I have to say that last night’s/this mornings Major League Baseball All-Star Game was a great game!  Well played (except for the National League’s 2nd Baseman, Uggla (sp?  However you spell it, it WAS ugly!!)), and exciting right to the bitter end.  Thankfully it ended before we had David Wright and J.D. Drew pitching for their respective leagues — and with the World Series home-field advantage on the line no less.

The game did go until past 1:00AM EDT.  The stands were more than 75% empty at that time… I bet all children had fallen asleep (and if children cannot watch this game — don’t get me started on the World’s Series starting times — then where will our future fans come from?).  So, let’s put our collective minds together and solve this “problem”.

I’ve heard a few ideas bandied about today on how the All-Star game can be improved.  I think it was a GREAT game!!  And I would only have one suggestion which I hadn’t heard anywhere else.  I think that 15-innings is a good maximum.  This way the Managers can manage their benches and pitching staffs.

If the game is still tied after 15 innings, there would be a Home Run hitting contest.  Each league would assign five batters, and supply their own pitcher (could be a coach), and have a little shoot-out — like they do in Soccer, Hockey, and NCAA Football.  If it’s still tied after each league goes through their five sluggers it goes in to Sudden Death and a new player comes up for each league.

A players turn ends when he gets three outs (where an out is any pitch swung at that doesn’t clear the outfield fence on a fly in fair territory (i.e. a Home Run!).  Total number of Home Runs would decide the winner of the game and determine which league has home field advantage in the World Series.

What are your thoughts?

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Tags: All-Star Game, Baseball

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 16th, 2008 at 8:25 pm and is filed under Baseball. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.