Barack, Boos and Bud: Baseball in Limbo

ST. LOUIS -- They booed Barack Obama and cheered the two Bushes, which is everything you need to know about this city. They also trotted out every conceivable element of baseball-meets-Americana imagery, from syrupy music to Cardinals nostalgia to the very nice touch of All-Star players sharing hugs with heroes of community service. This was an obvious appeal to the country's collective heart, gathering the living ex-presidents to issue video reminders of the sport's importance.

And through it all Tuesday night, a recurring thought kept hammering my brain in Busch Stadium.

They were trying WAY ... TOO ... HARD.

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People aren't going to renew their baseball romance just because the FOX network orchestrates it, demands it and pounds it into their senses. It's going to take time for the American public to move past the ongoing steroid scandals, the '09 double whammy of Alex Rodriguez and Manny Ramirez when we were being told the Steroids Era was, ahem, over. The pre-game ceremony oozed of a Bud Selig production, a gooey attempt to gloss over the game's problems -- a five-percent attendance drop, the perception that some players still could be using performance-enhancing drugs -- and it reflected the commissioner's typically delusional belief that baseball is in a golden era.

"This might be, in a sense, our greatest season,'' Selig said. "It's a great testament to our sport. The popularity of our sport comes through more meaningfully this year than in any year I've ever seen.''

Of course, that's why the president showed up at the All-Star Game, to honor Selig's wonderful work through 17 years of deception and greed.

"No matter what one thinks politically, whether they're right or left, it's a big thing,'' the commissioner said. "It's another testament to the meaning of this sport. We are a social institution, whether we want to admit it or not, and we do have enormous social responsibility, and clearly that intrigued the White House and the president."

Little did Selig know that Obama also was here to keep living out his sports fantasies. He flew in with Willie Mays on Air Force One. He threw out a low-diving first pitch that would have bounced had Albert Pujols not stepped up and scooped the ball before it did. "What are you talking about?'' protested Pujols, protecting the big boss. "He hit the ball right at my glove.''

Then Obama appeared in the TV booth with Joe Buck and Tim McCarver. This was Barry from Bethesda on the ultimate sports-talk gig, which at times is all Obama seems to want from life. I'm shocked he didn't tell us who he's taking in his NFL fantasy draft.

He did wander around both clubhouses before the game in his blue jeans, ribbing Cardinals legend Pujols about losing the Home Run Derby to Prince Fielder. "Hey, Albert, what happened?'' the president chirped. "This guy, man -- in your home park? What's going on, man?" He visited with Ichiro Suzuki and was told that "soft muscle'' was responsible for his success, which should be a lesson to juicers everywhere.

He also told us that he was responsible, to some degree, for his beloved White Sox winning the World Series in 2005, mentioning what happened after he threw out the first ball before Game 2 of the American League championship series. "I was just talking to [Sox owner] Jerry Reinsdorf,'' said Obama, clad in a black Sox jacket. "We lost the first game, then I threw out the first pitch -- and we won eight straight.''

It was all real nice. But baseball stopped being our national pastime about 20 years ago, replaced by all things NFL and recently one-upped even by major NBA trade movement. The world never has moved at a faster pace, yet baseball remains too slow and nostalgic. A younger commissioner is needed, but as long as Selig keeps making money for the stodgy owners, he'll have the job until his dying day and prevent the game from jumping headfirst into the 21st century.

The All-Star Game is one of his colossal failures, and not because it's the most lopsided running affair in sports. The National League seemed ready to win for the first time in 13 years, taking an early 3-2 lead. But true to form, the American League assumed dominance, retiring 18 straight NL hitters into the eighth inning and holding on for a 4-3 win. Who knew that the two local heroes, Pujols and native Ryan Howard, would factor heavily in the loss? Pujols, who also was eliminated early from Home Run Derby and had a rough two nights, committed an error that led to the AL's first run. And Joe Nathan struck out Howard in the eighth with the tying run on third base.

For the seventh time in seven years, the AL will have home-field advantage in the World Series. "The first game and possibly the seventh game at home is always a big deal. It's a big help,'' said AL manager Joe Maddon, whose Tampa Bay Rays benefited last autumn from the edge. Makes you wonder why they even play the All-Star Game, with the NL now 0-12-1 since 1996, when Obama was just beginning his political career in Illinois.

"That's a problem,'' said Barry from Bethesda when asked about the embarrassing disparity.

The world never has moved at a faster pace, yet baseball remains too slow and nostalgic.Selig has bigger problems with this game. There was Roy Halladay, wearing an American League glow on an All-American night, trying to help the junior circuit win the home-field edge again in the Series. Not that it occurred to anyone that this was a preposterous conflict of interest. In a few days, the Toronto pitcher might be traded to a NL team, meaning whatever fine AL deeds he performed in the All-Star Game ultimately could work against him this October in, say, Philadelphia.

Turns out Halladay was rocked for three earned runs in the first two innings, which could lead to conspiracy theories that he was helping his future NL employer. Whatever, consider it yet another reason why Selig must stop his midsummer folly. There are too many inconsistencies and incongruities. The game is fine as a fun exhibition, as it is in the other three major sports. But allowing it to determine home-field advantage in the Fall Classic, when 18 of the last 23 teams to own that edge have won it all, is to make a mockery of a sacred privilege. Never mind that some of baseball's most respected minds think it's time for a major change.

"There's a better way to determine home-field advantage," said Tony LaRussa, manager of the Cardinals.

Selig isn't hearing it. He insists nothing is wrong with the format, just as he insisted nothing was wrong when people started telling him about a steroids crisis in the mid-'90s. Bud Lite always has been delusional about the state of his game, always finding positives when the negatives are smacking him on his bifocals. I see nothing has changed these two days in middle America. Asked if the parameters might be tweaked, he shot down the question.

"It's working better than I thought,'' Selig said. "There's no chance.''

Anyone with a brain sees major flaws in the system: (1) some of the premier players aren't here, including Ramirez and Rodriguez, diluting the talent level and making it trickier to determine which league truly is better this season; (2) managers try too hard to use as many players as possible, not conducive to winning a ballgame; (3) every franchise must be represented, which doesn't allow for the best roster as much as the best political creation; (4) players are pulling out of the game to serve their own ballclub's interest, such as Tampa Bay's Evan Longoria, who pulled out Tuesday with an infected right ring finger; and (5) sluggers who participate in Home Run Derby tend to have performance declines in the second half, from Bobby Abreu's colossal dip several years ago to seven of the eight entrants last year.



Selig, the Mr. Magoo of sports commissioners, doesn't see what we see. "This is the best All-Star Game of any sport,'' he said.

Why? "Intensity,'' he said. "My first All-Star Game was in 1950 in Chicago's Comiskey Park. Ted Williams caught a ball, banged his elbow on the wall and broke it and played the whole 14 innings. That's how much he wanted to play.''

Come on, Bud. If a superstar for a contending team broke his elbow in an All-Star Game, there would be a full-scale revolt in the player's city and a flaming national controversy. Don't be naive. Players don't care about claiming home-field advantage for a league -- think anyone's going to risk breaking a limb so the Red Sox or Phillies can have home field?

If nothing else, create a formula using several variables: the All-Star result, records in interleague play, a panel of experts, even a computer analysis. As for the tortured Home Run Derby, how about shortening the contest and adding skills competitions? Besides, if home runs and steroids poisoned the game, why would they want to keep glorifying home runs?

Oh, there were cool moments, such as game MVP Carl Crawford's leaping catch and pullback of a ball that Brad Hawpe had hit over the left-field fence. "Wow, what a catch,'' Jonathan Papelbon said to himself on the mound. Joe Mauer crunched an RBI double and showed why he's all that. Shane Victorino, who gave Obama some macadamia nuts from their native Hawaii during the Phillies' White House visit, was a ball of fire. And the AL pitchers who followed Halladay -- Mark Buehrle, Zach Grienke, Edwin Jackson, Felix Hernandez, Papelbon, Nathan and, of course, Mariano Rivera -- were nearly unhittable.

But in the end, we reached the same conclusion we do every July: This game means everything when it should not. Remember that this autumn when the Red Sox, Yankees, Rays, Twins or Angels are playing at home in the first two games of the Series. Know what the AL's home record is in those games since this farce began? Oh, 9-3.

They shouldn't be booing Obama. They should be booing Bud.