Stan Musial of the Cardinals…said he was tired when he came to the plate in the 12th inning, but hit a home run to win the 1955 all-star game for the National League, 6-5. (Press Pros File Photos)
Compared to what we saw at the conclusion of the Major League all-star game…it’s a joy to watch the ten-year-olds from down the street play baseball at the community park. At least they play to win the game.
If you watched the Major League all-star game Tuesday night, and you liked the way it ended…go ahead and click off the page. Go read something else.
Because what I’m about to share with you is going to be as far from your understanding as east is from west.
And maybe what I’m about to say is generational, as a friend who read my column a few days back about how travel baseball prepares you for the challenge of college baseball – developing competitive instinct – shared with me in a text.
Publisher Sonny Fulks writes OHSAA sports and the Buckeyes for Press Pros Magazine.
“You were old even in high school. I didn’t like you then, either.”
VPP, in Versailles, Ohio, proudly sponsors amateur baseball on Press Pros Magazine.com.
Maybe baseball, like a lot of other things, has simply become a sign of the apocalypse. And since we’ve done away with hard play, arguments and ejections for the sake of better sporting behavior, and a priority for hugs and handshakes over someone actually winning and losing…let’s just do away with extra innings as well.
After all, someone has paid for television advertising on the late news, and it’s better that we keep on schedule and get to Steven Colbert than it is to watch an additional hour of baseball.
I didn’t watch the game, itself. I haven’t for several years now because it doesn’t interest me. It’s not competitive, but rather one tribute after another to players that modern culture never heard of. There isn’t a high school player anywhere in the state of Ohio that can truthfully say he remembers Henry Aaron playing baseball.
And yes, it might have been Clayton Kershaw’s last all-star game, but two outs were enough before his tribute and Kershaw blowing kisses to the crowd as he left. We’ve got all those other pitchers that we’re obligated to get in the game.
So many, in fact, that they ran out of pitchers after nine innings. And in the event that that happens, let’s just have some batting practice home run competition to see who wins the game. This, after all the starting All-Stars (Judge and Ohtani) have already showered and left the ballpark.
Ted Williams hit the first walk-off home run in an all-star game back in 1941…the same year he hit .406.
When I saw the replay the next morning – Kyle Schwarber hitting three batting practice home runs to win for the National League, thereby claiming MVP honors, as well – it made me ill. And that’s not generational. That’s how I played the game in high school and college.
Nothing against Kyle Schwarber, because I admire his skills as a player. But he had to be laughing once he got off the field for being named MVP for hitting three batting practice lobs out of the park in a made-for-television farce to determine the all-star game.
That, compared to the walk-off that Ted Williams hit in the 1941 game that won the game for the American League, 7-5.
That compared to the one that Tony Perez hit in 1967 that won the game for the National League…in the 15th inning! My God…the 15th inning? He hit if off a guy named Catfish Hunter (another hall-of-famer that high schoolers never heard of), and guess what? It EARNED him MVP honors!
That compared to the home run that Stan Musial hit in the 1955 game in Milwaukee that won the game for the National League in the 12th inning, 6-5. And he DIDN’T get the MVP!
Is it any wonder how we’re teaching kids the wrong competitive lessons in meaningless travel baseball?
Tony Perez hit a homer in the 15th inning of the 1967 all-star game to win the game for the National League.
Is it any wonder that we’d actually rather watch batting practice than the game itself?
And is it any wonder that ‘ghost runner’ to start the tenth inning does not count as an earned run…but it does count as a run batted in? Why, if you’re a baseball fan, do you even care?
And why should anyone care about future baseball records, or even the hall of fame? How would you even know a hall of famer?
Because he hit three balls out in batting practice…to win the all-star game?
And let me ask you this. If you had paid $2,500 for a ticket to watch Tuesday’s game…how would you feel when the Major League’s best decided to take the easy way out?
So yeah, there’s a lot of reasons to appreciate watching your kids play amateur community baseball, along with the men who teach them how to play the game.
And teach them to play…the right way!
Knapke Kitchens and Baths, of Versailles, proudly sponsors community baseball on Press Pros Magazine.com.