This Week in (Dumb) Baseball: 2015 MLB All-Star game edition – CBSSports.com

It’s Monday, which means our regularly scheduled programming of This Week in (Dumb) Baseball is ready for consumption.

As regular readers already know, this feature has the title, sure, but it’s mostly for fun— a fact that eludes the masses but remains the case. For example, if you tell me to “quit whining,” you are missing the point. I’m mostly chuckling to myself as I write these things (with some exceptions, of course).

For all This Week in (Dumb) Baseball columns, click here.

1. ‘This one counts’

This isn’t exactly a new topic, but it needs to be mentioned every single year until this farce is ended. The Major League Baseball All-Star Game is bar none the best All-Star Game in professional sports, but it should not ‘count’ for home-field advantage in the World Series. It was added as a stipulation as a reaction to Bud Selig being embarrassed when he had to end the 2002 Midsummer Classic in Milwaukee (his town!) in a tie. There’s no need to get into my frustration overall with much of Selig’s rule changes being reactive instead of proactive, so let’s just focus on the All-Star Game.

This game is an exhibition game. I like to picture Duke screaming “this is supposed to be an exhibition fight” toward Ivan Drago’s corner when helping a bloodied Apollo Creed in Rocky IV.

Seriously, if we go through and talk about all of the problems, we can trace them back to tying this thing to the World Series. Like these two.

– Every team shouldn’t be required one representative. What is this, Little League with participation trophies? If this game truly “counts,” then take the best players and try to win. With as readily available as baseball can regionally be viewed these days, the one-player-per-team rule is extremely outdated. It’s not like millions of Red Sox fans — who otherwise would not be watching — are going to tune in to anxiously see if Brock Holt is going to get in the game.

– People complain about the fan voting system. If this game truly “counts,” let’s send the best players instead of making it a popularity contest. Back off, Royals fans, this isn’t about you guys. Every single year there are players who shouldn’t be voted in and instead are. I have no issue with this. The fans are the reason we have this sport. The fan vote should count, but when the game is tied to the World Series, it shouldn’t be about stuffing the ballot box or a popularity contest.

On and on we can go, but the point is that most issues with the All-Star Game stem simply from tying it to home-field advantage in the World Series. Picture an 88-win wild card winner hosting a 102-win team in Game 7 of the World Series because a bunch of players that have nothing to do with either team decided the All-Star Game in the ninth inning. Does that make any semblance of sense?

Here’s an idea: Just have the team in the World Series with the most regular season wins get home-field advantage.

I know, I know. That makes too much sense.

If we desperately need something with a gimmick, how about awarding it to the league that wins interleague W-L for the year?

2. Complaining about the Home Run Derby format

We have never even seen how this new format works. I think it’s going to make it better, but I could be wrong. The fact is I have no idea how it’s going to work until we’re done with it. And yet, I’ve already seen dozens of people crying about the changes. You know what this is, right? People who complain for the sake of complaining. Don’t be that person. Enjoy life. It’s supposed to be fun.

And if you absolutely must complain, at least wait until it’s over. Then at least you’ve seen it. If you don’t, it’s like saying you hate a food you’ve never tried. You can’t know until you’ve tried it.

As we do every week, let’s close with some fun to wash away the dumb. We’ll stick with the All-Star theme, too.

All-Star throwback highlight

All-Star throwback pitching highlight

All-Star Bo Jackson moment

Home Run Derby throwback moment

On that note, it’s time to put a bow on this thing. Enjoy the Home Run Derby and All-Star Game!

Suggestions (dumb stuff, random videos, baseball cards, pop culture rankings topics, etc.) or hate mail? Feel free to hit me up: matt.snyder@cbs.com or you could always go to Twitter (@MattSnyderCBS).