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Purpose: When I was a kid, I always loved the All-Star games, especially baseball because that was my favorite sport, as I got older, they got worse and worse just due to players not playing hard and putting in the effort.  And if it’s a game about who’s the best, why aren’t they playing their best? 

Audience:  My audience is the casual to hardcore sports fan.  I just wanted to see how those people felt about their favorite sports all star event.

Thesis:  All-Star games, in each of the three major American sports are losing their fan appeal due to the respected leagues unable to make them worth anyone’s time.

Try/ Learn anything new:  I didn’t really learn too many new things in this paper other than some specific facts such the money donated with the money ball or the viewers lost after the all star game tie

Like best:  I liked that I used the pictures in this to give readers a small break from constantly reading.  I just hope the format copies to the wiki alright.

Feedback:  Just anything, it doesn’t matter to me.  It’s all about the improvement of my writing so anything that can help.

Dylan Adams

All Star games are now the most boring part of each sport.

               The year is 2002, the place, Miller Stadium in Milwaukee, home to the Major League Baseball team, the Brewers.  It’s the bottom of the eleventh, two outs; the game ends in a tie.  Wait….what?  That’s correct, there was no tie breaker held, no moment where a player could just sit in a shower of cheers after hitting the game winning home run.  After the eleventh, both the American & National League All-Stars had run out of reserve players to use and Commissioner Bud Selig decided it was time to call the game.  Never mind the fans that just tuned in for 4 straight hours only to see their favorite players walk off the field in a tie.  All-Star games, in each of the three major American sports are losing their fan appeal due to the respected leagues unable to make them worth anyone’s time.  They have no effect on anything; therefore, players aren’t playing hard.  Also, owners don’t want the players giving their best efforts because it could result in an injury to the multimillion dollar investment.  Fans seem to understand though; they don’t want their hometown heroes getting hurt though so there hasn’t been a giant fuss.  It still would be nice to see a little effort.

               Each league is working on ways to improve the game but most have fallen short.  As long as players are making big money contracts, there will not be a place for true All-Star games.  According to baseballalmanac.com, ratings fell by almost 1 million viewers in each of the next two All-Star events.  Bud Selig tried to improve the game by declaring that the winning team, American or National League, will have home field advantage in the World Series.  The only problem is that the players who are on teams that are already out of the playoff hunt still have no incentive to play hard.   The one secondary event that goes along with the MLB All-Star Game is the Home Run Derby.  Eight players are selected to compete.  The player with the most home runs at the end of three rounds wins.  Throughout the years, Major League Baseball has kept the H.R.D. fresh by instituting new and exciting ways to keeps fans watching amidst the talk of steroids.  In 2005 through 2007, sponsors of the H.R.D. instituted a “money-ball.” When the player was down to his last out, with each home run he hit, money would be donated to various charities.  Almost $900,000 was raised during that time (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_run_derby).  It might have been a way of showing that steroid use can lead to charitable donations.  Although the actual All-Star Game is boring and extremely underwhelming now, the Home Run Derby is still an exciting event to keep fans tuning in and rooting for their favorite player.

               Baseball still has some salvageable aspects to its All-Star Game, and basketball does too, which will be touched on later.  Football though, is in a real rut with its All-Star attempt, the NFL Pro-Bowl.  The other sports leagues hold their All-Star games at midway point through the season; in the NFL it is the last game of the season.  Since it is held after the Super Bowl, the biggest event in American sports, the Pro-Bowl has no bearing on anything, and most fans are pretty much tuned out due to all the hoop-la of the Super Bowl. It is more of a vacation for the players than anything because for the past 30 consecutive seasons, the Pro-Bowl has been held in Aloha Stadium in Hawaii.  Next year though, the NFL is moving back the date of the game to the week before the Super Bowl as a way to try and increase fan appeal.  Also, next year, it will be held in Miami, the same sight at the Super Bowl.  The NFL has not made any announcements regarding future Pro-Bowls though.  People aren’t really sure how this is going to work out.  With the game being held the week before the Super Bowl, players from teams in the Super Bowl will be ineligible to play.  The two “best teams” won’t have any representation in a game that’s about the best players.  It just doesn’t make sense.  The NFL has said though that this is just a trial basis and they want to see how it may work out.

               Finally, the National Basketball Association probably has the biggest room for growth.  With the increasing attention from the international community, the popularity of the NBA has skyrocketed and players from all over the world are now joining the ranks of superstars.  This season, there are 32 countries from around the world represented in the league (http://www.nba.com/players/int_players_0809.html ).  Those 32 countries have 75 players total.  There are 30 teams in NBA, each with 13 roster spots, which equals out to about 20% of the NBA being of foreign decent.   With this popularity, NBA commissioner David Stern must regain the interest of his fans with the All-Star Game.  Sure, the Dunk Contest is a nice idea, and so are the other events such as the Skills Competition and Three-Point Contest, but the NBA has the chance to do something that no other sports league could, other than maybe hockey due to the NHL being popular in Canada and many European countries. One idea suggested is to make it an international contest.  Baseball could have done this five years ago but didn’t and now there is the World Baseball Classic. By turning the events of NBA All-Star Weekend into a global event, the NBA could potentially create the largest international sports competition outside of the Olympics and maybe the Ryder Cup (golf).   Even if it was every four years or so, just the best international players in the NBA versus the best players from the United States, or switch it up, say one year there could be European NBA players versus the best All-Stars or Eastern Hemisphere versus Western Hemisphere.  Players would want to play hard because it would be on global scale and after the embarrassing play in the 2004 Olympics, where the United States earned only the bronze medal; the United States doesn’t want to look that bad to the world again. 

               Every All Star game has the potential to be fun for the players and fans, and most of them do an ok job, but everyone is still feeling like the events are a bit stale.  Every time an All Star game is held, all ESPN does is write articles on ways to improve them.  If you type in Improving the All-Star Game, nearly 3200 results pop up (http://search.espn.go.com/improving-the-all-star-game/).  It’s just going to take some creativity and hard work from everyone to make a once truly enjoyable idea for a game bearable again.

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