By By Adam Robinson – Sports Editor
Did you stay awake long enough to see the final out of the All-Star game on Tuesday in Yankee Stadium's final hoorah? If you were like me, I stayed up as long as I could until 11:45 p.m. and in the 13th inning. That is a whole hour or so before the game ended!
But as soon as I could, I turned the television on ESPN Wednesday morning and watched the highlights from the game to see who had won and to my amazement the American League won again in 15 innings. It was the American League's twelfth straight win in the mid-summer classic. Talk about dominance? The National League has not won the All Star game since 1996.
The last time the National League All-Stars won, I was 12 years old and about to be entering the seventh grade.
Wow! A 15 inning All-Star game that lasted four hours and 50 minutes-the longest All-Star game ever.
I ran across some crazy stats from the game the other day as I was writing this column and according to the stats, the game saw 453 pitches thrown, 23 pitchers, 34 strikeouts, 11 walks, 27 hits, 43 at bats by starters, 66 at bats by substitutes, 28 runners left on base and three errors by the Florida Marlin's Dan Uggla.
After the infamous 2-2 tie in the 2002 All-Star game in Milwaukee, the All Star game has now been dubbed the name as “this time it counts.”
If you are not familiar with that slogan, whichever league wins the All-Star game that teams representative in the World Series gets home field advantage.
It was put on the game to hopefully make the players want to win it more to hopefully, if they made it to the World Series, to want the home field advantage.
Is it time for a different kind of change or changes to the game and not have the home field advantage tied in with the game?
I believe some kinds of changes need to take place.
After all, the game is supposed to be an exhibition game and a break for the players. I first don't see it as an actual break for the players.
I know there is a schedule to be followed, but how would you feel after playing over 150 games in a season and almost 100 games at the time of the break?
But that's why they get paid the big bucks? Yeah, but still