Sports Then and Now

Great All-Stars Roberto Clemente, Willie Mays and Hank Aaron

After becoming an American tradition following its inception in 1933, the Major League All-Star Game evolved into the “Midsummer Classic” through some memorable moments in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.  

The exhibition eventually moved beyond being just a game to include a home run contest and many other activities that gave fans the opportunity to see their heroes in a completely different atmosphere than ever before.

From the very beginning, the All-Star Game was a highly competitive contest that even though technically an exhibition, lacked little in desire by the great players to win the game and claim bragging rights over the other league.

The game began to lose a little of the competitive edge following the inception of free agency in the 1970s. More players were switching from league to league and by the 1980s it started to be more important to give as many players as possible a chance to play, rather than keep your best players out there for the entire contest.

Of course, that strategy culminated with the 2002 game, which had to be called with the game tied in the 12th inning because both teams had run out of players. We will look more in-depth at that game in part three of this series.

In this second installment of the three part series, we will relive some of the legendary moments and games in All-Star history between 1960 and 1989.

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Base Ruth hit the first home run in All-Star Game history.

Since its inception in 1933, the Major League Baseball All-Star Game has provided fans an annual opportunity to see most of the great stars of the game on the same field. While the game is an exhibition and has withstood periods of indifference by some players, management and fans, it remains a special mid-season moment.

There have been many memorable games and moments in the first 80 incarnations of the annual meeting between the top players of the American and National Leagues.

This is the first of a three-part series where we will relive some of the great moments and games in the history of this special series.

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Dick Radatz shares pitching tips with Boston's Cardinal Cushing

Both the calendar page and the greeting card companies dictate that the one day per year we are allowed to “honor thy father” (at least in this country) is the third Sunday of June. Since 1910, children around the globe have annually taken a mere 24 hours out of their busy lives to “celebrate fatherhood, paternal bonds, and the influence of fathers in society” by dousing Dads with a collection of humorous cards and never to be worn ties.

If nothing else, Father’s Day acts to provide a fitting and opposite book end to the prior months, Mother’s Day.

As a father of five, who, like most Dad’s, has regrets about not spending enough time with my quintet of off-spring, I like to take every opportunity, whether on Father’s Day or not, to bring to the forefront each loving relationship I stumble across that holds the Daddy-Daughter relationship in the brightest of lights.

I recently had the pleasure of catching up with Leigh Radatz, daughter of the Boston Red Sox late great pitcher, Dick “The Monster” Radatz. After losing her larger than life Dad to an in home accident in 2005, Ms. Radatz admits, “That there isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t wish he was here with us. He was loving, caring, understanding, funny and a role model in so many ways.” Read the rest of this entry →

Kauffman Stadium

Wednesday evening in a live event at Kansas City’s Kauffman Memorial Stadium, home of the Royal’s, MLB Commissioner Bud Selig announced that the 2012 All-Star game would be played there.

Standing at a podium located at home plate, Selig awarded Kansas City it’s third All-Star game since the Mid-Summer’s Classic was introduced in 1933. That inaugural game, played at Comiskey Park in Chicago, began one of the most beloved traditions in all of sports.

Back in 2006, Selig had told KC that, should a tax referendum for stadium renovations get passed, an All-Star Game would land at Kauffman Stadium between 2010 and 2014. Many expected KC to have to wait until a bit later, as 2012 marks the 100 year anniversary of Boston’s Fenway Park. Fenway would have been an obvious choice, but Selig is anything but predictable. Read the rest of this entry →

Is baseball still America's favorite pasttime for young fans?

My favorite sport has been disparaged, criticized and unjustly hated on ever since the 1994 strike initiated the decline of baseball into an exclusively older man’s game—the new fly fishing, if you will.

The sport lacked the caché of football, lacked the flair of basketball and more recently, lacks the recurring Renaissance that soccer experiences when Americans are patriotically aroused by the notion that we’re actually pretty decent at soccer—a sport typically associated with Europe and Latin America.

Baseball is routinely cast aside as a fading sport, no longer America’s pastime, and a sport more apt to be found on television screens in old folks’ homes than sports bars.

With a resounding smack into Pudge Rodriguez’s catcher’s mitt—courtesy of Stephen Strasburg’s 101 mph gas—that’s all changed.

The game is undergoing a drastic makeover: Think David Gest suddenly waking up one morning and looking like Taylor Lautner.

No longer is baseball associated with men who look dangerously close to popping. The younger stars of today—Strasburg, Jason Heyward, Ike Davis, etc., are revered because they are talented at baseball, not necessarily because their pecs are listed on Moh’s.

The game is “smart” now. With statistics being kept that would make Newton blush, baseball is increasingly becoming a technical game, a refreshing change from the “me-smash-ball-try-dismember-22-year-old-sitting-three-rows-up” game from the late ’90s and early 2000s. Read the rest of this entry →

Umpiring is just one (well...two) of the things that need changed in MLB.

Most fans don’t care about ratings or polls. When you sit down at the ball park with your son, the last thing you’re thinking about is whether the NFL or MLB has the bigger fan base. When you clear your evenings in October to watch the playoffs, thoughts of revenue sharing and rookie signing bonus ceilings are not on the menu for conversation. Aside from the geeks (of which I am one) who listen to sports talk radio all day long, these topics are marginal issues at best. Instead, what the real fans car about – game-wise, that is – has to do more with the legacy of the game and its heroes than of the television ratings. Kids want to see their favorite player in the All-Star Game and everyone looks to watch baseball (as opposed to posturing and argument) between the first and last pitch.

With those desires (and those who desire such) in mind, the following is a list of five things that Major League Baseball could change to make their fans much, much happier. Read the rest of this entry →