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Rays Beat: Take All-Star Game Back To Basics
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Published: July 20, 2008
ST. PETERSBURG - The Rays have had good reason to complain about the way Scott Kazmir was handled in an All-Star Game before, but not this year.
And, to their credit, the Rays not only didn't object to their ace pitching the 15th inning Tuesday night, two days after throwing 104 pitches in a start at Cleveland - but they went out of their way to praise American League manager Terry Francona for the way he handled the situation.
"If you're managing that game, it's a bad feeling," said Joe Maddon, who was on the All-Star Game coaching staff in 2003 when he was with the Angels.
Francona wasn't at fault for Kazmir pitching even after the Rays had pleaded that he not be used, nor was he ultimately to blame for Orioles closer George Sherrill working a career-high 21/3 innings in relief. The same goes for NL manager Clint Hurdle when it came to the most egregious abuse perpetrated Tuesday night and Wednesday morning - Phillies closer Brad Lidge warming up six different times (reportedly throwing at least 100 pitches along the way) before entering the game in the bottom of the 15th.
If, in the coming weeks, the elbow or shoulder of Sherrill or Lidge results in a trip to the disabled list, the Orioles and Phillies would be advised to take their objections straight to the top. Commissioner Bud Selig got everyone into this mess, and there were no signs last week he has any desire to get the game out of it.
It's difficult to find anyone in baseball outside the MLB offices who believes the All-Star Game should "count" as the determining factor in which league gets homefield advantage for the World Series. The postseason hummed along just fine for decades with the AL and NL alternating home field - a system that is no less arbitrary than parceling it out based on what remains an exhibition game.
But that oh-so-embarrassing 11-inning tie in the 2002 game at Miller Park apparently has doomed the game to unwarranted relevance for years to come. In sticking to that particular gun, all MLB will guarantee is continued chasing of its own tail.
Should the rosters expand , perhaps beyond the 32 players already on each team? Should an effort be made to compensate for pitchers who start the final game before the All-Star break, as Kazmir did, by replacing them for Tuesday's game? Should there be a taxi squad of extra All-Stars who are to be called into action only in the case of extra innings?
Rays executive vice president Andrew Friedman wouldn't be surprised to hear any or all of the above thrown out as suggestions at the annual gathering of general managers this fall, despite the knee-jerk nature of any such proposition.
"We may not see another 15-inning All-Star Game for 15 years," said Friedman, "so we may spend a couple hours at the GM meetings addressing it and have it never come into play."
Or, they could go back to making the All-Star Game what it always was: A showcase of the game's best players with no bearing whatsoever on games that do count - and having no detrimental effect on said games because of decisions made in the name of winning an exhibition.
PLAY OF THE WEEK
Ben Zobrist's two-out, two-run homer off A.J. Burnett in the seventh inning Friday night provided some much-needed support for a stellar pitching effort and allowed the Rays to snap their seven-game skid in the first game after the All-Star break.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
"The goal is obviously to get there, and we're going to do what we have to to get there. But to start sort of fantasizing about it has no value whatsoever." - Rays principal owner Stuart Sternberg on why he isn't thinking right now about the possibility of his team making the playoffs
STAT OF THE WEEK
55
Wins for the Rays before the All-Star break, the most ever by a team that had the worst record in the majors the previous season. The Rays' .585 first-half winning percentage was second only to the 2001 Cubs (.593) among those coming off a last-place finish.
THE WEEK AHEAD
Oakland makes its only visit to the Trop this season beginning Monday, and the Rays won't have to worry about facing either Rich Harden or Joe Blanton, as both have been dealt away within the past two weeks. After those three games, it's back on the road for a weeklong trip that begins with four games in Kansas City.
MINOR-LEAGUE REPORT
Durham RHPs Dale Thayer and Jeremy Cummings each threw a scoreless inning in Wednesday's Triple-A All-Star Game. Bulls 1B Chris Richard started the game and went 0-for-2. … Montgomery RHP Wade Davis started and took the loss for the South in the Southern League All-Star Game. Biscuits CF Rashad Eldridge and C John Jaso both started and went 0-for-2.
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