MLB: Send The Freeze to All-Star Week, and more fun ideas
By Jim Turvey
We’re officially two weeks away from the MLB All-Star Game, meaning that we are less than two weeks away from the Home Run Derby, baseball’s crown jewel for their All-Star break. The Home Run Derby is pretty great, and this year’s lineup could be as fun as any in recent history.
However, there’s plenty of room for more fun activities that MLB could add to the days leading up to the actual Midsummer Classic. The NBA has its Skills Competition, Dunk Contest, and Three-point Shooting Competition. Wouldn’t baseball benefit from adding a few more weekend bonuses of their own? (And no, we’re not counting the Celebrity Softball Game, as I don’t think anyone has actually tuned into that in 15 years. And I care about it so little about it that I’m not even going to google to figure out if it has even been around for 15 years.)
With that in mind, here are four propositions for fun additions to All-Star Weekend. They are all feasible, with some certainly more likely to be added than others.
Baseball seems dead set on convincing its fans that it needs to be improved whether it comes to pace of play, less of the three true outcomes, or finding another Face of Baseball, so why not try to tinker with a weekend that (*extremely old guy voice*) Just isn’t what it used to be. (For the record, I don’t think there’s actually anything wrong with All-Star Weekend, but I do think these would be fun additions, regardless.)
The fans would love these four additions, and the players probably would as well.