An All-Star Job By MLB

It’s been a slow week in the world of sports as the MLB All-Star Game has dominated the fans’ attention and recent media coverage.

Sports PR 101 Trivia Question: Name the only two days during the entire year that there’s not at least one game played by any of the four major pro sports leagues (NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL).

Answer: The day before and the day after the MLB All-Star Game.

The All-Star Game is an important event for MLB as it showcases its top players in a fun and relaxing style amidst a real and competitive game. It’s a unique experience that is the most popular and most watched of all the sports all star contests.

MLB introduced the first-ever All-Star Game in 1933 as part of the World’s Fair in Chicago. Originally an idea of Arch Ward, a sports editor of the Chicago Tribune at the time, the game was intended to be a one-time event but was such a success that it became an annual event.

Tuesday night’s All-Star Game continued the great MLB tradition and, for the most part, did a solid job. Although, the first pitch by Tim Lincecum was at 8:46 pm (ET).

What happened to MLB’s recent pledge to start its national games, like the playoffs and World Series, earlier in the evening?

It was refreshing, and shocking, when MLB announced in May that “World Series games this October will start approximately 40 minutes earlier, a concerted response by FOX Sports and Major League Baseball to concerns about late broadcasts inconveniencing East Coast and young fans.”

However, I’m almost willing to let the late start slide because of the tremendous pre game presentation that recognized 30 remarkable Americans for their extraordinary work in their communities.

“All-Stars Among Us” recognized these special people with a historic video introduction from all five living Presidents and then an emotional on-field gathering between the honorees and the entire rosters of both All-Star teams.

It truly was a terrific event put on by MLB and People Magazine – everyone involved should be very proud.

The game was another close and exciting affair as the American League won its 12th straight (aside from the tie game in 2002) and fourth in-a-row by just one run.

Since the 2002 debacle, when the game ended in a 7-7 tie after 11 innings, Commissioner Bud Selig and MLB instituted a new rule awarding home field advantage in the World Series to the league that wins the All-Star Game (changing the previous method of rotating home field advantage each season).

The rule is intended to make the Mid Summer Classic more meaningful and the outcome more important. Whether the “incentive” is affective is debatable, although the majority of fans and media are strongly opposed to it.

But at least it’s an attempt by MLB to draw more interest and publicity to an already big event. Sometimes, even if a promotion is consistently successful (like the MLB All-Star Game), it’s still important to inject some freshness once in a while…as long as you don’t tinker too much.

Finally, it was great how MLB and Fox incorporated new President Barack Obama (a southpaw) in the festivities. Not only with the ceremonial first pitch but with airing the video of him touring each of the clubhouses and shaking hands and chatting with the players.

The President also sat in with Joe Buck and Tim McCarver in the broadcast booth during the second inning for some friendly discussion – one topic being why the former Senator from Illinois wore a White Sox jersey while throwing out the first pitch (you gotta admire the man for sticking with “his team” and not playing the political card like so many others do).

It was strange, though, that Fox didn’t show live Obama’s toss reaching Albert Pujol behind home plate. The camera just stayed with the windup and release and then the President’s reaction (a cool fist pump). Hmmm…

But, overall, a great and successful night for MLB and its fans (and they didn’t need Manny and A-Rod to make it interesting).