MLB Allstar game

I remember as a kid I loved watching the MLB allstar game. I loved seeing my favorite players like Craig Biggio, Jeff Bagwell, and Ken Griffey Jr playing with all the other best players in the game. If I wasnt able to stay up and watch the game, I would tape it and watch it the next day. It was an event for me. Now, the allstar game is kind of annoying because there are four or five days with no real baseball. This means I have nothing to change the channel to when laura is watching her show. Laura must love the allstar break.

Anyway, back to the subject. There has got to be a way to make the game and even the homerun derby exciting. Making the game count for home field advantage in the world series is really stupid because 70% of the players in the game have no real shot at making the world series. My first idea for the making the game a better game revolves around money. There should be a cash prize to the winning team at its coaches/trainers. The losing team will get nothing except the bill for their airfare home. MLB will have to pony up the prize money, but with my awesome ideas, they will be making so much more on the event that they wont even notice its gone. All players on the winning team will receive $200K and coaches will receive $50K. This makes it about a 8 million dollar purse for the winners. Advertising that alone will make it so much more interesting. Case in point, the shootouts in NASCAR. The races they have for a million dollars are more fun and seem a lot more competitive than the regular season races. What the winners do with their money is up to them. If I won the prize money, of course I would spend it on myself. Plus this would put more pressure on the players to stay in the game and not pull out due to some ticky-tac soreness. I dont think their wives would let them not play 'cause momma need a new jacket, and shoes, and car, and purse, and vacation, and hairdo, and furniture, you get the picture.

I understand the need to have a player from each team represent, but there will be no mandate that they play. If you play a sub-par all star you might lose the money, so coach, you better do a good job of coaching. This would also help to eliminate all the excessive substitutions throughout the game. I mean is any coach really going to pull Chase Utley to put in a Freddie Sanchez?

Ok, I'll stop their on the allstar game. Please let me know your thoughts. Let's get to the homerun derby.

The homerun derby is a cool event in and of itself. You get to see what everybody who watches the game loves to see, the long ball. However, it seems like the event takes so long and a batter can really stay up there as long as he wants. We all the know the structure, hit as many homeruns as you can until you hit 10 balls that aren't dingers. This forces the hitter to be selective in their pitches and therefore more down time than is needed. What we should do is institute a time limit. Give each hitter 3 to 5 minutes (I havent worked out the details) and see how many homeruns they can hit in that time. This will put a little more pressure on the pitcher, but who cares, the two split the money somehow anyway. By putting a time limit you force the hitter to crush balls out of the zone, up and down and left and right. Plus it would be awesome to see them up there hacking like a lumberjack trying get every ball they can out of the park.

Finally, I think the best way to improve the homerun derby is to suffocate Chris Berman....

just sayin'