It only seems appropriate, on this most patriotic of holiday seasons, to use my hard earned (by someone else, not me) freedom of speech to complain. Not just about meaningful things, mind you, but about completely valueless things as the grand cosmic order of things go.
Frankly, I'm tired of Major League Baseball messing around with baseball. Who do they thing baseball belongs to anyway? This year, they want to change the home run derby to not just be about American League vs. National League (which it never really was anyway), but they want to turn it into a political event by designating people as representatives from their country. (As documented here and here.)
Jeez. Like I said, it was never A.L. vs. N.L. in the first place. It was always one guy vs. everyone else. It was always mano-a-mano. It was just a good time, watching each other tear the cover off the balls. Most of the time, the Also-rans sat around whooping it up when the real big boys got up there and put on their clinics. THAT'S a good time. THAT's what the derby is all about. FUN!
MLB seems to want to render all joy and merriment from baseball entirely. Years ago, it was interleague play. Most recently, it was “making the All-Star game MEAN something”. Now this. Let's make a political statement, try to get a “my country is better than your country” thing going on. Oh yeah, and we also have this whole World Baseball Tournament thing we're plugging to. So, that'll fit right in. To top it off, most common fans probably have the naivete to think that voting for their All-Star picks actually means their choice might get the spot. Well, that's true if you all happen to vote for who will bring in good ratings. To keep someone less worthy from getting the spotlight, MLB made “layers” of votes so that choices could be fixed by those that actually know the game (like Managers and MLB Execs themselves”. They have their own sets of voting that happens in between the public voting close and before the official list is announced.
SERIOUSLY! Stop with the gimmicks. The game is what it is. You're not suffering from attendance drops (overall). You're not suffering from workage issues (for now). You're not suffering from poor TV ratings. Leave it alone. Remember, you (MLB) could be where you were but a few years ago, post-strike, when you actually had problems. Or worse, you could be the NHL.
Whatever. Just give me (well, my team) our World Series rings and be done with it. We're all ready for it.
Later.