Why the MLB All Star Game is Still One of My Favorite Sporting Events

The Major League Baseball All Star Game is still to this day one of my favorite sporting events of the year.

I know it doesn’t mean a thing. That it’s just an exhibition. But, it’s still one of my favorite sporting events of the year and I don’t think that will ever change.

You can debate whether or not the MLB All Star Game should “count,” as they say with the winning league receiving home-field advantage for the World Series. I personally don’t mind that aspect. But, I don’t think there’s a debate for the fact that the game shouldn’t exist.

It should still be a thrill for every single baseball fan to see stars from each and every one of the 30 teams in Major League Baseball play together and against each other one night of the year. If you don’t care for the game or even worse want to see it abolished I seriously have to question how big of a baseball fan you are.

When I was a kid this was the one baseball game all year I wanted to watch and if the game of baseball is going to survive and thrive into the future it should remain that way for the kids of this nation.

One of my favorite things as a young sports fan was actually the player introductions for the MLB All Star Game. Getting to see all of the stars smile and tip their cap, not only to the paying fans in attendance, but all of us at home made you feel like you were a part of it all. It’s still possibly my favorite part of the entire game.

Some who don’t think there should be a MLB All Star Game anymore claim that it’s just not special these days because due to cable television, MLB.tv and interleague play it’s just not thrilling to see one league compete against another anymore and you have the opportunity to see the stars of the game literally every night of the week.

It’s true that we have the opportunity to see the stars of baseball every night of the week, but how many of us actually do so? How many of us have that kind of time in our lives?

I have access to MLB.tv, meaning I have the opportunity to see each and every one of the 30 MLB teams play on any given night. Despite this there are many superstars who I will only see play all season long during the All Star Game. Between work, relationships and just living life who really has time to keep up with every star in the game?

That’s why I love the MLB All Star Game. That’s why I’ll always love the MLB All Star Game. If you don’t that’s fine, but don’t try to take my fun away. 

It's Not Always Your Patriotic Duty to Root for America

I was watching ESPN’s Ryen Russillo on his sports talk radio show earlier today before I left for work and he was talking about how he was torn a new one on Twitter last night because he was tweeting about the Boston Red Sox game and fans were letting into him for choosing a regular season baseball game over watching the U.S. women’s soccer team compete against Germany in the semifinals of the Women’s World Cup. Among the chief complaints was that Russillo was being unpatriotic.

Russillo explained that he just can’t get into the sport of soccer, which is perfectly fine. There’s not a section in the U.S. Constitution dictating that sports fans must follow sports they don’t like simply because their country has a team competing in it.

Fans giving Russillo hell for his not watching the U.S. women’s soccer team reminds me of the time I first truly recognized the idiocy of sports fans when it comes to what they perceive as a patriotic duty to root for American sports teams, even going so far as demeaning someone for choosing to watch anything else over those American teams.

In the last Women’s World Cup in 2009 the United States women met up against Japan in the final match for the tournament title and American sports fans could see nothing but red, white and blue. But, just a few months before the beginning of the World Cup the country of Japan was struck by a horrific earthquake that caused an even more horrific tsunami. More than 16,000 people were killed and it remains one of the worst tragedies of any kind during my lifetime, if not all-time.

So in July of 2011, Japan needed something good to happen to forget about the tragedy and death and heartbreak that had taken its toll on the country for months even for just a brief moment in time. The Japanese national soccer team beating the United States in the Women’s World Cup would give the country something to cheer on and smile about for at least one day during one of the nation’s worst years in its history.

And, so knowing the Japanese needed this more than any of us Americans did I openly rooted for the Japanese women on social media. It was something I have never once regretted, but I was ridiculed harshly for by fans claiming that I was being unpatriotic (as if rooting for a sports team can truly make someone patriotic or unpatriotic.)

I thought I was being humane by hoping the Japanese had something to lift their spirits (and I was, there’s no doubt in my mind and heart about it), but Americans will always care about American things regardless of the pain felt elsewhere. Thankfully for the millions of hurt Japanese their women’s team did give them something to smile about for at least a brief moment in time defeating the U.S. women in a hard fought and entertaining final.

The U.S. loss made it worse for me having openly rooted for the Japanese women, but I didn’t care. I could stand being a little less patriotic, because I’d rather care about an entire country’s pain than see the United States dominate yet another thing. 

Is Race Playing Factor in Who People Are Rooting for in Super Bowl?

I believe this is going to be the most controversial thing I’ve ever written on sports, and it might not even be close, and that’s probably saying something. And, I want to preface it by saying that this is just a theory I have. I do not have stone cold hard facts to back it up. I don’t have evidence to support it. It’s just my opinion of what I’m seeing.

The Super Bowl between the New England Patriots and the defending champion Seattle Seahawks is just a few days away and I’ve been asking people all week who they want to win the big game – not who they think will win – but who they want to win. The majority of these people have been saying the Patriots and have followed it up with reasons why they don’t like the Seahawks and those reasons always start with Richard Sherman, whom they never seem to mention by his full name, to these fans he’s just “Sherman” like some nefarious Marvel villain. 

The fact that these people are overwhelmingly rooting for the Patriots is interesting to me, because for the last decade-plus the Patriots have largely been the most hated team in the NFL, and one I’ve had to defend multiple times. Part of the reason the Patriots have seemingly been the most hated team in the NFL is they have this aura of cheating that surrounds them, and that has reared its ugly head recently with “Deflate-gate.” I’ve found that the Pats aren’t necessarily a team many of these people rooting for them to win the Super Bowl are wanting to root for – many have said they’re merely rooting for the lesser of two evils. That makes me wonder how a team that has multiple times been accused of cheating and people have largely despised for running roughshod over the AFC for more than a decade is the “lesser of two evils” over a Seahawks team, that I personally find the most enjoyable team in the NFL to watch and the only knock you could possibly find against them is they are the defending champs and some people don’t like to see the same team win in multiple seasons, for whatever reason that might be. 

They bring up Sherman, but is his brashness really any different than the arrogance exhibited by Patriots star tight end Rob Gronkowski or really the Pats team overall? You’d have to ask yourself if black brashness (or arrogance if you’d prefer) is viewed differently than white brashness and I think it is. 

It then occurred to me why some of these people might be rooting for the Pats over the Seahawks. The Patriots biggest stars are Tom Brady, Rob Gronkowski and arguably Julian Edelman. The Seahawks biggest stars are Richard Sherman, Russell Wilson and Marshawn Lynch. The Patriots are a largely white football team. I don’t know what percentage of the team is white, and frankly it doesn’t really matter, but they seem like the whitest team in the league. Whereas the Seahawks, you could argue, seem like the blackest team in the league. Can you even name one white star on the team?

Again, this doesn’t really matter or at least it shouldn’t, but I think it’s why a lot of people are rooting for the Patriots to beat the Seahawks in the Super Bowl. Now, I’m not accusing these people of racism. No, I don’t believe they are racist at all. In fact, I believe that they don’t even realize this is playing a factor in their decision of which team to root for. I believe subconsciously they are choosing to root for the guys that look like them, without really thinking about it. We’ve seen recently in this country that there are racial issues, whether we want to believe it or not they exist, and frequently people will agree with or go with those who look like they do or believe the way they do.  

It’s controversial I know. Most people are likely going to think it asinine, I know. But, I think race is playing a certain role in who people are choosing to root for in this year’s Super Bowl. How else can you explain why so many are hoping America’s most hated team beats the Seahawks on Sunday?