Due to the genius idea of leadership making it mean something, the MLB All-Star Game isn’t something to be fooled around with.

By Kevin Flynn

Like the campaign says, only the worthy should be going to Cincinnati.

So, due to the fact only the worthy should be heading to Ohio for the 2015 MLB All-Star Game, the following list is that collection of worthy talent.

Like it or not, this game actually does mean something.

At the very least, Bruce Bochy and Ned Yost, the baseball managers that led their teams to the World Series last year, get a chance to set themselves up for a repeat. That is, if they win the All-Star game and get back to the October Classic, they get home-field advantage.

So yes, our once awesome exhibition is now strangely looked at as a ploy to make players play more like Pete Rose (destroying catchers careers). Yet, he’s on the outside looking in as the Hall of Fame is considered.1mlb2

Interesting, to say the least.

The MLB All-Star game takes place in Cincinnati, Ohio on Tuesday night, July 14. Whether you like the event or not, it is still the only AllStar game that has any meaning in the grand scheme of the four-major sports.

When you sit back and think about it, the NFL All-Star Game has nothing meaningful to it other than the people who compete in the game get a free-trip to Hawaii. The tackling is atrocious and the plethora of scoring becomes a sports-show highlight reel for gimmick plays, like onside kicks, triple reverses, and long passing TD’s.

Now we have to deal with a fantasy draft of players, where if you are named to the Pro Bowl, the team captains pick you to play on their fantasy team. Not the Pro Bowl coaches, but retired NFL Hall of Famers.

Hockey has tried to change their All-Star game several times, by moving from East vs. West to North America vs. The World format (which didn’t work either). They have since regressed back to the East vs. West format but changed it again.

This past year, in a fantasy draft style similar to the NFL, Team Toews lost to Team Foligno 17-12. That’s 29 goals in a game. A game that we see as more of a defensive blood-bath during the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Take into account the lack of checking and the overabundance of goals. The only way to improve that game is to make it an outside Winter Classic and give the winning conference’s champion home ice during the Stanley Cup Finals.

Lastly, let’s not forget about basketball entirely.

The NBA is credited with the rise of the All-Star Weekend thanks to the skills competition that was born in 1984 when Larry Nance of the Phoenix Suns beat the Human Highlight Film, Dominque Wilkins and Dr. J Julius Erving to be crowned the first NBA Slam Dunk Contest champion.

After the popularity of this event, MLB brought back the Home Run Derby in 1985. The NHL reacted six years later by bringing in the NHL Skills competition weekend. After a disastrous blow to the MLB All-Star Game that ended in a tie in 2002, Bud Selig had to do something.

Kansas City Royals fans have passion now that their team is winning once again. So they decide to stuff the ballots with all of their players, but, interestingly enough, not the ones that could help them win home-field advantage.

The people against a home-field advantage to the winner” argument can certainly be made, which mostly ends in “team with the better record has four games at home in a seven game World Series.”

In any event and unlike the other three sports, it gives the MLB All-Star game a purpose other than merchandising and event sales.

There’s just one problem: The voting process.

This portion of the event is a terrible idea if lackluster players such as Omar Infante, Alex Gordon and Alcides Escobar win the vote.

Kansas City Royals fans have passion now that their team is winning once again. So they decide to stuff the ballots with all of their players, but, interestingly enough, not the ones that could help them win home-field advantage.

I ask you Kansas City fans. With the AL trailing 2-1 late in the game with the bases loaded and one out, if Ned Yost could put a pinch hitter up there in the form of Jason Kipnis instead of Infante, wouldn’t you be ok with that?

Then why have your guy there in the form of a starter? You didn’t think this through very well. So we all have by the end of Thursday to get this right.

Here’s my ballot, and according to the rules, every team is represented for a grand total of 35 to a roster.

And no, the Royals don’t get to start 5 players.

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
A Rabid NY Giants and Yankees fan, with a soft spot for all other NY Sports teams. A Poker loving, Fantasy Sports playing phenom who is also a former Professional Wrestler. Yes, I said it....the Squared Circle. I cover Professional Wrestling, along with the NFL, MLB and some other fun stuff for Elite Sports NY. A successful and loyal Husband, Father, Brother and Son. A Man who wears many hats in life, figuratively and literally.