MINNEAPOLIS — Of the 15 ballparks that make up the American League, only two have not played host to an All-Star Game. One is Tropicana Field, the poorly located eyesore the Tampa Bay Rays desperately want to leave, and therefore will not be showcased in a jewel event.
The other is the new Yankee Stadium.
Nevertheless, commissioner Bud Selig indicated Tuesday the Midsummer Classic, won 5-3 by the American League, is nowhere close to returning to New York, or specifically to The Bronx.
“I’ve got too many people ahead of them,” Selig said, in his annual meeting with the Baseball Writers Association of America.
Major League Baseball took care of the Yankees in 2008 by holding the All-Star Game in the final season of the old Stadium, and the game returned to The Big Apple last year when the Mets played host to it at Citi Field. Next year’s game will be held at Cincinnati’s Great American Ball Park. Selig said he would like to get a few more in place before he steps down (or at least hopes to) next January.
Beyond, Great American Ball Park there are four National League ballparks that are new and have yet to hold the All-Star Game: Washington’s Nationals Park, San Diego’s Petco Park, Miami’s Marlins Park and Philadelphia’s Citizens Bank Park. Furthermore, the Dodgers haven’t hosted the game since 1980 and have made dramatic improvements to Dodger Stadium in the past few years.
Though baseball traditionally alternates host sites between leagues, it violated this trend in 2007 when he allowed the Giants and AT&T Park to run the game the year after the Pirates did so at PNC Park.
Meanwhile, the Orioles haven’t held the event at beloved Camden Yards since 1993, and the Blue Jays last hosted at Rogers Centre (then SkyDome) in 1991.
Selig said he didn’t know in 2007 that Alex Rodriguez had received medical clearance from an independent administrator to use testosterone. MLB learned later of Rodriguez’s therapeutic-use exemption and submitted that as evidence last year when A-Rod appealed his suspension, as reported in the new book “Blood Sport.”
“History … turned out to be somewhat wrong,” Selig said.
Dan Halem, baseball’s executive vice president of labor relations, expressed confidence that most, if not all, of the 14 players MLB suspended last year for their involvement with Biogenesis — a group that included Rodriguez, 2011 NL MVP Ryan Braun and the AL’s starting designated hitter Nelson Cruz — would have failed their drug tests in 2013 or later thanks to the longitudinal testing baseball instituted last year. None of those 14 failed any drug tests prior to 2013.
Though numerous managers and players have expressed frustration with umpires’ enforcement of the new rule governing home-plate collisions, MLB executive vice president of baseball operations Joe Torre said, “We’re not going to eliminate it.”
Instead, Torre said, he would keep working with all involved parties to gain a clearer understanding.
Players Association executive director Tony Clark spoke to the BBWAA following Selig’s session and said he wouldn’t attempt to reopen baseball’s collective bargaining agreement to deal with free agents such as Stephen Drew and Kendrys Morales, who were burned by rejecting their old team’s qualifying offers. So such second-tier free agents likely will face such a dilemma again this coming offseason. The current CBA expires after the 2016 season.
The Players Association announced the creation of a scholarship for labor studies to honor the life of Michael Weiner, the union’s former executive director who died last year of brain cancer.