All-Star game (SPOILER)

[MIButterfly]

Looks like the National League just didn't want to win. Couldn't hold a six run lead. Ain't that a damn shame.

It's a tie. They're going to have a home run swing off.

[amerikat]

1. Total bullshit.

Just play the game out.

[MIButterfly]

2. I agree 100%.

These new baseball rules are for the birds. As far as I'm concerned, they're ruining the game.

[William Seger]

5. Reminds me of what some tourneys are doing with 9-ball

Instead of just playing a "hill-hill" game to decide the winner, they're doing a "shootout" where players take turns shooting a 9-ball on the foot spot from various positions behind the head string. Cool... but why not just play another game? Well, the fans supposedly like the added "drama."

[MIButterfly]

3. But I gotta love my boy, Schwarber!!!!

Been impressed with him since 2015! He'll always be my Cubbie, no matter what team he plays for.

[Bristlecone]

4. I thought the strike challenge was a total flop

[Auggie]

6. Bloated effort, over-produced

I fell in the love with the All-Start Game about 25 years ago when Ted Williams made one of his final appearances. He asked the players if they sometimes smelled smoke when they hit a ball hard, and many responded that they did, but hardly made much of it. I thought it was magical that something so subtle could bridge generations of ballplayers and link someone as great and legendary as Williams to the modern players. THAT is baseball.

Since then, the telecast has become a bloated. over-produced shit show. Do we really need to have conservations with position players during the game? Stand up to cancer? Sure, but not a five-minute stoppage of play. Nor a lengthy tribute to Aaron. That's pregame stuff, please.

And now this home run swing off horseshit. Totally negates a great comeback and Kwan's awesome infield RBI that tied the game.

Typical corporate thinking. Dumb-down politics, dumb-down baseball. I wasted four hours of my life.