With two All-Star games this Sunday, the NFL's Pro Bowl in Hawaii and the NHL All-Star Game in Raleigh, North Carolina, we need to discuss the fact that these games (in all four major pro sports) are pretty much irrelevant.
Too many players back out because of minor injuries or other reasons, so that the "best" players aren't in the game. The rosters don't always include the "best" at any rate because fan voting either decides the starters or plays a part in the decision, and there are always undeserving players who are voted in because they're popular or well-known. And with the NFL moving the Pro Bowl to the week before the Super Bowl instead of the week after, the two Super Bowl teams' players are automatically off the Pro Bowl rosters.
As much as baseball likes to tout that their game "counts" because the league that wins gets 4 of 7 home games in the World Series, the game is a shell of its former self. The rosters are now bloated thanks to expansion and the need for enough pitchers to try and ensure that another debacle like the tie game in 2002 never happens again.
The NBA game doesn't interest me anyway, but at least they used to have a fun slam-dunk contest.
That, now, is a joke since the biggest stars won't participate in it. The NFL's Pro Bowl has never been interesting, in part because of the lack of hitting. And the NHL games aren't real hockey at all. The lack of hitting has resulted in games with final scores on the order of 12-11 and 14-12. Since 1986, when the final was inexplicably 4-3 (in overtime, yet!) only once has the game had fewer than 10 goals. It's just players skating up and down and shooting or passing at will, with goaltenders flailing about desperately. It's garbage.
This year the league is trying something new in order to boost interest. Instead of the fans choosing the starters for the Eastern and Western Conferences, they only voted for one starting team (three forwards, two defensemen, one goalie). The rest of the All-Stars were selected by the league, without any teams being named. The league then chose two captains, who would draft their teams -- the same way kids do if they have a pickup game.
It seemed like it might be fun. Then the NHL botched it, in two ways.
First, they chose Detroit's Nicklas Lidstrom and Carolina's Eric Staal as captains. Nothing against either player but outside of hockey circles, they're nobodies. It would have been much better had Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin been named the captains, even with Crosby missing the game due to his concussion. The rivalry between these players and their teams would have added some real juice to the proceedings.
Then they had the draft tonight, televised on Versus (using the feed of Canada's TSN), and it couldn't have been much more lackluster. The talking-head host walked back and forth on stage, calling for different players to be interviewed ("Come over here...yes, over here...") because when a player's name was called sometimes they went to the podium of their team, while others walked right to the center of the stage to be interviewed. Couldn't they have been instructed better? Some players were interviewed while others were skipped. Why not give each player a moment in the sun? There were dead moments when each team -- Team Staal and Team Lidstrom (with each having two alternate captains) -- made a selection, except when you could hear their discussions and know who they were picking before they actually annouced it, taking away any suspense. And making the announcements...well, these guys aren't exactly skilled at exciting public speaking.
The whole show was difficult to watch. It struck me as a bit disjointed. In fact, as soon as the two Flyers (Danny Briere and Claude Giroux) were selected, I turned it off. If they're going to do this again they've got to put together a better show.
The game may do well in the ratings (hockey ratings in general have been rising over the last few years) but I don't know if I'll watch. Maybe if I'm not doing anything and nothing else is on I'll tune in. Really, though, I think all four leagues should just do away with these All-Star games. They may have been great fun in the old days (especially before interleague play in MLB), but all of the modern-day complications (money, injuries, etc.) have long since tarnished the luster.
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