This is a preview of the Joe Sheehan Baseball Newsletter, an e-mail newsletter about all things baseball, featuring analysis and opinion about the game on and off the field from the perspective of the informed outsider. Joe Sheehan is a founding member of Baseball Prospectus and has been a contributor to Sports Illustrated and Baseball America. He has been writing about baseball for 25 years.
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"As longtime readers know, I consider the All-Star Game, as designed, to be a showcase for the very best players in baseball. Among the many reasons for the Game’s decline in stature are that bloated rosters and a picnic-softball approach to the game mean that the contest's attractiveness declines sharply with each passing inning. An eighth-inning matchup with the tying run on base is likely to feature a hitter whose All-Star status is 'player having the best first half on a bad team' against 'reliever having the best 20 innings of his life.' Contrast that with the NBA All-Star Game, which, whatever its flaws, is at its very best at the end of the contest, the ten best basketball players in the world trying to win a game."
