'Playing to showcase' clashes with 'playing to win'

Yankee Stadium, the structural diva that it is, seemingly refused to get off a grand stage during possibly its last great moment in the spotlight Tuesday.

The Major League All-Star game, designed to have a little something for everyone, turned into a confrontation of subs and entertainment for insomniacs almost five hours and 15 innings.

Most of the living Hall of Fame athletes who were recognized in a moving pre-game ceremonies had probably gone to bed or had fallen asleep (many of these guys played a lot of day games, remember). It was past the kids' bedtimes. It was past the working folks' bedtime. Even those in Yankee Stadium who like beer with their baseball had long departed for watering holes since beer sales in the stadium cease after the sixth inning.

Wonder how much of the TV audience that saw the winning run cross the plate were tuning in the catch the newest infomercial?

In a large part, the "City That Never Sleeps" went to sleep on an overdose of all-star baseball in a historic setting that compelled hanging on to the end.

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The game that began with a pitching matchup between Cliff Lee and Ben Sheets was on the verge of getting down to a mound showdown of American League outfielder J.D. Drew dueling with National League infielder David Wright.

That's an American Legion, out-of-pitching, losers bracket final dilemma, not all-star baseball at the highest level.

Hold that thought.

The last part of the game featured some of the best pitching and finest defensive plays ever displayed in all-star competition. The only glitch was Dan Uggla of the Florida Marlins, who, within moments, committed three errors (two back-to-back), struck out and grounded into a double play. Both the American and National League got out of multiple sticky situations that featured some of the best clutch hitters in baseball.

But the game became the poster child for the dilemma with baseball's all-star game, easily the best and usually the most interesting to watch among the major sports' all-star games.

The baseball all-star game now decides the home field advantage for the World Series. Interestingly, since that was initiated, no World Series has gone seven games, so home field advantage hasn't come that much into play yet.

But because of the rule, Tuesday's game could have no tie. There had to be a winner.

So, the managers and coaches were between a rock and a hard place. On one hand, particularly for an all-star game in the last year of Yankee Stadium, you want to give each of the stars who could play a chance to play. On the other hand, you had to play to win.

Then, in extra innings, there's the ethical dilemma of how much a manager uses a pitcher of a division rival, particularly if he threw on Sunday.

And we saw Tuesday what happens when you have a mandate to do both. You run out of players before you run out of game.

Because of that, the bulk of Tuesday's game was played by the reserves. So instead of seeing Chipper Jones or Chance Utley or Derek Jeter or Josh Hamilton in clutch situations, we got a seemingly endless stream of Evan Longoria, Grady Sizemore, Dioneer Navarro, Dan Uggla, Nate McClouth and Corey Hart. Some of the best pitchers threw an inning or half an inning. That's OK in a nine-inning game, but in the 15th, it might have been fun to see Marianna Rivera vs. Albert Pujols or Billy Wagner against Josh Hamilton. AL manager Terry Francona could not pinch-run for Navarro in the 11th, and the catcher was thrown out an home with potentially the game-winning run.

With Tuesday's game as the "worst case" scenario, baseball officials will likely further examine how you integrate a "showcase" all-star concept into a game that has to have a winner. How do you blend cameos into a marathon?

Here are a few suggestions:

Each manager could select three alternate emergency pitchers and position players to be used only if the game goes into extra innings. The downside of that is how do you put a player on an all-star team if, in reality, he's only a "semi" all-star?

As part of the all-star festivities, there is a "Futures" game among the top minor-leaguers. Each manager could pick three position players and three pitchers from that game to stay over for the big all-star game in case of emergency. If they didn't get in the game, they could still get a taste of what it's like to be there from the dugout.

Major League baseball could adopt the softball tie-breaker in which, after 12 innings, a runner would be placed at second with no outs to begin an inning.

Why not bring the Home Run Derby into serious play? After 12 innings, the league that had the home run champion would get an extra run as it begins the 13th inning.

Or baseball could borrow soccer's concept of penalty kicks, probably the most exciting sudden-death situation in sports. Have each team select a pitcher and five batters (those who have already played and taken out of the game would be included). Singles and an error count for one point, doubles two, triples three and home runs four. The team with the most points after five batters wins. After that, it's sudden death with whoever gets the hit or error after an equal number of bats.

That would provide some exciting head-to-head matchups with the premium on individual at-bats.

Don't want to wear out the pitchers? Bring out the batting practice pitchers and have a sudden-death home run derby.

These tie-breaking suggestions may bring a grimace from purists. But what is really pure about one league using a designated hitter and another not using it?

And you've got an impure, incongruent situation to begin with. You've got to play to win, play to showcase, play everybody possible and still have enough in reserve if the game goes beyond nine innings.

Plus, you've got a bunch of people who just want some way for a game to end so they can get some sleep.

(Sports columnist David McCollum can be reached at 505-1235 or david.mccollum@thecabin.net)