Commissioner Bud Selig has promised Kansas City that it can host the All-Star Game between 2010 and 2014.
That is, if local voters approve a sales tax hike on April 4.
Kansas City last hosted the All-Star Game in 1973. Bobby Bonds was the MVP. And in the next year's set of Topps cards, there were special cards with pictures of the starters and if you turned them over, you could put them all together to make a picture of Bonds. NL voters, lacking good candidates for shortstop, picked Chris Speier that year.
I also remember Claude Osteen batting, but wearing a Braves helmet as I suppose the other Dodgers who were there, Bill Russell (told you, bad year for shortstops), Manny Mota, Willie Davis, Jim Brewer, and Don Sutton, didn't have helmets that fit his head.
That was the first All-Star game I remember getting really excited about and dutifully punching out my Gillette All-Star Ballot (my first experience with chads!). Then we all watched the game.
I then realized that the All-Star game is usually incredibly boring.
From looking at the boxscore of this game, I believe that seven players in this game are already deceased:
Bonds
Brewer
Spencer
Munson
Kelly
Stargell
Hunter
This is great news! Great news, that is, for my annual All Star party featuring the cuisine of the host city. Detroit last year - not so good.
On the other hand, I'm getting a little tired of the ASG as support to small markets/reward for building new stadia. An All Star Game in LA or NY might just, you know, help promote the game.
6. What do you mean by 'promote the game'? Is MLB not getting enough media attention? How would an All-Star game at Dodger Stadium promote the game more than one in Detroit? I don't get it.
Jeez, I don't know how to answer that other than to say that there's a bit more media attention to anything that goes on in LA or NY. With the ASG, isn't getting attention kind of the idea?
An entirely separate point - the game hasn't been in LA in 26 years, or in NY that I can remember at all. Maybe its time to try something different. You gotta admit that an ASG in the Bronx would have some serious buzz.
With the media being so ubiquitous today I just don't think it matters all that much where the All-Star Game is played. The game is broadcast on Fox in prime time and covered extensively by ESPN and other media outlets regardless of where it is played.
I would be willing to bet that the television ratings of the All-Star game do not correspond to the size of the market in which the game is being played.
The NBA All-Star Game was in Los Angeles in 2004 and I doubt whether it made any difference in the popularity of the game.
I then realized that the All-Star game is usually incredibly boring.
Bonds
Brewer
Spencer
Munson
Kelly
Stargell
Hunter
On the other hand, I'm getting a little tired of the ASG as support to small markets/reward for building new stadia. An All Star Game in LA or NY might just, you know, help promote the game.
An entirely separate point - the game hasn't been in LA in 26 years, or in NY that I can remember at all. Maybe its time to try something different. You gotta admit that an ASG in the Bronx would have some serious buzz.
With the media being so ubiquitous today I just don't think it matters all that much where the All-Star Game is played. The game is broadcast on Fox in prime time and covered extensively by ESPN and other media outlets regardless of where it is played.
I would be willing to bet that the television ratings of the All-Star game do not correspond to the size of the market in which the game is being played.
The NBA All-Star Game was in Los Angeles in 2004 and I doubt whether it made any difference in the popularity of the game.
Comment status: comments have been closed. Baseball Toaster is now out of business.