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As coach Herm Edwards once said, “you play to win the game.” That being said, I don’t like the idea that the All-Star Game should decide home field advantage in baseball. Charlie Manuel picked guys like Arthur Rhodes, Hong Chih Kuo, Evan Meek, Michael Bourn, and Omar Infante for the All-Star team, three middle relievers, a pinch runner, and a utility man. And you know what, those moves were pretty smart. Manuel knows his Phillies could get back to the World Series this year and wanted home field advantage when they got there so he did what it took to win, even if it was unorthodox, taking guys who specialize in the 7th or 8th inning, rather than taking closers and forcing them into different roles. He took a guy like Bourn to pinch run and possibly steal a base he took Infante because of his versatility.

The issue with this, it makes for a pretty boring game. In my opinion, players should be picked for the All-Star game off of three criteria, in order, the quality of their first half production, their popularity with the fans, and three and finally, to help you win the game. While it could be argued that those three middle relievers had a solid first half, it’s tough to argue that Omar Infante, who isn’t even a starter on his own team, and Michael Bourn who is batting .255 with 1 homerun and 22 RBIs this season, statistically were worthy of being there. Plus, none of those five generate much buzz with the fans at all.

Another issue with the game counting, we don’t see everyone play. Some guys are kept on the bench because the manager feels his team has a better shot of winning with someone else in the lineup. Where’s the fun in that? What’s the point of them even being there?

Another issue, it just gives too much power to one game. If Brian McCann strikes out last night instead of hitting a 3 run double, the AL likely wins. One swing of the bat deciding homefield in the World Series, when the man swinging the bat could very well not even be a part of the World Series in a few months, that doesn’t make any sense. Home field in the World Series should be decided in one of four ways. Whoever has the best record of the two teams playing, whichever league had the better record in interleague, whichever teams has the best record in interleague, or simply whichever team wins their CS first, with any ties being broken by regular season record, individual team interleague record, or league interleague record. If the All-Star game continues to decide homefield advantage, winning will continue to be more important than the fans and having fun during the All-Star game.

A few more issues with the All-Star game, the rosters are way too big. 34 players?! What’s wrong with 25 players, with the option to put players that you’ve taken out before back into the game if the game goes into extras and you need more players. 34 really cheapens being named an All-Star.

Speaking of cheapening being named an All-Star, I think the whole thing were every team needs to be represented needs to be done away with. You shouldn’t get an All-Star pick simply because you’re the best player on your team, but rather because your one of the top 25 players in your league. A few more things I would like to see all involve increasing fan involvement. What’s wrong with letting the fans pick the starting pitcher too, or even some of the backups. 

For those of you who do not know the Armando Galarraga situation, you’re probably living under a rock. If that somehow is the case, I advise you to read what I wrote on the situation yesterday. This article is basically a continuation of my thoughts on the situation, taking into account today’s developments. Basically what has happened today is nothing. Selig has said he will review the play, but will not reverse the call, whatever that means. Seems kind of pointless to review the play if you play on taking no situation.

Then on the situation Selig had this to say. "The dignity and class of the entire Detroit Tigers organization under such circumstances were truly admirable and embodied good sportsmanship of the highest order. [Galarraga] and Detroit manager Jim Leyland are to be commended for their handling of a very difficult situation." I think the old phrase, actions speak louder than words comes to mind here. Selig can say all that stuff and it’s good and nice, but until he puts the kid in the history book as having thrown a perfect game, it doesn’t matter that he said that. I could say that. Anyone could say that. Selig is the only one who could take those words into action and make the situation right. 

Jim Joyce wants the call reversed. He made a mistake. He knows it. He admitted it. I’m sure Galarraga wants it reversed. I’m sure he’d rather have a perfect game be acknowledged and put in the history books than just to have a bunch of people believe he deserved to have a perfect game. History books last forever. The current belief that he was perfect will only last as long as it takes people to forget about it, or for the people who believe it to die. According to an ESPN poll, 75% of all people want the call reversed. Selig is the jerk here for not reversing it, not, as popularly believed, Jim Joyce. Joyce may have made a stupid call, but he didn’t do it on purpose. He didn’t purposely cheat a kid out of a perfect game. Selig did.

Armando Galarraga was perfect going into the 9th against the Cleveland Indians, a story big enough to upstage the retirement of a man sure to be a first ballot Hall of Famer in 5 years, The Griff, Ken Griffey Jr. Mark Grudzielanek flew out on the first pitch to center and Mike Redmond grounded out innocently to short. Up stepped the 27th batter of the night, the final cog in the perfect machine that had been Armando Galarraga’s night, Jason Donald. Galarraga had been cruising, barely taking 80 pitches to get to this point. He seemed poised to get the fourth no hitter of the year (Ubaldo Jimenez, Dallas Braden, Roy Halladay) and the third perfect game of the last month (Braden, Halladay) and only the 21st perfect game in baseball history.

Donald hit a ground ball into the infield and the ball was thrown to 1st base for an out. Except it wasn’t an out. Longtime veteran umpire Jim Joyce called him safe. The crowd booed, and roars were sent throughout the internet world, twitter, facebook, email, whatever. Galarraga set down the next guy getting his 28th “out” of the game and completing the “one hit shutout.” After the game, freeze frame photos and instant replay confirmed what we all saw with our naked eye, Donald was out, and not just out, pretty clearly out. Even ESPN.com called it a mistake and ESPN is notorious for not wanting to say things that might rub people the wrong way so when they say someone made a mistake, that person made a mistake.

I was angered. I’m not a Tigers fan or anything, but I can understand when a kid’s been cheated out of a good thing he deserved. I couldn’t understand the decision by Joyce. Even if I had thought the call was close, I would have given it to Galarraga. You don’t want to chance it. You don’t want to risk looking like a complete fool and you don’t want to risk cheating a kid out of a good thing just to give a last place team the slight chance they possibly deserved to come back from a 3 run lead against a pitcher who had been absolutely destroying them all night. I went on facebook and, in a move not appreciated at all by my friends, I joined about 80 of the hundreds of groups that had been created in response to the missed call in the mere 10 minutes since it had happened, filling my friend’s feeds with my anger (thanks to a friend of mine, a Tigers fan, who joined all the groups before me, allowing me easy access at them all).

Then something happened. Jim Joyce admitted his mistake. He said many things about the call, all them apologetic, but the one that really stood out to me was this one "I just cost that kid a perfect game.” That doesn’t sound like a bad guy to me. That doesn’t sound like an Indians fan who didn’t want to see his team have a perfect game thrown against them. That doesn’t sound like a guy with a grudge against Galarraga, or the Tigers, or perfection. That doesn’t sound like a guy who is any of the negative things I assumed immediately after watching the replay. That sounds like a human, who makes mistakes, and wishes to take his mistakes back.

I know Joyce wants the call reversed. I know Galarraga wants the call reversed. As much as he won’t admit it, he would prefer to have the official title of a perfect game placed on that masterpiece, though I do love Galarraga’s response to the whole situation thus far when he says “I got a perfect game. Maybe it's not in the book, but I'm going to show my son the CD." The fans want the call reversed. Everyone wants the call reversed. The only people who can do that are the folks in the front office of major league baseball. The pressure is on them to reverse the call now, to avoid (at least in my eyes) looking like all the negative things I thought Joyce was. The question is, will they and that I’m not so sure about. Bud Selig hasn’t seemed to do a lot of anything lately.

For Tigers fans (or regular baseball fans) looking for some hope, look towards CC Sabathia. When Sabathia was a member of the Brew Crew, he threw a one hitter, which the Brewers contested saying that one hit was actually an error. The Brewers sent an appeal to the front office, who eventually denied it, but at least this shows that, if the team wants, they can appeal and I think, in this case, there’s a good chance it gets overturned. This case is not, what’s an error and what’s not, a very shades of gray type of thing, it’s what’s safe and what’s not, a black and white thing, and it’s very clear, based on replays, that he was black and white out. Even the man who originally made the call agrees. And even if the front office drops the ball on this one and doesn’t do what everyone wants and what’s right, Armando Galarraga was still perfect tonight, at least in my eyes and in the eyes of many, many baseball fans worldwide.