My Plan to Fix the All Star Game

Yep, I'm fixing another one of baseball's problems:  the All Star Game.  This year's All Star Game was terrible, but even if it had been competitive, the managers still would have ruined it.  It's hard to believe that it's been ten years since the All Star Game ended in a tie.  I was outraged.  This is America, we don't like our sports ending in ties.  NFL football games have the possibility of ties, but they are very rare.  Baseball games cannot end in ties.


So the 2002 All Star Game made Major League Baseball realize there was a problem, and they tried to fix it.  They've expanded the rosters.  They put home field advantage for the World Series on the line.  I think having 34 man rosters is pretty silly.  A lot of people don't like having home field in the World Series determined by the All Star Game, but I don't think that's any worse than alternating it like they used to.  The problem is that managers still try to get everybody into the game.  As long as that's the case, the All Star Game will be terrible.


Fortunately, I have a solution.  We can leave the rosters at 34 players (I would like it to be less than that, but we can manage).  The rosters will be made up of 14 pitchers and 20 position players.  But here's the solution:  4 pitchers and 5 position players are designated as extra inning players.  They can only play if the game goes longer than 9 innings.  So for the first nine, the managers have 10 pitchers and 15 position players to work with.  Ten pitchers is plenty for nine innings.  A couple of starters should pitch 2-3 innings each and it won't be a problem.  If there's a DH (I would definitely get rid of the change that they made where there's a DH even in a National League stadium), that means that 6 position players are available on the bench for the first 9 innings.  And that means at least three players are playing all 9 innings.  Problem solved.


Bud Selig, you really need to hire me as your VP of Common Sense.  I'll fix Opening Day, the All Star Game, and I'm going to make sure the Toronto Blue Jays never have a home game on the Fourth of July.

Why I Love Baseball, Parts 4 and 5

I'm coming back to this series in honor of the All Star Game tonight.  I'm combining Parts 4 and 5 because they're related.  I'll have at least one more, but I could have several more.  So this series is going to be anywhere from 6-15 parts.


Part 4 is the role of luck in baseball.  I think that luck plays more of a role in baseball than in any other sport.  Sure, in football the ball can take a weird bounce on a fumble that determines which team recovers it.  In basketball, we had Derek Fisher's game-winning shot against the Spurs with 0.4 seconds left in Game 5.  So luck can be important in other sports, but in general, I think luck plays less of a role.  In the NFL, if a quarterback makes a good decision and a good throw, the pass is almost always going to be complete.  In the NBA, Ray Allen is going to hit a very high percentage of his open shots.  In baseball, you can execute the way you're supposed to and something bad can happen.  A hitter can hit a hard line drive, but if he hits it right at somebody, it's an out.  On the flip side, you can do something wrong and something good can happen.  The same batter who hit a hard line drive for an out can come up the next time and hit a little jam shot blooper that just happens to find the outfield grass for a base hit.  A pitcher can make a good pitch down and away that a batter slaps the other way for a hit.  Or he can hang a curveball and be lucky enough to have the batter swing and miss.  In general, I think the better team will win most of the time.  But if you watch one game, luck can be a big determining factor.


Part 5 is watching a no-hitter in progess and hoping that it will happen.  I've already talked about this a little bit.  It's related to Part 4 because luck plays a big role in determining if a no-hitter will happen or not.  A pitcher needs to be really good and really lucky to throw a no-hitter.  If you're not really good, it's not going to happen.  But you also might need an infielder to make a great play to take away a hit or have a couple of hard line drives hit right at somebody.  A pitcher can be dominant in a game and then a bloop single in the 7th inning breaks up his no-hitter.  Does that mean he had a worse game than a pitcher who pitched a no-hitter?  I'd say no, he just wasn't as lucky.  Also, I don't think any other sport has the equivalent of a no-hitter.  A completely meaningless regular season game can be incredibly interesting if a no-hitter becomes a serious possibility.  The only thing I could think of in a basketball game that might match that is if somebody made a serious run at Wilt Chamberlain's record of 100 points in a game.  If somebody had like 55 at halftime, the second half might be must-watch.  I really can't come up with anything for football.  There's definitely no equivalent in the other sports for a perfect game.  We've had five since 2009, but you never know when the next one will come.  There was once a 34-year drought between perfect games.  It's all part of what makes baseball special.

109 Degrees of Awesomeness

According to weather.com, the high in Phoenix yesterday was 109.  That's definitely the highest temperature I've ever experienced.  The UV index was 11.  I didn't know it went that high.  I first felt the heat when I got out of the airport on Friday night.  The pilot said it was 100 degrees when we landed around 8:45.  It was weird being outside at night and it being really hot.  And then there was the day yesterday.  I have to say, though, that it was different than a hot day in New York.  When the wind was blowing, it was a hot wind.  But it was kind of a pleasant heat.  I did a little walking outside in Phoenix, and I was only sweating a little bit.  I'd take 109 in Phoenix over 99 in New York (although it's very rare for it to get that hot where I live).


The game was a night game.  I had all day in Phoenix and I had to figure out what to do.  I considered a few possibilities.  First was driving to Four Corners, where Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Colorado come together.  I want to get to all 50 states and I could knock out four new ones instead of just one.  And really, when am I ever going to get to New Mexico?  I do think that  I'll probably get to Colorado and Utah in the next few years.  I have to get to Denver for Coors Field and I would love to see Notre Dame play at BYU and we have a couple of games coming up there in the next decade.  My other thought was to go to the Grand Canyon.  "If you go to the Grand Canyon and you don't think about God, there's something wrong with you."  (Sorry, I know there are only like three people who might be reading this that got that one.)  Four Corners was six and a half hours away.  The Grand Canyon was more realistic, but that was still four hours away.  And I feel like you can't be in a rush if you go to the Grand Canyon.


So I had to figure out what to do until the game started at 7:10 MST (for some reason Arizona claims to be in the Mountain time zone right now when it's really on PDT right now).  When in doubt, go to Adam Richman.  I looked up the Phoenix episode of Man v. Food on youtube and decided to go to Alice Cooperstown, which was right by Chase Field.  But first I did a tour of Chase Field.  With the roof open, we started by walking around the concourse.  We got a look at the pool.  It's $3500 per game for 35 people.  That seems like a pretty good deal, but the desire to be in the water is reduced with the roof closed during the game.  After that, we saw a luxury box and the press box.  Then we went down underneath the lower level in the clubhouse area.  We couldn't go in with the Diamondbacks having a home game that day, but we did see Dodgers backup catcher Matt Treanor.  The tour ended with a stop in the Diamondbacks dugout.

When the stadium opened, I was amazed by the idea of a baseball stadium having a pool in it.

After the stadium tour, I went to Alice Cooperstown.  Unlike Primanti Brothers in Pittsburgh, I did not have what Adam Richman had.  He had the Big Unit Dog, a 22-inch hot dog.  That wasn't happening for me.  When I first sat down, there was this loud bell that sounded like a fire alarm.  Nobody seemed concerned about this.  Apparently, they ring it every time they bring out a Big Unit Dog and then everybody who works there yells "Big Unit!"  It happened three or four times while I was there.  Anyway, I had a burger and a Sam Adams.  I hung around and watched most of Cubs-Mets.  Sadly, Jeff Samardzija was the losing pitcher.

There's the regular Big Unit and there's also the Adam Richman Big Unit that's loaded with all sorts of stuff.

I left around four and headed to St. Mary's Basilica for their 5:00 mass (definitely better than having to go at 7:00 tonight after traveling).  I had finished eating long before four, so I was definitely good to receive Communion around 5:50 or so.  St. Mary's is the oldest Catholic Church in Phoenix (dating back to 1881) and was designated as a basilica by Pope John Paul II in 1985.

The oldest Catholic church in Phoenix

After mass, I went back to the stadium for the game.  I took a quick lap around the lower concourse again before going up to my seat.  I was high up, but if I moved one seat to my left, I would have been directly behind home plate.  To me, that's the best seat that you can find at a reasonable price, high up, but right behind home plate.  It was a great view of the field.  The Dodgers started out nicely with a two-run home run by Jerry Hairston in the first, but their triple-A lineup (no Kemp or Ethier) could only score one more run and Chad Billingsly fell apart in the fifth and sixth and the Diamondbacks ended up winning 5-3.

Great view of the field

Overall, I was impressed by Chase Field.  I liked it a lot better than Marlins Park, the only other retractable roof stadium I've been to.  I don't like indoor baseball, but I'm not going to argue with it when it's 107 degrees at the start of the game.  Also, I felt more like I was outdoors than at Marlins Park.  Maybe I'm wrong, but I thought the roof at Chase Field was higher up.  Also, the stadium just seemed bigger and more like an airplane hangar than a traditional dome.  And it felt like the right temperature for baseball, unlike Marlins Park where the air conditioning made it too cold.  All of those things created more of an illusion of being outdoors.  I do have couple of minor complaints.  After every play, they gave the "scoring decision" on the scoreboard.  I first noticed it when Hairston hit the home run and the scoring decision was "2-run HR."  The scoring decision really isn't necessary on most plays.  Also, they had a strikeout board for the Diamondbacks pitchers.  It was sponsored by some company that has a K as a logo, so that's what they would put up for every strikeout.  But some of the K's should have been backwards (like when Juan Uribe broke his usual habit of striking out swinging and struck out looking instead).  They had all the K's facing the same way.  That's incorrect.  Of the five stadiums I've been to this year, I'd rank Chase Field third.  The big thing that puts Petco and PNC Parks ahead of it is that both of those have great views of the city, but Chase Field really doesn't.  So while the result of the game was disappointing, I did enjoy Chase Field.  This trip brings my total number of current stadiums visited to 13 and states visited to 22.  I'm almost halfway there on both.

Happy Fourth of July!

Some people prefer the official name of the holiday, Independence Day.  I prefer the Fourth of July.  Independence Day should July 2.  In the words of John Adams:


"The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America.  I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival.  It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty.  It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more."


Most Americans have no idea what John Adams was talking about.  And they probably don't know what happened on July 4, 1776 either.  So here's the history.  In June 1776, Richard Henry Lee (a great patriot who doesn't get the credit he deserves) introduced a resolution with three parts.  On July 2, the colonies voted in favor of the first part of the Lee Resolution (the other two parts were approved later), which said:


"Resolved, That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved."


So by a vote of 12-0-1, the colonies voted in favor of independence from Britain.  We should be celebrating Independence Day on the day we voted for independence.  Many people think that we celebrate Independence Day on July 4 because the Declaration of Independence was signed on July 4.  With the exception of John Hancock, that's probably wrong.  Most historians believe that the Declaration was signed by most of the signers on August 2 (some of them weren't even there on July 4).


So why do we celebrate July 4?  For one thing, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Benjamin Franklin had bad memories.  They all later claimed that they signed the Declaration on July 4.  But there is a good reason to celebrate July 4.  It was the day that the Declaration of Independence was approved (but not signed) by Congress.  In my opinion, July 2, 1776 is more significant historically than July 4, 1776.  But we should celebrate July 4.  The Declaration of Independence might be the most important document ever written in the English language.  And this might be the greatest sentence ever written in the English language:


"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness."


If you know your Declaration of Independence, you might think I made a mistake there.  If you look up the text of the Declaration of Independence, you'll see the word "unalienable" instead of "inalienable."  The two words mean the same thing.  The copies of the Declaration in Jefferson's handwriting use inalienable.  Copies in Adams's handwriting use unalienable.  Jefferson wrote the Declaration, so I prefer to use his word.


So we have a problem.  We're celebrating a day that deserves to be celebrated for the wrong reason.  And we're celebrating something that deserves to be celebrated on the wrong day.  I solved baseball's Opening Day problem, and I'm here to solve this problem:  Three day holiday, July 2-July 4.  I'm a teacher, so it doesn't really matter for me.  But if you don't have your summers off, you know you want more summer holidays.  The greatest American holiday deserves should be more than just one day.  We can celebrate everything that should be celebrated on the right days.  If we end up with a situation where July 2 is a Saturday and July 4 is a Monday, Tuesday also becomes part of the holiday.  Or if July 2 is a Friday and July 4 is a Sunday, we can add either Thursday or Monday to the holiday.  That way everybody gets at least two weekdays off to celebrate our independence.

Whatever day we celebrate, we should always be thankful to live in the greatest country in the history of the world.  God Bless America!