I’m Seeing Stars

All-stars, that is. It was a great game last night with Zack Greinke getting the job done in the fourth, even though he should have started in my opinion. Either way, I’m happy because the AL won. My dad is an NL backer, mostly because of the DH rule, but they haven’t won for 13 years now, so maybe he’ll change his mind in ten or twenty years.

There was another event that took place before the all-star game, and a lot of people were very disappointed with it. The home run derby has apparently lost some of its flair in the last few years. So you’re probably not surprised that I have a few suggestions on how to make it better.

The NHL has an all-star skills challenge before the all star game every year, so why can’t the MLB have something like that? There could be a best wind-up or batting stance competition just like there’s a most creative shootout attempt in the NHL. Hockey has a target test, so why can’t baseball have one? The pitchers could try to hit four targets set up on the corners of the plate, or the batters could try to hit targets set up around the field. Instead of a home run derby, try to see who can hit the ball the farthest. Bonus points for landing it in a stadium’s special feature, like the fountains at the K. What about a competition where everybody gets one strike to put the ball in play, and if they don’t they get eliminated? Or we could see whose got the best arm by having players try to throw the ball from right field to home to try get a runner going from third. There is a multitude of possibilities.

Finally, the NHL has announced (in their worst-kept secret, according to the commish) that Fenway will host the Winter Classic. While it won’t match the one in Buffalo (who plays the only other game that day), we can still hope for a blizzard with wind gusts of over 70 mph!