Posted by Matthew Whipps on Monday, July 6, 2009 at 11:39 pm

Now before we begin let me start out by saying I know the All-Star game is an exhibition game. But be that as it may, it’s still kind of a joke. None of the reasoning behind the rules, set-up and outcome makes any sense. Now don’t get me wrong, I love the All-Star game as much as the next guy, but you have to admit it is very flawed.

With that being said, I wanted to take an opportunity to explain the things wrong with the game as well as how to fix them. After all, there’s no sense complaining about something if you aren’t going to bring a reasonable solution to the table. Now I know this is going to sound negative (you should have read my original draft), but it’s not meant to criticize as much as it is to help shine light on its flaws and to work on fixing it. Remember, this is the only All-Star game of the four major sports that players actually care and where there are consequences at stake.

1.) If you are going to make the game count for something, you can’t have uneducated fans decide who plays.
I figured this was just a common sense item. Let’s face it, most fans, particularly the ones that will vote the maximum 25 times, are going to vote on name recognition alone. I know that is a sweeping generalization, but I’m ok with it because year after year I am proven right. Take Josh Hamilton being voted in to start this season despite missing most of the year and being ineffective when he has been in the lineup. Game, set, match.

Basically if the winner of the All-Star game is going to decide home field advantage in the World Series (which is a huge thing), you need to make sure the best players are out there for each side. I understand why having the fans involved is a good thing as it gets them into it. So if you must have them part of the decision making process, here is how the voting should be broken down:

> 1/3 of the final vote is by the fans
> 1/3 of the final vote is by the announcers and press
> 1/3 of the final vote is by past and present players and coaches

Make each of the three parts weighted equally and average everything together to get your All-Stars. I think you’ll see you will get the best players just about every single time.

2.) Cut the number of All-Stars on each side to 25.
Really, we need 33 All-Stars on each side? I remember when each side had a normal 25-man roster and everyone got in the game. Now each manager has to practically deal with an entire 40-man roster and we end up having guys at the end each year who don’t get in at all.

Oh and while we’re at it, can we have some consistency of how many positions make it? What on earth is the NL going to do with four first basemen, especially when Pujols will most likely play most of the game. Meanwhile the shortstops and third basemen will each play halves. Doesn’t make much sense to me. Especially since Ryan Howard doesn’t even deserve to be there.

3.) Get rid of pitchers hitting in NL parks.
Do we really need to see pitchers hit during All-Star games? This is especially ridiculous because a.) no one wants to see it, b.) there are plenty of hitters available and c.) why even risk the potential for injury? If you cut down the roster to 25, you won’t need to have so many pitchers available to replace them after they are pinch hit for. This one is a no-brainer.

4.) Eliminate having a mandatory one All-Star for each team rule.
This one is just plain dumb. So let me get this straight. To make sure that the Oakland A’s get their one All-Star, Andrew Bailey and his 9 saves gets to go over Brandon Inge, Ian Kinsler, Chone Figgins, Adam Lind or Carlos Pena? Really? And this logic makes sense?

I just think the idea that thousands of Oakland A’s fans will not watch the game just because they don’t have a representative on it is ridiculous. If that’s the case then they should be ashamed. In fact, nothing against Bailey, I would also be ashamed if that was the best thing my team could trot out to represent us in an All-Star game.

Well those are the four main things I would change right now about the All-Star game. I thought about going into something about not having the game end in a tie but that seems so obvious and asinine that anyone should be able to figure that out.

Right?