Anybody here catch the debacle that happened last night? Hopefully the fan reaction will be the smack in the face that the players and owners need to avoid a strike. Oh, why couldn't one of the position players pitch if Garcia and Padilla were in such grave danger of injury?

In the managers' defense, I'll say that they made the safe move. Especially since these guys make a TON of money, and they don't want to be known as the guy who screws it up.

Here's a great opinion piece on it: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/inside_game/tom_verducci/news/2002/07/10/insider/

I pretty much agree with everything this guy says.

see, I have to disagree with that article and just about everything else written about it. They all start out by saying that the decision to end the game was the right one, that they couldn't risk injury to Garcia or Padilla. I disagree that either was at any risk for at least 5 innings total. Even if Padilla felt tight, Brenly can still put him at first and bring in a position player to pitch. That's what teams do in real games when they run out of pitchers. I do agree with his solutions tho.

But they didn't want the game to be a travesty... And if you bring in Benny Santiago to pitch, you have just made a joke out of the All Star game (Not that it wasn't already).

I was pissed that the dugouts were empty. Very pissed. The brand of ballplayer that seems to be predominant today makes me sick...

see, but Benny Santiago pitching is less of a travesty to the game than a tie, IMO. It would have been bad baseball, but at least it would have been baseball. That's all I wanted and I think that's all the fans in the seats wanted. This was probably my favorite commentary:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A47237-2002Jul10.html

I agree w/ hoya on bringing in a postion player to pitch. Most fans realize the All Star game isn't taken seriously by most players anyway, so bringing in Santiago or someone else woulda made it entertaining. I don't think most fans would be upset if they even suspended the rules and brought in someone who'd been taken out. The All Star game is doesn't count for anything, so why would it matter? They're really lucky this wasn't a soccer match in europe or something(granted, they end in ties, but lets say they didn't). If they just ended a game in a tie, those fans would tear the damn stadium down!!

Baseball has been making me physcally ill since '93. I love the game I just wish these players would pull their heads out of thier hind-parts and realize that if MLB goes bankrupt, they're out of a job.