I disagree with Joe Sheehan

[Guest metsguyinmichigan]

Sheehan uses his SI.com "2013 baseball preview" to take another cheap shot at the Mets:


7. The All-Star Game is a fiasco. -- Given to the Mets due to their success in getting taxpayers to build them a new ballpark -- this is how you get an All-Star Game in the 21st century -- the July get-together will merely serve to highlight how far the franchise has fallen since opening CitiField in 2009. With the Mets under .500 and David Wright off to a poor start, the team's signature player will be left off the NL All-Star roster in favor of token representative Frank Francisco, who has 14 saves and a 3.45 ERA at the time. At his All-Star Game press conference, Bud Selig will refuse to address the issue of the Mets ownership, or explain why a team that has its own regional sports network and a five-year-old ballpark in the largest city in the world somehow has a payroll barely above the league median.

Read More: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/mlb/news/20121227/2013-predictions-baseball/#ixzz2GK2dzIrH

Psssst, Joe. Giving the All-Star Game to a team with a new ballpark has been the standard operating procedure, for, well, DECADES. If he wants to take a shot at the Mets and do the Wright has a poor start thing, whatever. I'm sure he kisses his Jeter poster good night before heading off to pinstripe dreams. Whatever. But to imply that there was something tawdry about the team getting the All-Star Game for the first time since 1964 is pretty damn weak.

And it's not inconceivable that Santana, Niese or Ike could play their way in to an All-Star roster spot.

And, actually, isn't part of the reason the owners' finances are a mess is because they paid part of the cost of the stadium?

And New York may be the BEST city in the world, but it's not the LARGEST. In the country, yes. But not the world. It's actually the 19th largest.

Go make fun of the Marlins, who aren't even trying to win.

[ashie62]

I wonder how some of these writers earn such a large audience. This guy is a douchenozzle.

[Edgy MD]

The Pirates got a nu park and the All Star Game followed, despite the fact that the only Pittsburgh-affiliated guy they could give the Commissioner's Award for Achievement in the Field of Excellence... had been dead for decades.

[Fman99]

I predict this guy will dress up as a bottle of water/vinegar mix for Halloween this year.

[metirish]

Sheehan and Sports Illustrated, both irrelevant.

[smg58]

Frank Franciso will have 14 saves and a 3.45 ERA? What an optimist!

[Frayed Knot]

I wasn't aware that:
a) Sheehan was writing for Sports Illustrated
or
that SI still covered baseball

That said, the AS game thing was a cheap shot.
The two NYC stadiums had a smaller pct of public money used than most and there's no age or lingering injury reasons to think that Wright will be off to a slow start except that it fits his pre-determined narrative. And what, btw, would make the ASG "a disaster"?
- The home team being out of contention and having few representatives? ... Ummm, they were just recently in Kansas City and Pittsburgh.
- Shrinking TV ratings? ... Don't look now Joe but this has been happening for years. Just ask your colleagues, it's the one aspect of baseball they like talking about.
- A non-exciting game? ... As if CitiField site makes that more likely or that the possibility of a cliff-hanger is the reason people tune in.

I assumed before clicking on the link that a 2013 preview this early was going to be one of those humorous prediction pieces that writers like to run, but the rest of his points are at least plausible. The whole finances issue and Selig's view on it are legit topics but he's merely using the site of the ASG as a taking off point to use it.

[Ceetar]

Frayed Knot wrote: The whole finances issue and Selig's view on it are legit topics but he's merely using the site of the ASG as a taking off point to use it.

a press conference at the All-Star Game is the wrong place for it anyway. It reeks of the Yankee entitlement narrative of being in New York and being blessed by the Global Standard Diety to wield the advantages of it. The game should be competitively balanced of course, with New York always on top.

[Edgy MD]

Back to the Commissioner's Historic Achievement Award, which only Bud Selig and I apparently care about. My pet concern is that the Mets' home stadium becomes a game-stopping coronation site for Derek Jeter.

[Ceetar]

Edgy MD wrote: Back to the Commissioner's Historic Achievement Award, which only Bud Selig and I apparently care about. My pet concern is that the Mets' home stadium becomes a game-stopping coronation site for Derek Jeter.

crap.

Did they award one last year and the Wiki just didn't get updated?

[Edgy MD]

I don't think they did.

My biggest memories from last year:

[list:1cvahnfh][*:1cvahnfh]Selected players being asked to wear stars on their uniform and hat in the week before the game, and the Yankees refusing.[/*:m:1cvahnfh]
[*:1cvahnfh]Kung-Fu Panda edging Sugarpants at the tape for the third base spot.[/*:m:1cvahnfh]
[*:1cvahnfh]Bryce Harper being the youngest non-pitcher All-Star in history and dropping a routine fly ball.[/*:m:1cvahnfh]
[*:1cvahnfh]Fox somehow being at a commercial break and missing both "O, Canada!" and "The Star Spangled Banner."[/*:m:1cvahnfh][/list:u:1cvahnfh]

The Commissioner's Award, however, is presented pretty arbitrarily and doesn't have to occur at the All Star Game.

[MFS62]

Greatest historical impact on Baseball?
They should give it to Marvin Miller, but don't have the testosterone (or the organs that produce it).

Later