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<\/figure>\nBut, for $ome rea$on, ba$eball decided to $crap nearly 100 year$<\/span> of tradition and ae$thetic $plendor to put the team$<\/span> in league-$pecific uniform$<\/span>.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not just that the idea of AL and NL uniforms was bad, it\u2019s that they were executed so incredibly poorly. They were ugly and filled with awful design elements. One of the beauties of the All-Star Game has always been a quick glance at the screen can tell you who an unfamiliar player\u2019s home squad is. All of that was lost, as you had to catch the camera view just right to see a player\u2019s home logo plastered onto the All Star logo on his cap, or try to decipher the rec-league quality graphics on the fronts of their jerseys.<\/p>\n Honestly I\u2019m shocked it took MLB this long to fuck up the All Star uniforms. Each year they roll out another set of \u201cspecial\u201d caps for any and every holiday that falls during the season, all of which cater to the America First\/Support the Troops crowd even if the holiday has no patriotic angle. These alt caps are almost always terrible. Why MLB didn\u2019t realize they could use the summer\u2019s biggest showcase to force another shitty hat on the public sooner is really a small miracle.<\/p>\n The uniforms put me in a bad mood from the start, so most of the notes I took during the game were cranky, snarky, and cynical. Since I\u2019ve written enough about the uniforms already, I\u2019ll dispense with most of those and just focus on one other major point from the night.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve never liked anything about Fox bothering mangers in the dugouts or miking-up players on the field during the game. In regular\/postseason games, the conversations with the managers rarely provide any real insight into what\u2019s happening during the game as they are reluctant to share any information that might put them at a disadvantage. The ASG in-game miked-up moments are usually awkward between technical difficulties and guys, you know, trying to play the game.<\/p>\n Last night was no different.<\/p>\n Freddy Freeman was solid, as he is affable and seemed eager to be involved. He did seem to have scripted some lines ahead of time. Which is fine; his segment was filled with \u201cbanter\u201d rather than awkward pauses.<\/p>\n I enjoyed the Ozzie Albies and Khris Bryant segments, too, as they seemed the most like what a conversation with those guys would actually be like. They both seemed like laid back dudes who were enjoying being part of the event.<\/p>\n But the others? Yeesh.<\/p>\n Fernando Tatis Jr. is one of the great young stars in the game and is super media savvy. But his segment showed how tough it is to find guys who can speak naturally to people he can only hear while also trying to play a game. Maybe the worst broadcast moment of the night was when Joe Buck yelled into Tatis\u2019 ear \u201cSay something to him!\u201d when his pal Vladimir Guerrero Jr. sauntered by after his massive home run. It seemed like a desperate attempt to salvage an awkward segment and ignored the fact that there was a 100% chance that Tatis was going to say something without being prompted. I wish Tatis chose Spanish for his comments as an F-you to Buck and Fox, but I think he\u2019s too nice for that and just used the language Guerrero was most comfortable with.<\/p>\n Talking the Xander Bogaerts while he\u2019s in the batter\u2019s box seemed like a horrible idea, and made for bad TV. It also kept Fox from giving any attention to Guerrero Jr. nearly killing Max Scherzer with a wicked line drive and then going over and to hug him in apology afterward. They were too busy trying to get Bogaerts to share his approach in the box.<\/p>\n AL closer Liam Hendricks was miked-up, too, but apparently couldn\u2019t hear Buck. Fox kept his mike on, though, which allowed us to hear his grunts on each pitch and a shouted \u201cGODDAMMIT!\u201d when he spiked a breaking ball. Later he dropped a clear f-bomb. It all came together when he conferenced with catcher Mike Zunino and Zunino advised him to keep quiet because of his mike.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s ok, it\u2019s not working,\u201d we clearly heard Hendricks reply.<\/p>\n Thank goodness he didn\u2019t say something truly offensive.<\/p>\n Trying to talk to batters in the box and pitchers on the bump is taking this too far. They should be focused on playing the game safely, not on what Joe Buck is saying in their ear or what they might accidentally say that goes out over the airwaves.<\/p>\n I\u2019m open to trying new things tp spice up the broadcast. Sports coverage shouldn\u2019t be static over time. If it was, we wouldn\u2019t always be able to see the time and score or get other information on the screen. We wouldn\u2019t have constant replays from 100 angles. And so on.<\/p>\n But when these innovations distract from the game rather than add to it, someone at Fox has to make the call to scale back rather than add another layer every year. Then again, all the attention they put everywhere other than the action on the field is a reminder of what the All-Star Game has become: a massive marketing event where the game is secondary to moving product.<\/p>\n That said, maybe all those distractions were a good thing. Baseball is pretty boring right now, and the game was indicative of that. Lots of swings-and-misses punctuated by a few home runs. At least the game wasn\u2019t interrupted by a bunch of replay reviews.<\/p>\n This long run of American League dominance still feels weird to me, as I bet it does to most children of the \u201870s and \u201880s. We were raised on the idea that the National League always was, and always would be, superior. Sure enough, most Julys the NL would come out and beat the AL no matter how stacked the AL roster was.<\/p>\n
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