Tag: 2023 MLB All-Star Game

Let’s just get rid of All-Star Games in sports altogether

It’s time to do away with all the All-Star Games … but not the festivities!

This is the online version of our daily newsletter, The Morning Win. Subscribe to get irreverent and incisive sports stories, delivered to your mailbox every morning. Here’s Charles Curtis.

I don’t usually try to put TOO much stock into TV ratings.

But in the case of the MLB All-Star Game, the numbers don’t lie. The ratings hit a record-low LAST year, and the stats got even worse THIS year, according to reports.

The message from fans is clear: They don’t care, especially now that the All-Star Game doesn’t count for anything (and thank goodness for that, right?). And I get it! All-Star Games are neat on paper, but what’s the point, ESPECIALLY when we saw some injuries emerge?

This is simple: No more All-Star games in any sport.

The NHL’s whole thing is lackluster, as our Mary Clarke wrote in February. The NBA’s is a glorified dunk-fest (although gotta love the Elam Ending!). The MLB All-Star Game is actually the best of the bunch, but it’s still just an exhibition. The NFL was so smart to do away with the Pro Bowl game.

Now: This doesn’t mean you do away with All-Star FESTIVITIES. Give me more contests, more skills competitions, more fun. Get everyone together in one place, do more than the Home Run Derby. It’s so simple and the viewership will absolutely be there. You can name All-Stars to hypothetical teams — and in the NBA, you can keep the “captains choose teams” format, because that’s the best thing about the whole event — and leave it at that. Stadiums and arenas around the country can continue host each year.

That’s it. No more All-Star Games. We’re fine with it, I promise!

Quick Hits: The ESPYs! … Dan Snyder and the Jon Gruden email leaks … and more.

(AP Photo/Chris Pizzell0)

— So much ESPYs goodness! Some sharp-dressed athletes were there, we saw Damar Hamlin get emotional after giving an award to the Bills training staff, LeBron said he’s not retiring and Pat McAfee roasted a bunch of people.

— What we learned from ESPN’s report on the Jon Gruden email leaks, including Dan Snyder’s “Blackmail PowerPoint.”

— Markquis Nowell tried a Curry-like lookaway 3-pointer on a bad miss during NBA Summer League. Oops.

There’s 1 obvious, easy solution to those hideous MLB All-Star uniforms

Let’s go back to the way things were!

This is the online version of our daily newsletter, The Morning Win. Subscribe to get irreverent and incisive sports stories, delivered to your mailbox every morning. Here’s Charles Curtis.

The MLB All-Star Game was fun, but all anyone could talk about were … the uniforms.

Fans were meh on them before the contest at T-Mobile Park in Seattle, and then the combo of the National League’s navy jerseys and black pants got slammed. I saw a ton of tweets about the batting helmets that people didn’t like.

But I also saw the solution that a lot of folks came up with: Can we just go back to the players wearing their own uniforms?

That’s it! So simple. And it’s fun to see the mix of uniforms on the field. We’re not under the illusion that the group of the game’s best players is suddenly a team. And I know the uniforms mean the league will sell more merch, but if you look at Twitter, you know fans will be happier.

This is easy, MLB.

Quick Hits: Dan Snyder’s “Blackmail PowerPoint” … Summer League second-round steals … and more.

Tim Heitman-USA TODAY Sports

— An ESPN story detailed how Jon Gruden’s emails took down Commanders owner Dan Snyder, which included Snyder’s team presenting league execs with a “Blackmail PowerPoint.”

— Bryan Kalbrosky has five second-round picks in 2023 who already look like draft steals in Summer League.

— Amon-Ra St. Brown trolled the Pakers by choosing to replay their 2014 NFC title game collapse on NFL Network.

What are the All-Star Game tiebreaker rules and format? (SPOILER: HOME RUN DERBY!)

Here’s how that will all go down if there’s a tie after nine innings.

It was just a year ago, in 2022, that MLB fans started rooting for a tie in the All-Star Game, something unthinkable from that time the Midsummer Classic actually ended in a tie.

But it’s because there’s a SUPER cool way to decide the winner should the game be tied through nine innings: IT’S A HOME RUN DERBY TO DECIDE IT.

Per USA TODAY Sports’ Bob Nightengale: Each team would choose three players. Each of them gets three swings. The winner? Whatever team has the most home runs. That’s it. If it happens, it’ll be SO FUN.

Hey, it’s better than Bud Selig shrugging!

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. adorably played rock paper scissors across dugouts at the All-Star Game

There’s never a bad time to play rock paper scissors!

There’s never a bad time to play rock paper scissors. In fact, mid-inning at the 2023 MLB All-Star Game might be the best time to engage in some fun tomfoolery!

During Tuesday’s MLB All-Star festivities, former teammates Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. played rock paper scissors across dugouts in the early innings of the contest. Guerrero Jr. and Gurriel Jr. were previously teammates with the Toronto Blue Jays. While Guerrero Jr. is still playing for the Blue Jays — and just won the Home Run Derby! — Gurriel Jr. now plays for the Arizona Diamondbacks after a trade in late 2022.

MORE ALL-STAR GAME: The NL All-Stars wore navy jerseys with black pants and MLB fans were appalled at the fashion choice.

Here’s the moment the cameras caught the pair adorably playing rock paper scissors.

MLB fans called out the All-Star Game for bizarrely skipping Rays’ Wander Franco and Shane McClanahan during intros

This was a weird omission by the All-Star Game.

The MLB All-Star Week is a time of celebration across the league. It’s a time when baseball’s best of the best all congregate in one place to show off their skills as representatives of their teams.

Unfortunately for the Tampa Bay Rays, an announcing snafu skipped the introductions of two of its players during Tuesday’s All-Star Game. Shortstop Wander Franco and pitcher Shane McClanahan were both absent from the All-Star Game introduction announcements despite taking the field during that time.

While neither Franco nor McClanahan were among the American League starters — as Randy Arozarena and Yandy Díaz were both introduced — the pair were seemingly skipped over so the Seattle Mariners could get reception from their hometown crowd.

Talk about an extremely bizarre oversight for sure. The Rays on Twitter, meanwhile, took matters into their own hands about introducing Franco and McClanahan to the festivities.

MLB fans were not pleased about the All-Star Game missing Franco and McClanahan from the event’s introductions.

The NL All-Stars wore navy jerseys with black pants and MLB fans were appalled at the fashion choice

A navy jersey with black pants is certainly a choice, NL All-Stars!

Fashion disasters happen to us all, but the National League All-Stars owe baseball fans an apology after this one.

On Tuesday, the 2023 MLB All-Star Game got underway in Seattle after a riveting — and heartwarming — Home Run Derby the day before. After last year’s All-Star jerseys knocked it out of the park with a crisp all-white and all-gray look for the two teams, the 2023 editions were a major step back.

Why? Because the National League committed the cardinal fashion sin of wearing navy jerseys with black pants. Yes, not gray pants as the “away” team, but a pure black. Here’s how they looked on the field.

Yeah, that’s just not good at all. Compared to the clean AL All-Star look — a dark seafoam green jersey with white pants — the NL All-Stars are so out of place. Had the NL All-Stars worn pants that were the same gray as their hats, that’d be a much more fashion-forward choice.

As expected, MLB fans had notes on the NL All-Stars’ navy shirt and black pants look.

MLB All-Star Game announcers: Who’s calling the 2023 game on FOX?

Here’s who will be on the mic.

Welcome to the 2023 edition of the Midsummer Classic.

The rosters are set — along with the names of those who were chosen as injury replacements — and the lineup cards have been submitted. We’re ready for the All-Star Game in Seattle.

In the meantime: If you’re here, you’re probably wondering who the voices you’re hearing on the broadcasts of the event from Seattle. We have answers!

The game will be broadcast on FOX at 8 p.m. Eastern and will feature the headlining MLB crew from the network: Joe Davis, John Smoltz, Ken Rosenthal and Tom Verducci.

There you have it! Enjoy the game!

MLB All-Star Game rosters: Here’s the full AL and NL list for the 2023 game

Here are the full rosters for the 2023 MLB All-Star Game.

The 2023 MLB All-Star game and other events are slowly coming together.

We know the starters for the American League and National League — they’ll be listed below, more on that in a sec — and we’ve seen the uniforms along with the hats both sides will wear for the Midsummer Classic.

Now? We’ve got the full rosters for the AL and NL, which were announced on Sunday, with just over a week to go before the game at T-Mobile Park in Seattle on July 11. We’re sure there are some snubs you’re already fuming about.

In the meantime, here are the full rosters:

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Fans absolutely loved Marshawn Lynch’s delightful exit at this year’s MLB Home Run Derby in Seattle

There is no one else quite like the great Marshawn Lynch.

Former Seattle Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch will always be one of the city’s most beloved figures, and he looked like he was having a wonderful time at this weekend’s MLB All-Star Game.

With the annual MLB best-of contest taking place in Seattle at the Mariners’ T-Mobile Park, Lynch fittingly showed up to present the Home Run Derby trophy.

He was the perfect person to hold such an honor at a Seattle sporting event, and he beamed with pride as he hoisted the trophy for all to see at the ballpark on Sunday.

However, it’s what happened after that just personified why Lynch is still one of the most hilarious people in sports.

As he left the field, Seattle radio host Lydia Cruz caught Lynch grabbing some home run baseballs, signing some for some young fans, snagging some free T-Mobile swag (a pillow and towel to be exact) and hitting the road.

Like, c’mon, what a hero.

It was a delightful way for Lynch to bid adieu to the fans at the derby, and of course, folks loved seeing Beast Mode just being himself.

Major League Baseball’s Home Run Derby is already great, but here’s how we make it perfect

We don’t necessarily NEED this change to the Home Run Derby, but it’d be a great one.

This is the online version of our daily newsletter, The Morning Win. Subscribe to get irreverent and incisive sports stories, delivered to your mailbox every morning. Here’s Blake Schuster

As much fun as the MLB All-Star Game has become in recent years, there’s really not much baseball can do to make it cooler than the Home Run Derby. 

No matter how many times MLB changes the format or rules of the derby — no matter if the players are going head-to-head or advancing through a bracket — it turns out people will fill a stadium and tune in to watch (most of) the best hitters in the sport sock some dingers. 

At the end of the day, MLB just can’t screw up this formula. We saw this when Vlad Guerrero Jr. won the event in Seattle on Monday.

And yet! The competition is inherently held on an uneven playing field because the league allows batters to choose their own pitchers. It’s kind of silly, isn’t it? 

Don’t get me wrong, I love seeing who sluggers pick to throw them batting practice every year. There’s also something hilarious about watching sons hit absolute moonshots off their dads on one of the sport’s biggest stages. It also adds to some jaw-dropping moments like Adley Rutschman going yard from both sides of the plate in one at-bat.  But it also doesn’t really make sense, does it?

If the idea is to see who can hit the most home runs over a given timeframe, why not use a pitching machine that we know puts the ball in the same spot every time? Why entrust the most important variable of the Home Run Derby — where the ball crosses the plate — to relative chance? 

Anyone who wanted to see Adolis Garcia put on a true display of his power on Monday night would’ve appreciated some consistent balls over the plate. Instead, they watched his pitcher get absolutely roasted on social media. Pete Alonso has won the derby twice but his pitcher on Tuesday couldn’t stop painting the corner, which limited his ability to hit them out of the park. 

Don’t even get me started on the betting aspect — that segment of fans would surely love to see pitching machines used. 

The Home Run Derby is really just a silly exhibition, so it’s not like this is a change that needs to happen, but you can’t help but wonder if it would make the event better in the long run. The cost of the incredible pitcher-batter storylines may not be worth tinkering with this one, but it’s certainly worth a conversation.

Boppenheimer…The NFL’s Supplemental draft explained…and more

— Boppenheimer. Barbenheimer. Oppbie. Whatever you want to call the Barbie and Oppenheimer crossover, it’s fantastic. Charles Curtis has more.

— Here’s our Christian D’Andrea explaining how the NFL Supplemental draft works. Thank goodness.

— Here’s more on the 2023 FIFA World Cup Format from our Prince Grimes.

— Here’s how to get a free Slurpee from 7Eleven on 7/11.

See you tomorrow!