Solonor's Inkwell

As if you needed another fine example of the clueless nature of baseball’s top man, Bud Selig added to his legend at the All-Star Game in Milwaukee. In the middle of the 11th inning, he decided to announce “if the National League doesn’t score, nobody wins.”

You could hear the boos in Chicago, I’ll bet.

I would have been fine with it–if they had announced it before the 11th started or after it ended. But in the middle of the inning?? Hello? Mr. Got-A-Clue? Are you in there?

If they’d just come out at the top of the 11th and said: “Fans, let’s give a round of applause to these great all-stars. What a show! And since we don’t want any of them going back to work hurt, we’re going to stop at the end of this inning, no matter the score.” They would have been cheered. Just another example of baseball not knowing (or caring) about marketing itself.

Now, the intelligent, caring human in me said: “The managers have used all their players. They shouldn’t push these pitchers. It’s good to end it, before someone gets hurt.”

The rabid baseball fan in me said: “They played 12 innings in 1967!” “The pitchers have only thrown 20 pitches, for crying out loud!” “Let them play! Let them play!”

I really don’t want to hear anymore how today’s players are sooo much tougher and sooo much better than yesterdays. Can you imagine Dizzy Dean saying, “Take me out, coach, I pitched to five batters already.” Or Ted Williams saying, “I don’t think I can take another inning of this. Let’s end in a tie.”

And to top off the travesty, they re-named the MVP award after Ted and didn’t even choose one! So, the first Ted Williams All-Star MVP is NOBODY!!

Bring on the strike.