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MLB All-Star Game should adopt World Baseball Classic’s extra-innings rules
Wednesday’s Say Hey, Baseball looks at All-Star Game extras, the Midsummer Classic’s top moments, and Bryce Harper’s tribute to Jose Fernandez.
Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images
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The All-Star Game is an exhibition again, and that’s good! It opens the game up to be more fun, with players and the broadcast having a good time with the proceedings. There’s still a lot of regular baseball going on in the game, though, which in the 2017 edition, meant we ended up with a 1-1 game going into extra innings in a game that doesn’t count for anything that didn’t see its first pitch until 8:22 p.m. ET.
We’re not saying extra innings shouldn’t exist — exhibition or no, it’s still baseball — but the Midsummer Classic could use some tweaks to make sure we’re never again in a situation where Robinson Cano has to save the audience and the game’s managers from running out of players in extras. The All-Star Game should employ the World Baseball Classic’s rules for extra innings, putting runners in scoring position to start those additional frames, so that the chances of scoring go way up.
Since it’s not being played for any reason other than to celebrate baseball’s best, MLB wouldn’t even have to wait for the 11th inning to start this process like the WBC does. Just get right to it in the 10th: Put runners on second and first when extras begin, and see who can take advantage first and best.
Full disclosure: I’d be happy seeing the WBC’s extra-inning rules applied to regular season games so we can shorten those affairs, too. There are already 162 games in a team’s season, and unless it’s the postseason, traditional extra innings should be modified. Even if you disagree with that admittedly extreme #take, though, we should be able to agree that introducing this kind of setup for a mid-July exhibition that counts for nothing makes all kinds of sense.
- Hey, if you think my solution is too extreme, just know that Charlotte Wilder wants to cut things off after seven innings and thinks extras should just be another Home Run Derby. Besides that, though, Charlotte also believes the All-Star Game is better when it doesn’t count.
- Bryce Harper’s catch and hair flip! Nelson Cruz taking a photo with Joe West! These are the five best moments from the 2017 MLB All-Star Game.
- You have two days off from baseball of any kind. Whether that’s a blessing or a curse is up to you.
- Here’s Nelson Cruz getting a photo with umpire Joe West thanks to Yadier Molina playing along.
- Robinson Cano’s extra-innings dinger won him MVP honors for his year’s All-Star Game.
- The Freeze traveled to the All-Star Game, but sadly, he did so just to lose his race.
- Jose Altuve was picked up so he could be as tall as Aaron Judge on camera.
- Bryce Harper wore a tribute to Jose Fernandez on his feet, as his cleats had Fernandez all over them.
- Miguel Cabrera spoke candidly about the bribes and death threats back home in Venezuela, saying he’s “tired of paying protection money” to keep his mother from being kidnapped.
- Camden Chat looks to see how the Orioles can improve when the second half of the season begins.
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