Our Time

BY KEVIN KERNAN

This last week of All-Star dropouts and additions have shown it is time for an MLB All-Star Game change.

When I was growing up, the Midsummer Classic was all the rage. I remember my teenage years hanging down the Jersey Shore on a Tuesday night in July and walking over to the beach and boardwalk and every bungalow I passed had the All-Star Game turned on, a portable TV sitting in the screened-in porch or if there was not a TV, folks would be listening to the game on the radio. It was wonderful.

In my journey to summer fun, I would not miss a single pitch.

But that was when people cared about baseball. Baseball was America’s Game back then.

That was when fans cared about the National League and the American League.

You were either a fan of the AL or the NL.

And back then the two leagues were truly two different leagues with different stars, different styles of play. One thing was the same. There was pride in the game. The players wanted to win for their league and back then each league had its own president, too. Much later when I became a sportswriter, I remember covering All-Star Games when league presidents would give passionate speeches about winning the All-Star Game.

The game was something special.

Fans could argue which league was better. It was part of the fun of being a fan. October was unique.

Now, the two leagues are totally homogenized. A lot has changed. The Astros were once in the National League. There was a time the Brewers were in the American League.

The designated hitter started in the American League in 1973 and that was one of the major differences in the two leagues until Rob Manfred had the National League adopt the DH in 2022.

Yes Virginia, pitchers used to hit in Major League Baseball and in the National League not too long ago.

There was fierce competition between the two leagues too because there was a time when the two leagues only played one another in the World Series. Teams played a schedule that was entirely in their league during the regular season.

Fans could argue which league was better. It was part of the fun of being a fan. October was unique.

All that has been destroyed by Manfred & his Minions with incessant interleague play. What started as a novel idea in 1997 has become overly saturated play. It seems like there is interleague play every day, and the Yankees and Cubs just finished a three-game series at Yankee Stadium with the Cubs winning two of three from the Yankees, who go into the All-Star break with the same number of wins as the Red Sox: 53. Imagine that.

Cubs young centerfielder Pete Crow-Armstrong and Yankees star of stars Aaron Judge each exchanged smiles over terrific defensive plays in the series.

Growing up, Pirates Great Roberto Clemente and Yankees Superstar Mickey Mantle and their teams could only meet in the World Series – so that made the Fall Classic something super special. Just as it was special to see all those different uniforms of the AL teams and NL teams together on a field at the All-Star Game.

It was like a baseball heaven painting, something you might see today from the gifted baseball artist Graig Kreindler, who is coming out with an amazing new book of his work called Color of the Game.

At the All-Star Game dreams came to life, and much more; superstars from each league on the same field is what made the All-Star Game such a big deal.

But Baseball can’t have nice things, not with the people in charge running the game; changing the rules, changing the bases, inventing fake ballplayers to take second base in extra innings, essentially Rob Manfred’s imaginary friend Mr. Snuffleupagus.

And this past week, Manfred & his Minions decided to put 23-year-old Brewers pitcher Jacob Misiorowski on the NL All-Star team after only five – count ‘em, five – major league starts.

I have nothing against Misiorowski. Other much more deserving pitchers backed out of the game, which tells you something else about the game, so I am not blaming the kid with the golden arm, but since the bar has been lowered so much by baseball: (“Yes, you too can be an MLB All-Star after participating in only five games”) it got me thinking about this whole NL- AL All-Star matchup.

It’s time for a major change and the selection of “Nobody Beats the Miz’’ gave me this idea.

Since the AL teams and NL teams are always playing one another now, there is absolutely no difference between the two leagues in any, way, shape or form – how about completely changing the All-Star format and bringing it up to 2025 thinking?

Here at BallNine and The Story we supply answers: like will someone from the Yankees please tell struggling shortstop Anthony Volpe not to play so deep and stop it with all the backing up on high hoppers making the throws and the plays that much more difficult.

The Story is not just here to criticize.

Here is how to fix the All-Star Game so there is more of a feeling of true competition, fierce competition again. And no, I am not going to take the easy route and say make it USA vs. The World.

That’s already been done, that’s why they have the World Baseball Classic.

No, my solution is much more innovative than the WBC and much more daring. Instead of National League vs. American League, make it age-based.

Young Stars vs. Old Stars.

Newbies vs. OG.

xwOBA vs. Batting Average.

The Get Off My Lawn crowd will be excited and so will the Doomscrolling crowd.

Perhaps the highly paid MLB marketing mavens will come up with something better but that is the basic idea.

I’m proposing one team being made up of players 26-and-under, the other team being 27-and-over.

Before you call me crazy, I just spent an hour or so going through the always-changing NL and AL All-Star rosters (it’s such an important game so many players are backing out) and the numbers break down pretty evenly with that cutoff.

The 26-and-under team has the likes of Paul Skenes, Vlad Guerrero Jr, Fernando Tatis Jr., Elly De La Cruz,  Bobby Witt Jr., Julio Rodriguez, Pete Crow-Armstrong, Riley Green, Mackenzie Gore, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, James Wood, Corbin Carroll, Jacob Wilson, Junior Caminero, Isaac Paredes, Alejandro Kirk, Hunter Goodman and of course – Jacob Misiorowski.

And you know what MLB? Find a spot for one more “youngster’’- a kid named Juan Soto who is all of 26 and should be on the NL All-Star team.

I picked the age of 26 because that seems like a natural line of age demarcation – and the great thing about my All-Star Game – players can eventually move from the kids to the grownups Thanksgiving Day table once they turn 27, so that keeps it fresh.

The old guard currently has the biggest of names in Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge. Then you have Freddie Freeman, Ronald Acuna Jr. (to keep the Atlanta hometown Braves fans happy) and then there is Tarik Skubal, Manny Machado, Kyle Tucker, Francisco Lindor, Josh Hader, Aroldis Chapman, Kyle Schwarber, Mathew Boyd, Edwin Diaz, Will Smith, Alex Bregman, Cal Raleigh, Javier Baez, Gleyber Torres and Clayton Kershaw.

Imagine the trash talking, with the young players coming hard for the old stars. Even today’s soft-tossing media might get some fighting-word quotes about competition from the likes of Elly De La Cruz and Tatis Jr. and others about the crown being the kids’ crown, the oldsters’ time has passed.

Another plus is you would have the exact same starting pitching matchup you will have Tuesday night in Atlanta with Paul Skenes taking the mound for the up and coming New Stars and Tarik Skubal starting for the Old Stars.

New Stars vs. Old Stars, a perfect matchup.

People can get behind that on both sides. The chants would be amazing, young fans letting it rip. Old fans holding their own. Plus, you get to root for your hometown players too.

But I’ve got more to make it even more tantalizing.

When the New Stars are up at-bat, they have to abide by the old rules. That means no pizza-size box bases. They would have to use traditional bases. When the Old Stars come to the plate, they get the bigger bases, they also get the other advantages of some of Manfred’s silly rules. New Stars pitchers can have only three disengagements while the Old Stars can throw over or step off as much as they want: “This is how it was when I was coming up, kid. Deal with it.’’

The MVP of the All-Star Game would be presented with “The Kid’’ trophy in honor of Ted Williams, who had an All-Star home run for the ages. After all, baseball, when it is at its best is timeless, so make this All-Star Game about time.

Our Game, Our Time.

The original idea for the first All-Star Game goes to good old Arch Ward, sports editor of the Chicago Tribune in 1933 to coincide with the Chicago World’s Fair.

So why can’t I as a sportswriter 92 years later come up with the Our Time All-Star Game?

If the New Stars win, it is their time. If the Old Stars win, it is their time. Until next year.

Every year is a New Time for stars to shine. It would be easy to set up the voting every season and there would always be New Blood ready to come to the All-Star Game. Players from the Futures Game could make their way to the Our Time Game.

And I love that this is not country vs. country, this is baseball player vs. baseball player, era vs. era. There would be pride on both sides and fans, young and old, would be motivated to cheer on their team and you would have a terrific mix of new stars and old stars at the game.

Fresh, baby.

The new All-Star Game’s time is Now.

There would be a natural flow of New Stars and Old Stars, new fans and old fans, and just like the young stars would eventually become old stars, young fans would eventually become old fans, only to be replaced by a younger generation of fans. This creates a generational rivalry setup much like college football.

Hey, baseball destroyed the differences between the National League and the American League, it is all the Same League now, but New Stars will constantly be coming into play and let’s see how they compare to the Old Stars, can they hold their own?

In this new format, All-Star Bragging Rights will be there until the end of time.