Jeter to miss all star game for "exhaustion"

[Eja117]

Exhaustion?  He might as well have just chalked up his absence to "Indifference," or perhaps "Boredom."  What a lame excuse, especially when we're talking about a sport where the players sit or stand still for the majority of each game.



I mean, sit out of the All-Star game if you want -- though I tend to side with those who think he could have at least showed up and done introductions and a lazy at-bat -- but come up with a better excuse.



I think the league has to decide whether it really wants the All-Star game to be meaningful or not.  As a fan, all I can really do is scratch my head when I hear about a game crammed full of players who all make cameo appearances, half of whom are reserves selected for the big stars who didn't feel arsed to play another game of baseball over their break.  

Yet the game determines home field advantage for the World Series.  What?!


Either trim down the rosters (make All-Star mean more, make the in-game rosters more concrete) and solidify the game as meaningful, or turn the whole thing into a glitzy, goofy weekend of fun like the NBA All-Star weekend.

To be fair to Jeter Selig pretty much permanently messed up the all star game when he was like "Yeah. I guess we gotta end this thing in a tie"

The thing that bothers me is that the players and managers agreed to it. Actually I guess it was the manager's idea and he agreed to it. Either way I think I'd rather die than play to a tie.  Even soccer games don't end in ties.

[Steve Weinman]

Man. I am exhausted. I worked 14.75 hours today. I'm going to bed.  

Of all the things to criticize someone for, not playing in an All-Star Game would be somewhere near last on my list.  All the better for him and his team that he rests if that's what he wants to do.

I wish Kershaw, Kemp and Ethier had taken the same approach for the Dodgers - and they sadly don't even seem to have much to play for the second half of the season.
-sw

+1, Professor.  I'd have been happy if the C's all stars would have taken Jeter's position rather than playing in a meaningless pick-up game.  While the MLB all-star game actually has meaning...I have no problem with Jeter's position.

Jeter probably thinks there's somebody more deserving than his sizzling .270 3-24 first half. 

Didn't the fans vote him in? Do the fans not matter?  Does he just kinda not owe them anything?

Nope.  The only thing he owes anyone is adherence to the terms memorialized in his contract, which as I understand it is a covenant between Jeter and the New York Yankees.

There is no reason that shouldn't be his first priority.

-sw

True. But then the fans owe him nothing. They don't have to buy his shoes or gatorade or posters. They don't owe the Yankees the price of admission to watch players that won't play.

And sports writers don't owe him any Hall of Fame votes or anything else.

Seems like a bit of a straw man to me.  Nobody puts guns to fans heads to coerce them into buying tickets or endorsed products in the first place.  Fans are consumers.  Who suggested otherwise?

That said, I don't imagine it realistic that this implied syllogism will play out with fans not buying Jeter-endorsed items or Yankees tickets because he didn't play in the All-Star Game, at least not on any level to cause a significant impact.  And that's even while ignoring the inherent silliness in labeling Jeter as a "player who won't play" in any general sense due to the fact that he sat out an exhibition game.

As for the sports writers comment, I'm not clear on what makes that relevant to the conversation.  I am clear, however, on the point that any sportswriter whose voting criteria include items like "Did he play when selected to the All-Star Game?" in the same universe as "How many wins above replacement has he been worth?" is doing a disservice to the game and the Hall and should likely have his voting credentials revoked.

-sw

[Moranis]

Exhaustion?  He might as well have just chalked up his absence to "Indifference," or perhaps "Boredom."  What a lame excuse, especially when we're talking about a sport where the players sit or stand still for the majority of each game.



I mean, sit out of the All-Star game if you want -- though I tend to side with those who think he could have at least showed up and done introductions and a lazy at-bat -- but come up with a better excuse.



I think the league has to decide whether it really wants the All-Star game to be meaningful or not.  As a fan, all I can really do is scratch my head when I hear about a game crammed full of players who all make cameo appearances, half of whom are reserves selected for the big stars who didn't feel arsed to play another game of baseball over their break.  

Yet the game determines home field advantage for the World Series.  What?!


Either trim down the rosters (make All-Star mean more, make the in-game rosters more concrete) and solidify the game as meaningful, or turn the whole thing into a glitzy, goofy weekend of fun like the NBA All-Star weekend.

To be fair to Jeter Selig pretty much permanently messed up the all star game when he was like "Yeah. I guess we gotta end this thing in a tie"

The thing that bothers me is that the players and managers agreed to it. Actually I guess it was the manager's idea and he agreed to it. Either way I think I'd rather die than play to a tie.  Even soccer games don't end in ties.

soccer games end in ties all the time.  fights end in ties all the time.  Even the NFL can end in a tie. 

There is nothing wrong with a tie in a meaningless exhibition baseball game.

[pearljammer10]

Unless your injured, dont skip an all star game. Would it really have killed Jeter to go up there for one at bat and maybe run a sprint down the line then sit on the bench for the rest of the game? Come on. I hate how people say they wish their player would rest rather than represent their team in the all star game. Take the honor, suck it up and play the game.

This year there were technically 83 players named all stars based on replacements for injuries and pitchers who pitched on the sunday for. That means we were down to the 83 best player in the league representing the all star team, thats pretty ridiculous if you ask me.

[PosImpos]

Unless your injured, dont skip an all star game. Would it really have killed Jeter to go up there for one at bat and maybe run a sprint down the line then sit on the bench for the rest of the game? Come on. I hate how people say they wish their player would rest rather than represent their team in the all star game. Take the honor, suck it up and play the game.

This year there were technically 83 players named all stars based on replacements for injuries and pitchers who pitched on the sunday for. That means we were down to the 83 best player in the league representing the all star team, thats pretty ridiculous if you ask me.

Yup.  Makes "All-Star" designation fairly meaningless, honestly.

[soap07]

I can't believe this thing got any attention whatsoever. Who actually cares? Honestly, who here is actually offended by Jeter not going to the All Star game? Who here is even slightly offended? Has the All Star game become so boring that sportswriters have to gin up these types of fake storylines?

[Overrated]

Home field advantage for the World Series should be decided by whichever team has the better record, not the winner of the All-Star game. Too many guys sit out and it doesn't make sense for a game that's supposed to be fun.

[Donoghus]

I can't believe this thing got any attention whatsoever. Who actually cares? Honestly, who here is actually offended by Jeter not going to the All Star game? Who here is even slightly offended? Has the All Star game become so boring that sportswriters have to gin up these types of fake storylines?

I agree. The "faux outrage" is a bit of joke.

[Steve Weinman]

Unless your injured, dont skip an all star game. Would it really have killed Jeter to go up there for one at bat and maybe run a sprint down the line then sit on the bench for the rest of the game? Come on. I hate how people say they wish their player would rest rather than represent their team in the all star game. Take the honor, suck it up and play the game.

This year there were technically 83 players named all stars based on replacements for injuries and pitchers who pitched on the sunday for. That means we were down to the 83 best player in the league representing the all star team, thats pretty ridiculous if you ask me.

Yup.  Makes "All-Star" designation fairly meaningless, honestly.

In fairness, I had not been laboring under the delusion that it was meaningful prior.

For philosophy on All-Star appearances, I recommend the linked post from Fire Joe Morgan below, particularly the sentence starting with "All-Star appearances are exactly as good an indication..."

http://www.firejoemorgan.com/2007/01/hall-of-fame-elections-when.html

Warning: Some coarse language appears in the linked blog post.

-sw

[Eja117]

Unless your injured, dont skip an all star game. Would it really have killed Jeter to go up there for one at bat and maybe run a sprint down the line then sit on the bench for the rest of the game? Come on. I hate how people say they wish their player would rest rather than represent their team in the all star game. Take the honor, suck it up and play the game.

This year there were technically 83 players named all stars based on replacements for injuries and pitchers who pitched on the sunday for. That means we were down to the 83 best player in the league representing the all star team, thats pretty ridiculous if you ask me.

Yup.  Makes "All-Star" designation fairly meaningless, honestly.

In fairness, I had not been laboring under the delusion that it was meaningful prior.

For philosophy on All-Star appearances, I recommend the linked post from Fire Joe Morgan below, particularly the sentence starting with "All-Star appearances are exactly as good an indication..."

http://www.firejoemorgan.com/2007/01/hall-of-fame-elections-when.html

Warning: Some coarse language appears in the linked blog post.

-sw

So what are you saying Steve? They should get rid of the all-star game because it's a meaningless exhibition?  They should just let anyone play? Should players just be able to say "I'm not playing because I don't want to. F the fans".  It's really not that different.

Playing pro baseball is a privilege, not a right, and getting in the Hall is such as well.  Players have to be held to standards, not just "he's good and popular, so he gets to do what he wants when he wants to."

And I don't understand why a sportswriter is obliged to vote for a guy that's just too cool to be bothered to make an all-star appearance. Why can't the writer think about it and then just say "Yawn. I'm too tired"?  It's the standard that Jeter has placed on the scene. It would honor him.

Let's get this straight right now. This isn't Sandy Kofax sitting out due to religious reasons, unless you consider self-worship to be Jeter's religion. 

[Eja117]

I'm speaking somewhat hypothetically because I don't think Jeter ever said he was too emotionally and physically exhausted to play. Rather that was an unnamed source close to him (meaning a made up quote by a writer).

But if a player ever did say such a thing I don't see how that player would be worthy of being in the same HOF with the greats of his sport. 

[GreenEnvy]

As a Yankee fan, I can't defend Jeter not going, but he's entitled to do what he wants. A lot of players decline to go, except this year he was the glaring one of four Yankees not going. ARod had knee surgery the day before and Mo is dealing with a nagging injury. CC made plans after he didn't make the team and was scheduled to pitch on Sunday. Even if he got selected, he couldn't play. Why sit around for the chance to go stand around in Arizona?

As for Jeter, whatever. I'm sure he regrets it now because of all the fuss made of it, but he was just getting over an injury and had to deal with all the publicity of 3000. Four full days off sounds a whole lot better than traveling to Arizona to play 3 innings. I personally didn't care that he wasn't there, and I don't know why so many non-Yankee fans took offense to it. Sure, he got voted in unjustifiably, but he didn't ask for it, I don't recall him campaigning for votes.

Didn't Pedro Martinez skip it multiple times?

And I do believe All-Star selections are still important. There isn't such a big difference between an 8-time All-Star and a 6-time one. But there is a difference between those two and a 14-time or 2-time one. And bringing together the best of the best usually translates to more interest, which is always a good thing for any sport.

[Steve Weinman]

So what are you saying Steve? They should get rid of the all-star game because it's a meaningless exhibition?  They should just let anyone play? Should players just be able to say "I'm not playing because I don't want to. F the fans".

With the possible exception of the very last phrase, I wouldn't have a problem with any of the outcomes you outlined there.

Playing pro baseball is a privilege, not a right, and getting in the Hall is such as well.  Players have to be held to standards, not just "he's good and popular, so he gets to do what he wants when he wants to."

Completely agreed.  And that standard should be something to the extent of "He is really, really, really good - great, even - at baseball."  As noted earlier, metrics that provide insight into how much a player contributes to any level of success his team attains (WAR offers a great start) help us determine how players measure up to my suggested standard. Items like "All-Star appearances skipped" offer us zero insight in this realm.

And I don't understand why a sportswriter is obliged to vote for a guy that's just too cool to be bothered to make an all-star appearance. Why can't the writer think about it and then just say "Yawn. I'm too tired"?  It's the standard that Jeter has placed on the scene. It would honor him.

While I think the level of comic value this sort of rhetoric held when you used it in back-to-back posts to open the thread was debatable at best, it has certainly worn off at this point.

Let's get this straight right now. This isn't Sandy Kofax sitting out due to religious reasons, unless you consider self-worship to be Jeter's religion.  

Completely agreed.  Like Sandy Koufax, Derek Jeter has never chosen to sit out a World Series game simply because he didn't feel like playing.

-sw

[Eja117]

Steve I wasn't trying to be funny when I said a sports writer should just be able to be too tired. Jeter may feel a guy can get too tired to do his job or fulfill his responsibilities and I don't see why that should be exclusive to him.

So say a writer said "Hey Sandy Kofax skipped one of the biggest and most important games possible. That may make him a HOF practitioner of his faith, but not in baseball. In baseball it essentially makes him a deserter even though he was really really good". That wouldn't be legit?

At some point can't a writer say "Yeah that guy was good. But he was a jerk. He felt like it was ok to just sorta take a huge dump on the game and the fans. I'm not voting for Jeter, or Pete Rose, or Bonds, or Kofax, or Ty Cobb, or Shoeless Joe. I'm just not doing it"? 

I'm amazed Jeter never did any damage control on this where he told his friend who may have quoted him "Could you at least say I didn't actually say that, but that it was your interpretation of how I felt?"

Also there is nothing even remotely hard about trying to get your 3000th hit.  There never was. There never will be.  You get up there. You swing at a ball. My 4 year old did it this week. And he was really trying to get it too. It really mattered to him. It was in front of a lot of people. And when he was done he didn't collapse from exhaustion.

[Steve Weinman]

Jeter may feel a guy can get too tired to do his job or fulfill his responsibilities and I don't see why that should be exclusive to him.

Again, this seems to be the crux of our differences.  Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm unaware of appearing in the ASG if selected as being one of his responsibilities. 

He has done his job remarkably poorly this season, to the tune of a career-low 86 OPS+.  I don't assess this particular issue relevant to the discussion of how he does his job or fulfills his responsibility.

At some point can't a writer say "Yeah that guy was good. But he was a jerk. He felt like it was ok to just sorta take a huge dump on the game and the fans. I'm not voting for Jeter, or Pete Rose, or Bonds, or Kofax, or Ty Cobb, or Shoeless Joe. I'm just not doing it"? 

Putting aside for the moment the hyperbole used here, sure, a writer can say those things.  And then we can have a Hall of Fame made up of something other than the guys who were the very best at baseball.  That would be a shame for those of us who think it would be cool for the Hall of Fame to serve as a shrine for the guys who were the very best at baseball.

-sw