Home Run Derby
The Derby right now consists of eight players, three rounds, and three hours along with having to hear Chris Berman yell “Back, back, back, back, back, back, back, gone!” every other pitch. In addition, this year they seemed to have introduced a new idea where each league has a captain, this year it was David Ortiz for the AL and the NL’s Prince Fielder, and that captain selects three players from their league to join them. One would think that this would make the Home Run Derby something like a team event where maybe the most combined home runs wins the Derby, but we quickly learned that the whole “captain” concept really had nothing to do with the actual event as hitters were on their own once the pitches were thrown.
Really the first and only thing that needs to be done is to shorten it. Three hours is definitely way to long. So all you have to do is cut the number of contestants from eight to six and cut the number of rounds from three to two. Let’s say each hitter is up to bat for a minimum of ten minutes per round. Eight hitters in the first round, four in the second, and two in the third means that fourteen times a hitter comes to the plate which adds up to 140 minutes, or two hours and twenty minutes that players are trying to hit home runs. Add a couple more minutes when a player really goes on a home run spree and about two minutes for commercials in between each player and round and you get about three hours. It’s just too much.
Cutting the players and rounds to six and two, respectively, can significantly cut the time of the Derby and make it more manageable to watch for people who don’t tune in because it is too long. Six batters in the first round and three in the second round cuts the batting time from over two hours to just an hour and a half. And even if you want to show commercials for three minutes in order to make up for the shortened event then that would leave nine breaks between players and rounds which means 27 minutes of advertisements. Add a few more minutes for hitters who get hot and you are looking at a Home Run Derby that was just cut but almost an hour.
All-Star Game
In the past the All-Star Game was an honor to play in. It meant you were recognized by both the fans and the All-Star manager as one of the top players in the game and rewarded the people by letting them see you play on the field with the rest of the best players in baseball. Now, it is just a joke where second and third tier “All-Stars” replace the original players voted in who are unable to or choose not to play in the game. This year there were 84 players at one point or another who were on one of the All-Star teams. Last year that number was 82 which means that players are currently dropping out of the All-Star Game at an astounding rate.
The first thing that needs to be done is to move the game from Tuesday to Wednesday night. This gives the players an extra day of rest during the break and thus may be more inclined to play. For the pitchers, those who start for their teams on the Sunday before All-Star weekend do not pitch in the game because of rest and rotation issues. That means that this year players like Justin Verlander, C.C. Sabathia, Felix Hernandez, and Cole Hamels were unable to pitch in the All-Star Game. Moving the game allows these top pitchers to throw in the game on Wednesday and gives the game much more star power.
Have it decide home field advantage in the World Series or allow every team to be represented. One or the other but not both. Right now it is both which means that players on teams like the Kansas City Royals and Houston Astros, teams that have no players deserving of All-Star appearances nor have any chance of playing in the World Series, have players in the game deciding World Series home field advantage. So why should we force these players into the All-Star Game and allow them to help decide which team will most likely win the World Series? The overwhelming majority of teams that have home field advantage in the World Series win it so it really is not fair to those on contending teams. If you want the game to be more than an exhibition and thus count towards the World Series than you cannot be fair and have every team represented. If you want to be equal to all teams than the game cannot be more than an exhibition.
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