2016 is Lowest rated all star game ever

Beat last year's rating which was the worst.

How can it be improved?
What do you all think?

Besides the ridiculous "it matters" for home field, the elimination of a specific time for inter league play also doesn't help.





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The ballot box stuffing is the problem, along with the youth movement, unfortunately. The name recognition isn't there, either because of lack of time in the league, or the obscurity of the player (sorry Sal Perez).

I dunno the last time I've watched an all start game. This is the worst 4 days of sports for me

Personally I could do without the All-Star game. It's not that I *hate* the All-Star game & it's festivities, it's that I hate the 4 days of no real baseball.

I really don't know if there is anything that could be done to bring more viewers. I'm a hardcore baseball fan but I rarely ever watch the All-Star game myself. I'd watch if my favorite teams had a bunch of players that made the team but otherwise I'm not so interested.

We live in an age of ESPN/MLBN, instant video, on demand highlights, 158 televised games per year, etc.
All sports AS games are suffering because the games themselves aren't intriguing and we don't need to watch because it might be our only chance to see these players on TV in our areas. As a kid in rural Wisconsin I was lucky if one Brewers game a week was on TV and the local nightly news MIGHT show one out of market highlight for 10 seconds. Beyond that all we had was TWIB. I don't say this to sound like a curmudgeon, but really that was the draw of the AS game in the past. The chance to see great players you only saw in the box scores.
Another thing is the coverage is just awful. Everything Fox does these days feels SO forced. I still watch it because it's the only baseball on and that's not enough for most folks


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There's no legitimacy in the voting. Look at last year's voting where every starting position on the AL team was filled with Royals. Granted some were deserving, but not all of them. The same goes for this year. Is Addison Russell the best shortstop in the National League? Hell no. I also understand the idea "Every player needs to play", but general managers are so damn afraid of their players participating and getting hurt. As long as players are treated as investments as opposed to people, I don't think the commissioner can do a damn thing to improve the appeal of the All Star Game. As other members have stated, the lack of name recognition hurts. It's exciting for us prospecting gurus to see former top prospects in the game, but the nostalgia isn't there like it used to be. A generational shift is occurring in baseball where youth is dominating. It will take several years for baseball to recover from the PED era where fans knew who the players were due to the increased importance of the long ball.

Yes, home field advantage in the World Series is at stake, but it doesn't matter if you play for a cruddy franchise even if your team wins. I feel that teams should play for something with higher stakes that benefits every player that represents every team. For example, how about draft pool money tied to the game? If a player represents a given team, let's say their organization is awarded an extra $25,000 in pool money for the international signing period for each hit or for each pitcher that strikes a batter out? Whichever league wins the game, a bonus amount is split up among the 15 franchises for each league? It would provide every player an incentive to play harder. Baseball is lacking something and it needs to change because I among many members believe the All Star Game is sour.

I would have loved to watch it. And the Home run derby. But in my area ESPN has become a "premium" channel and I can't justify paying extra for it.

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hive17 said:

The ballot box stuffing is the problem, along with the youth movement, unfortunately. The name recognition isn't there, either because of lack of time in the league, or the obscurity of the player (sorry Sal Perez).

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Yep, there is a serious lack of famous superstars in the game today, compared with previous eras.

It was exciting to watch the All Star game when the starters were mostly future Hall of Famers or famous players. The best of the best, like it's supposed to be.

In the '80s, All-Star team starters were established legends, future Hall of Famers like Ripken, Boggs, Sandberg, Gwynn, Henderson, Brett, Murray, Carter, Fisk, Ozzie, Rose, Schmidt, Yount, Reggie, Carew, Molitor, Rice, Winfield, etc.

Even non-Hall of Famers like Mattingly, Strawberry, Gooden, Canseco, McGwire and Murphy were household names whose first few years looked like the beginnings of Hall of Fame careers, much like Trout and Harper today.

Now the starting teams are filled with guys like Lorenzo Cain, Ben Zobrist, Salvador Perez, Marcell Ozuna and Dexter Fowler. Good players, but not superstar names and certainly not future Hall of Famers. Arod, Pujols and Ichiro are past their prime. Jeter's retired.

What I'm saying, is there are much fewer legendary talent and famous names than there used to be.

Guys like Trout, Harper and Bryant are indeed famous and may have HOF careers. I think Altuve is a future 3,000 hit member. And there are other big names like Posey and Ortiz.
But the AL and NL teams just aren't filled with household names like they used to be. I mean, just look at that '80s list. Big names and famous players are what draws ratings.

I agree with pretty much everything said above. I would have watched but I was at work, like every Tues. night. I did get to see the Home Run Derby on Monday though. I still think the baseball All-Star game is better than the football, basketball, and hockey All- Star games. Of course I'm biased. Baseball rules!

I finally got to go to an All Star game in person and it was great! Of course I didn't have to listen to Joe Buck for three hours so that probably helped.
I went to Fan Fest, the parade, and watched the derby on TV (with the sound on mute).
I don't like the ballot box stuffing but it was still a great competitive game and I really enjoyed it.
Maybe it's that I just love baseball.
I watch it every year (and don't ever see that changing) and it's really fun for me still.

Nothing can really done to the game to raise ratings IMO.

It's still will end up on the most watched shows of the week, it's just that all TV ratings, except football, are way down, especially for annual events that are compared to years past ratings. But in the overall scheme of ratings compared to other current shows, I think it's still Top 10 although we won't know that until next Tues. or so...

I love baseball, purchase the mlb package every year. Watch games daily... haven't watched an All-Star game in years. Years ago, before interleague play, it was cool to see matchups of players that would never face each other except in the World Series. Looking forward to Friday. Pennant Chase fever!

Many of the players people vote for end up not playing, due to a (conveniently-timed) injury shortly before the game, or because a pitcher's turn in the rotation happens to occur just before the game

If "your guys" don't play, why watch?

BBCgalaxee said:

How can it be improved?

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Put Derek Jeter in the game (even if he is retired!)

Seriously, I'd say kill the interleague and rebalance the leagues. The only interleague outside of spring training should be the World Series. It might get matchups you haven't already seen a few times during the "1st half" of the season. The again with free agency, players move from league to league so much that the matchups still might not be special.

Best fix may be to move the ASG to the middle of winter. I didn't watch much of the ASG (only the 1st inning and then the final 2 frames) because I had stuff to do outside in the great weather like yardwork and putting the license plate on my new car and visiting with neighbors. Had this been in November or December or January, I would have watched the whole thing because it's dark and cold outside to keep me from doing outdoor chores around the time the ASG would air on tv.

AnthonyCorona said:

I dunno the last time I've watched an all start game. This is the worst 4 days of sports for me

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+1

rebelpawn said:

I finally got to go to an All Star game in person and it was great! Of course I didn't have to listen to Joe Buck for three hours so that probably helped.
I went to Fan Fest, the parade, and watched the derby on TV (with the sound on mute).
I don't like the ballot box stuffing but it was still a great competitive game and I really enjoyed it.
Maybe it's that I just love baseball.
I watch it every year (and don't ever see that changing) and it's really fun for me still.

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I'm on the same page as you

AnthonyCorona said:

This is the worst 4 days of sports for me

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not too bad at all. Monday was the softball game and Futures game that I had DVR'ed the previous night, Tuesday was some of the ASG, Wednesday was watching players from my local team in the Triple-A ASG and Thursday it's streaming my local Triple-A team's game on milb.tv so the 4 days weren't excruciatingly bad.

The only bad thing was the opening to the Espys - turned me off from watching the rest of my recording.

Jaypers said:

Many of the players people vote for end up not playing, due to a (conveniently-timed) injury shortly before the game, or because a pitcher's turn in the rotation happens to occur just before the game

If "your guys" don't play, why watch?

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For the love of the game!