I think the idea of assigning value to an all-star game is silly. Of the four major sports, the MLB All-Star Game is the one with the most history (first played in 1933), the coolest competition (the home-run derby) and, even before the home-field rule, the highest level of competition.
The home-field rule unnecessarily injects purpose into a purely fun endeavor.
Harvey should get the start in the middle of his stellar rookie season. Let the 24-year-old righty and the beleaguered Mets’ faithful have their moment.
Barring injuries, I doubt this is the last time we’ll see either Kershaw or Harvey representing their league in July.
There was also much debate in the national media over Yasiel Puig’s merit as an all-star. The young Cuban outfielder became a sensation in a short time, hitting .391 with 19 RBI in 38 games.
It may have been a moot point with Puig straining his left hip, but Puig missed out on making the All-Star Game in a fans’ vote for the final roster spot in favor of Atlanta’s Freddie Freeman.
The mere notion of a rookie making the game on a limited resume drew the ire of some traditionalists, including Phillies closer Jonathan Papelbon.
“To me, it’s an absolute joke,” Papelbon said on MLB Network Radio. “Just comparing him to this and that, and saying he’s going to make the All-Star team, that’s a joke to me.
“It’s just really what happens in baseball when … to me it really does an injustice to the veteran players that have been in the game for eight-, nine-, 10-plus years. It kind of does them an injustice because they’ve worked so hard to stay there.”
I think we need to decide what the All-Star Game is. If the World Series rule is to stay, the game should be held to the highest standard, with players judged only on statistics.
If we want it to be fun again, I see no reason to argue with Harvey starting for the Mets’ fans and Puig making the game.
The MLB still requires each team, no matter how poorly they may have played in the season’s first half, to send a representative to the game. I recall watching on TV as a young fan being most enthralled by the player introductions. It was a spectacle to see players donning 30 different styles of uniforms.
The game does just fine on its own. It doesn’t need an artificially added meaning.
(Press sports editor Sam Wilson can be reached at salpresssports@verizon.net. Follow him on Twitter, @samwils.)
