Arrieta, Strasburg Skipping All-Star Game Could Start Bad Trend

by Julian Spivey
I was watching the Major League Baseball Home Run Derby on Monday night (July 11) and while watching sluggers Giancarlo Stanton and Mark Trumbo absolutely crush baseballs into the bleachers at San Diego’s Petco Park I caught something scroll across the ESPN bottomline that instantly irritated me.

The scrolling news read: “Cubs pitcher Jake Arrieta leaning toward sitting out All-Star Game.”
This came a few days after it was announced that Washington Nationals ace Stephen Strasburg, the first National League pitcher to start a season 12-0 in over 100 years, was going to sit out the game in favor of rest.

When the National League All Star roster was released last week the N.L. squad had to be considered a favorite by the sheer awesomeness of its starting pitchers. Then L.A. Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw got hurt (obviously not his fault), Strasburg backed out, San Francisco Giants ace Madison Bumgarner pitched on Sunday (and by MLB rule could not pitch in the ASG) and now Arrieta has decided he’s probably not going to toe the rubber in favor of rest. By the way, those four guys are arguably the league’s four best pitchers. All-Star Game advantage gone.

And, in an All-Star Game that actually means something – winner gets home-field advantage in the World Series – that’s an unfortunate thing.

It’s not even the game meaning something that really riles my nerves about Arrieta and Strasburg’s unwillingness to pitch in the Midsummer Classic, but that fact that this is the one game a year where fans get to see all of these stars play together against other stars. Arrieta and Strasburg will seem selfless to many who will see their decisions not to pitch as the best thing for their own ball clubs who will need them to remain strong down the stretch.

But, let’s face it. One inning in an exhibition game where you’re likely to throw no more than 15 pitches tops isn’t going to screw up anybody’s season. If it did the pitcher was about to suffer an injury anyway via fatigue. In a league so over-worried about pitch counts and arm fatigue this doesn’t surprise me. But, to me it’s not selflessness, but selfishness.

It’s selfishness because this is a game for the fans and the pitchers sitting out the game simply to get a few more days of rest is likely the start of a negative trend. It’s a trend that could potentially turn the Major League Baseball All-Star Game into the NFL’s Pro Bowl – an exhibition in which many of the game’s biggest stars skip out on for various reasons, many of which boil down to just not wanting to play.

The MLB All-Star Game is still one of my favorite sporting events of the year. Even though I have access to about a dozen games on a nightly basis throughout the season I simply don’t have the time to watch many games meaning this is still the one time a year I get to see all the game’s best players.

I’d like to see them do more than just show up and tip their cap during introductions.

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