The All-Star Game's Biggest Issues
Pregame Pepper
. . . Catch as Catch Can Dept.: Junior Caminero (Rays) only thought he’d nailed his sixth jack of the Home Run Derby’s timed portion in Truist Park (Atlanta) Monday night . . .
Or didn’t he?
It could be argued that the young man with the glove caught the ball just before it might have hit the lower half of the yellow line and just before he hit the top of the wall with the ball in his glove? Well, now. The umpires calling the shots for the contest ruled Caminero’s drive a homer.
It didn’t do Caminero any good, though. He slowed down in the rest of his timed portion segment and then hit only one bomb in the bonus round. That helped this season’s superman behind the plate, Cal Raleigh. (Mariners), win the Derby with 18 in the final—the first catcher in Derby history to win it.
The kid with the running leaping catch? Sam Musterer, 17, whose father is one of the Braves’s official scorers. Was Caminero upset by the play? Not if you heard him tell it through an interpreter: Things happen. He was enjoying himself out there too. He did something he thought was fun and it was fine.
Said Raleigh, unable to resist a little mad fun himself, “I paid him off.” (Yes, Raleigh was only kidding.)
. . . Tale of the Tape Measure Dept.: Raleigh did need a little help to secure his Derby win—not by paying off one of the outfield kids, but from the measuring tape. A first-round tie, as Raleigh had with Brent Rooker (Athletics) for fourth place, sending them and two others ahead in the contest, had to be decided by who hit the longest bomb.
Raleigh and Rooker each hit 471-foot shots, seemingly, but before they went to a swing-off Statcast secured each one’s distance: 470.61 for Raleigh, 470.53 for Rooker. Whom enough fans defended aboard social media hollering variations on the theme of, “He got rooked!”
. . . All That Jazz Dept.: Jazz Chisholm, Jr. (Yankees), may have kept a promise to his stepfather, Geron Sands, in having Sands pitch to him for the Derby, but that was the best part of the second-time All-Star’s Derby. He managed only three homers during his first-and-last-round appearance, but he did find something very positive about it.
During his timeout, Chisholm talked to Yankee teammates Aaron Judge (OF) and Max Fried (P), and Judge approved of Chisholm’s turn. “Hey, you didn’t mess up your swing,” Chisholm quoted Judge as saying.
“I was trying to keep my swing and hit homers instead of just hitting everything in the air,” the second baseman added, though he also admitted he’d like to make it into the Derby once again.
Leading Off
The All-Star Game’s Biggest Issues?
They include roster and categoric limits that must be ended, says an IBWAA writer.
By Jeremy Dorn
With the All-Star Game lighting up Atlanta Tuesday night, baseball fans across the world looked forward to watching a Hall of Fame-bound Dominican slugger who signed the most lucrative contract in baseball history suit up for—hold on, Juan Soto was not, in fact, be at the All-Star Game.
Okay, well, surely his divisional rival who leads the National League in hits will anchor their lineup—sorry, mistaken again. Trea Turner also missed out on the festivities.
But, surely, a former superstar and fan favorite outfielder will represent the first place Blue Jays amid a massive first half resurgence that has his OPS over .850—wait, George Springer wasn’t in Atlanta either.
There are snubs in every season, across every sport, in every All-Star Game. It’s the nature of the business with set roster limits, fan voting, and strict rules around team representation. This year’s rosters are no different with snubs aplenty. There are a couple dozen players with legitimate gripes about not being recognized for stalwart first-half performances in 2025.
But, as the format stands now, there is no good way to ensure every deserving player gets his moment to shine at the All-Star Game. There is no objective threshold for inclusion in the game, at least without deflating the fan participation aspect that the league and many fans value.
So, let’s change the format:
First, most important, eliminate limits on roster sizes completely. This is an exhibition game designed to recognize the best and most deserving players for their accomplishments over the first three months of the season.
Who cares if there are 40 players per team instead of the requisite 32, as long as the most talented and exciting players on the planet are on that two-day stage each July? Certainly not fans. Not sponsors. Not teams.
The league would do well to get out of its own way for once and just market the heck out of this game and the players in it, roster numbers be damned. Plus, even a 40-man roster in each league would still represent just more than 10 percent of all rostered big leaguers at any given time, keeping it an “exclusive” honor, if that matters to anyone.
Next, add to the “Legacy Pick” initiative by adding other categories. Was Clayton Kershaw deserving of inclusion this year by his numbers alone? Absolutely not. But he recently became just the 20th pitcher in baseball history to record 3,000 career strikeouts, and that is definitely an accomplishment that deserves extra celebration on a national stage.
How about a “Young Star” category, which may have better justified Jacob Misiorowski’s selection as an injury replacement after just five admittedly electric career starts? Or kept ascendant Rays third baseman Junior Caminero from needing to be named as a replacement himself?
How about a “Big Arm” category to earn Nick Pivetta a well-deserved first-ever All-Star selection? How about a “Face of the Game” category that would have honored a popular player—deserving or not—like Mike Trout, who would bring thousands of extra eyeballs (and, therefore, views, clicks, subscriptions, etc.) to MLB?
Or, if the fans hadn’t rightfully voted Ronald Acuna, Jr. in as a starter to play in front of his home crowd, despite a late start to the season, a similarly subjective category would help a no-brainer choice find a roster spot.
Finally, bar uninjured players elected by fans specifically from bowing out of the game. It is completely understandable for a player on the IL, suffering from a legitimate injury, or, like in the case of Houston’s Isaac Paredes, tending to a family matter, to back out of the game. Even pitchers who wouldn’t appear in the game due to workload should still make the trip and take part in the festivities.
But skipping the game when you were elected by fans because you are one of the most popular (and/or best) players in baseball and then not showing up for those fans at all is like a Congressman voting against legislation a majority of his constituents support. It just shouldn’t happen. Yes, we’re looking at you, Jose Ramirez and Julio Rodriguez. Even if you can’t or won’t play, make the trip for the fans.
On that note, there is an important fiscal angle to all of this we should consider: the MLB All-Star Game is intended to bring in revenue and add new fans to a game lagging behind its big four sport counterparts by many popularity and growth metrics. It is a celebration for baseball lovers, sure, but the bottom line is that MLB wants—no, needs—to increase their, uh, launch angle, on those growth charts.
The league has its fair share of marketing issues, especially as many casual observers consider it a more “boring” sport compared to its peers, but they have continued a self-defeating cycle of putting old-school rules and regulations at the forefront of everything.
With all due respect to initiatives like Player’s Weekend, MLB should take every opportunity to highlight what—and who—is fun in the sport, to the biggest possible audience. Simply put, fans old and new deserve to see the swaggiest, best athletes in the game blowing up our social media feeds for a few days, especially when every other major sport is in its off season and won’t eat into viewership.
It is a major opportunity for the league to get a huge win with zero competition, and they are not taking full advantage of it.
Now, some may complain that larger rosters would mean a slower and less impactful game. However, there is already a handful of players—pitchers especially—that doesn’t get into the game each year, just like you would expect in a normal game in May. And the benefit of having the Sotos and Turners of the world on that big stage—statistically deserving or not—likely outweighs that concern anyway.
Sure, several initial snubs end up making the teams through injury replacements each year. But the electric Randy Arozarena should have been there to begin with, as should have the quietly superb Andrew Abbott and Joe Ryan, or San Diego’s dynamic bullpen duo, Robert Suarez and Adrian Morejon. They shouldn’t have had to sweat it out to make a team they were only not included in because of arbitrary roster rules.
Finally, a note: requiring that each team have a representative at the Midsummer Classic is actually a great idea, in many respects, as long as the rosters are expanded. So, in a hypothetical expansion scenario, let’s keep that rule intact.
The current rules put handcuffs on deserving players who lose a spot to someone from, say, the 22-win Colorado Rockies. New rules would continue to guarantee that fans of even the most historically awful franchises in a given dreadful year still see someone wearing that jersey in the All-Star Game.
Think of what the rosters could look like with all the obvious snubs making the teams in 2025. The storylines would be tremendous. The excitement factor would multiply. You would have Soto, Turner, and Springer—all of whom are obviously deserving of inclusion this year, not to mention how bright their stars shine among fans. You would add Astros ace Framber Valdez and two major snubs from the Cubs, in Michael Busch and Seiya Suzuki. Young Los Angeles outfielders Jo Adell (Angels) and Andy Pages (Dodgers), correctly, would have been chosen as first-timers.
You might see some highly marketable faces that didn’t really deserve a spot in the game but would bring millions of eyeballs anyway. (Think Trout, Mookie Betts, and Bryce Harper.) You might even see some viral role players like Chandler Simpson of the Rays or Denzel Clarke of the A’s crack the rosters in the hopes the former swipes three bases or the latter goes over the wall to rob a homer.
MLB’s marketing team could go crazy with clips of athletic feats that rival anything seen on an NBA court or an NFL field. They could push exciting or uplifting stories of surprise All-Stars, like Adrian Houser of the White Sox or Carlos Narvaez of the Red Sox. They could extend special “Player Correspondent” invitations to colorful characters like Kike Hernandez to bring a current player’s point of view to the game’s coverage.
The list of opportunities is endless for MLB to build upon what is, arguably, the best and most enduring All-Star Game format in American professional sports. All they need to do to better grow the brand, invite new viewers, and properly recognize every true “All-Star” is to knock down the roster limit barrier and let the game be what it should be—a celebration and a showcase.
Jeremy Dorn is a born-and-raised Dodgers fan from Northern California who now lives in Asheville, NC. He has been writing about baseball, podcasting about baseball, and coaching baseball for nearly 20 years. This is his first contribution to Here’s the Pitch.
Extra Innings: The Bad News Is . . .
. . . Murder, He Wrote Dept.—Former major league relief pitcher Dan Serafini faces possible life in prison after his conviction in a 2021 North Lake Tahoe (CA) home invasion during which he waited in the house, then shot his father-in-law to death and wounded his mother-in-law. (She committed suicide two years later, her family saying the trauma over the original crime becoming too much for her to bear. Prosecutors said the crime was rooted in a financial dispute involving a ranch renovation project. A lefthander drafted by the Twins who played for five other MLB teams during his journeyman career, Serafini will be sentenced on 18 August.
. . . They Also Served Time Dept.—Serafini isn’t the first former MLB player to be convicted in a death, unfortunately. Following are six other major leaguers who saw time behind bars for killing. (Years of conviction/sentencing in parentheses.)
* Sergio Mitre (2022)—The second major leaguer to make the Show with the Cubs out of the 2001 draft . . . behind ill-fated pitching phenom Mark Prior. (In fact, Mitre took Prior’s place on the 2004 Cubs roster when Prior went down with one of the injuries that would help put premature paid to his career.)
Injury-disrupted himself during tours with the Cubs, the Marlins, the Brewers, and the Yankees, Mitre pitched in Japan and in the Mexican leagues before his 2020 arrest and 2022 conviction in Mexico, in the death of his former girlfriend’s 22-month-old daughter. He was sentenced to 50 years in prison.
* Julio Machado (1994)—A promising if inconsistent relief pitcher for the 1990 Mets prior to his trade to the Brewers. While in his native Venezuela in the 1991 off-season, he was arrested for shooting a woman to death after an auto accident. Machaco pleaded that he fired in self-defense, believing he was about to be robbed.
He was convicted and, after a few appeals, began serving twelve years imprisonment in 1996. Machado was released on parole in 2000.
* Pinky Higgins (1968)—Former third baseman (and a three-time All-Star), manager, and general manager, often cited as one of the key reasons the Red Sox would become the last American League team to admit a black player to its major league roster. Arrested and convicted for negligent homicide in a drunk driving incident that killed one and injured three more.
Suffering two heart attacks between his conviction and his sentencing, Higgins was sentenced to four years hard labour but paroled for health concerns after two months—and he died of a third heart attack the day after his parole.
* Blackie Schwamb (1949)—Righthanded St. Louis Brown pitcher who made twelve MLB appearances in 1948. Problems with alcohol compromised his career and his life, according to several reports. Schwamb killed a Long Beach, California doctor as (yes, you can look it up) payment for a debt he owed crime boss Mickey Cohen.
Schwamb was sentenced to life in prison in 1949, earned a reputation for solid pitching on prison teams (1.80 ERA in 1,500+ innings), and was paroled in 1960. After his release, he actually pitched in six games for the minor-league Hawaii Islanders. He died in 1989.
* Jim Mahady (1930)—Like real-life Field of Dreams legend Moonlight Graham, Mahady—a second baseman and pitcher by trade—got to play in a single major league game for the New York Giants, in 1921. Also like Graham, Mahady entered as a late defensive replacement . . . against the Brooklyn Dodgers (known as the Robins in Mahady’s day and the Superbas in Graham’s).
Unlike Graham, who really did become a Minnesota doctor, Mahady went from there to seven more years of minor league ball . . . and a manslaughter conviction in a 1930 drunk driving incident. He was sentenced to 6-12 years in prison.
Like Schwamb, Mahady pitched for and captained his prison baseball team, and it may have helped convince New York governor Herbert H. Lehman to commute his sentence just before Christmas 1933. He died three years later.
* Tacks Latimer (1924)—A catcher with five major league teams between 1898 and 1902. While working as a Pennsylvania Railroad Police detective, his lieutenant blamed him for being dismissed and picked an alley fight with Latimer, who shot him as he turned away. Latimer pleaded self defense since he hadn’t started the fight, but he was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to life in Ohio State Penitentiary.
Considered a model prisoner who once helped guards re-capture escapees during a prison break, Latimer was pardoned and released in 1930. The Ohio native went from there to work as a night detective in a Cincinnati hotel before going to work for the Container Corporation of America.
Divorced from his first wife while in prison, the father of three remarried in 1931 and had a fourth child in 1933, three years before his death at 60 in 1936.
Know Your Editors
Here’s the Pitch is published daily except Sundays and holidays. Benjamin Chase [gopherben@gmail.com] handles the Monday issue with Dan Freedman [dfreedman@lionsgate.com] editing Tuesday and Jeff Kallman [easyace1955@outlook.com] at the helm Wednesday and Thursday. Original editor Dan Schlossberg [ballauthor@gmail.com], does the weekend editions on Friday and Saturday. Former editor Elizabeth Muratore [nymfan97@gmail.com] is now co-director [with Benjamin Chase and Jonathan Becker] of the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America, which publishes this newsletter and the annual ACTA book of the same name. Readers are encouraged to contribute comments, articles, and letters to the editor. HtP reserves the right to edit for brevity, clarity, and good taste.