2025 ALL STAR GAME THREAD JULY 15 8:00 PM

[Motor City Sonics]

1 hour ago, casimir said:

TURN THOSE MACHINES BACK ON................TURN THOSE MACHINES BACK ON !  (Is there an ECHO font?)

[chasfh]

Oh, **** me, here we go … 

 

 

 

[Tiger337]

12 hours ago, chasfh said:

That’s the thing about baseball in general, and this game in particular: I just feel so relentlessly, endlessly marketed to. I don’t feel I’m treated like a fan so much as I’m part of a target audience.

As you know, most of us here are not the target audience.  I never feel like the target audience.  

[gehringer_2]

8 minutes ago, Tiger337 said:

As you know, most of us here are not the target audience.  I never feel like the target audience.  

Yup. I haven't felt like part of the target audience since my most preferred vendor was Mattel.

Edited Thursday at 01:51 AM by gehringer_2

[Tiger337]

5 minutes ago, chasfh said:

Oh, **** me, here we go … 

 

 

 

Yes, it's coming.  The relentless promotion of gambling and extra inning base runnrers have definitely eroded my love for the game.  It will take another big hit with swing offs.  

[Motor City Sonics]

46 minutes ago, Tiger337 said:

Yes, it's coming.  The relentless promotion of gambling and extra inning base runnrers have definitely eroded my love for the game.  It will take another big hit with swing offs.  

Its frustrating.   I used to love college football.  Now I hardly care, it's gotten so out of hand.   Michigan won a championship and I watched parts of 4 or 5 games and that was it.     I wasn't against players getting paid, but not in the millions.   And these conferences.  The Big 10 means nothing to me now.   USC?  Oregon?   Come on.......

[gehringer_2]

15 minutes ago, Motor City Sonics said:

Its frustrating.   I used to love college football.  Now I hardly care, it's gotten so out of hand.   Michigan won a championship and I watched parts of 4 or 5 games and that was it.     I wasn't against players getting paid, but not in the millions.   And these conferences.  The Big 10 means nothing to me now.   USC?  Oregon?   Come on.......

It lost it for me when I went to a couple of UM games in recent years and the game was like a sideshow to all the unrelated media they were blasting at you for 4 hours - I used to like going to a football game to watch a football game, but at the game it has become almost an afterthought, any drama or momentum you might expect is a sporting event is deftly drained away but the commercial time-out official who is ultimate arbiter when anything can happen regardless of the game flow. It's been pretty much downhill from there.

The truth is that big money ruins the value of most thing for most people. When you are under constant pressure to separate yourself from every dollar you possess, it's hard to have a good time and that's what big time sports has become across the board. But the operators have no choice, the system they've created is one where they don't survive if they don't keep taking every opportunity they can invent to separate an additional dime from a fan. </rant>

Edited Thursday at 02:57 AM by gehringer_2

[Tiger337]

26 minutes ago, Motor City Sonics said:

Its frustrating.   I used to love college football.  Now I hardly care, it's gotten so out of hand.   Michigan won a championship and I watched parts of 4 or 5 games and that was it.     I wasn't against players getting paid, but not in the millions.   And these conferences.  The Big 10 means nothing to me now.   USC?  Oregon?   Come on.......

I have always been a peripheral fan of college football, so it doesn't bother me so much, but the conferences are ridiculous.  I understand that it's all about money, but it's absurd to have conferences so big that a school doesn't play half the teams in the conference in a given year.  I also hate college football overtime.  Just like baseball, it bothers me to see one set of rules for regulation and a different set of rules for overtime.  

[sagnam]

Ok, the swing off thing is only ok for something like an all star game. It should never be used in a regular season game. Just end in a tie instead, please. If they are worried about teams playing for a tie then they should be worried about teams playing for a swing off too.

[gehringer_2]

12 minutes ago, Tiger337 said:

I have always been a peripheral fan of college football, so it doesn't bother me so much, but the conferences are ridiculous.  I understand that it's all about money, but it's absurd to have conferences so big that a school doesn't play half the teams in the conference in a given year.  I also hate college football overtime.  Just like baseball, it bothers me to see one set of rules for regulation and a different set of rules for overtime.  

the injury rate in football is so high I can understand wanting to add as few plays from scrimmage to end the game as possible. What I guess I don't understand is how the sport survived 100 yrs perfectly well with ties. Maybe it goes back to the gamblers, but I thought in the old days the bookmakers made out well in ties. 

[oblong]

Highest ratings for the ASG since 2017.  

[Tiger337]

20 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

the injury rate in football is so high I can understand wanting to add as few plays from scrimmage to end the game as possible. What I guess I don't understand is how the sport survived 100 yrs perfectly well with ties. Maybe it goes back to the gamblers, but I thought in the old days the bookmakers made out well in ties. 

If injury rate is the reason, they could go back to having ties.  

[gehringer_2]

15 minutes ago, Tiger337 said:

If injury rate is the reason, they could go back to having ties.  

They do make for even more complex standings and playoff tie-breaker possibilities, which I would generally assume only deepens fan interest.

Edited Thursday at 04:04 AM by gehringer_2

[oblong]

I would rather have a swing off than a tie.  But I'm not a fan of the swing offs in a regular season game.  It's different than a shoot out in hockey.  In hockey you win by scoring goals.  You score goals by putting the puck in the net.  That's the only way you score a goal.  Yes I know there's more to in in terms of setting up and deflections and blocking the goalie, etc.  But the shootout is still a contest between a player and a goalie.   The hockey equivalent would be to set up plates in the goal and have guys shoot at them from the blue line like they do in teh ASG Skills contest.

n baseball there's many ways to score a run.  It can be by power like a HR. It could be due to speed via a baserunner.  Instead of a HR why not time guys running from 2B to home and the best time wins?

Like my thoughts on the ghost runner... if they insist on doing this and I have no say in the matter, then do it after 12 or 13 innings.  Not the 10th.

 

 

[Sports_Freak]

I came here to post an actual quote that was in the paper this morning. People say a swing off is fine for an exhibition game? My response was to be careful for what you accept, pretty soon you will be told that "everyone" loves it and "everyone" wants it. Pure, 100% gaslighting;

 

“It'll be interesting to see where that goes,” AL manager Aaron Boone said after Tuesday's game. “There's probably a world where you could see that in the future, where maybe it's in some regular season mix. I wouldn't be surprised if people start talking about it like that.”

[Sports_Freak]

2 hours ago, oblong said:

I would rather have a swing off than a tie.  But I'm not a fan of the swing offs in a regular season game.  It's different than a shoot out in hockey.  In hockey you win by scoring goals.  You score goals by putting the puck in the net.  That's the only way you score a goal.  Yes I know there's more to in in terms of setting up and deflections and blocking the goalie, etc.  But the shootout is still a contest between a player and a goalie.   The hockey equivalent would be to set up plates in the goal and have guys shoot at them from the blue line like they do in teh ASG Skills contest.

n baseball there's many ways to score a run.  It can be by power like a HR. It could be due to speed via a baserunner.  Instead of a HR why not time guys running from 2B to home and the best time wins?

Like my thoughts on the ghost runner... if they insist on doing this and I have no say in the matter, then do it after 12 or 13 innings.  Not the 10th.

 

 

I think they should try thumb wrestling. Or maybe Rock-Papers-Scissors?

Get outta here with the gimmicks, forget the fake ghost runner. Go back to playing real baseball. That's what fans really want, the tradition of having the contest decided by an entire team. 

[Tiger337]

15 minutes ago, Sports_Freak said:

I think they should try thumb wrestling. Or maybe Rock-Papers-Scissors?

Get outta here with the gimmicks, forget the fake ghost runner. Go back to playing real baseball. That's what fans really want, the tradition of having the contest decided by an entire team. 

That's what serious baseball fans want, but they don't care about us  They've already got us.  They want to entertain new fans. 

[oblong]

11 minutes ago, Tiger337 said:

That's what serious baseball fans want, but they don't care about us  They've already got us.  They want to entertain new fans. 

I think the TV networks and gambling companies also have a say.  The networks don't like things dragging on.  They paid for something and the longer a game goes on the more it disrupts their operations and programming.  So get the game over with.  I believe it's a primary reason we got the pitch clock.  A HR contest at the end presents all kinds of opportunities for wagers.

Business is all about generating as much revenue and profit as possible.  That's it.  Every decision is made with that as the goal.

 

[chasfh]

13 hours ago, Tiger337 said:

Yes, it's coming.  The relentless promotion of gambling and extra inning base runnrers have definitely eroded my love for the game.  It will take another big hit with swing offs.  

This from the guy who wants to see an eight-man batting order. 😉😘

[CaliforniaDreaming]

If they do this, I want to have the batboys be the ones hitting. First one to hit a home run wins.

#NowItMatters

[chasfh]

11 hours ago, Tiger337 said:

I have always been a peripheral fan of college football, so it doesn't bother me so much, but the conferences are ridiculous.  I understand that it's all about money, but it's absurd to have conferences so big that a school doesn't play half the teams in the conference in a given year.  I also hate college football overtime.  Just like baseball, it bothers me to see one set of rules for regulation and a different set of rules for overtime.  

I don't care about college football overtime because I don't really care that much about football to start with.

[chasfh]

3 hours ago, oblong said:

Like my thoughts on the ghost runner... if they insist on doing this and I have no say in the matter, then do it after 12 or 13 innings.  Not the 10th.

 

 

I would be OK with zombie runners starting in the 11th, although I am starting to make my peace with the thing starting in the 10th. At a certain point, I have to recognize the thing is never going to change to something I would prefer that no one is talking about anyway.

I will never OK with ghost runners. I think we need an actual human being on the bases out there. 😉

[chasfh]

As for the swing-off—is that the accepted nomenclature for it now? "Swing-off"? Good god—my prediction is that it starts during the 2027 regular season, or whatever season will be the first of the new CBA, since the swing-off will be codified within. Because that will definitely be one of the things both Baseball and Players want.

[chasfh]

1 hour ago, Sports_Freak said:

I think they should try thumb wrestling. Or maybe Rock-Papers-Scissors?

Get outta here with the gimmicks, forget the fake ghost runner. Go back to playing real baseball. That's what fans really want, the tradition of having the contest decided by an entire team. 

I would be willing to bet that the age breakout of all the swing-off polls we'll be seeing in the next month or so will show that something like 70-30 of fans 55 and over will oppose it, and 70-30 of fans under 30 will be in favor of it.

[Tigermojo]

Catcher gear, baseball bats, gladiator fight to the death.