THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, July 12, 1994 TAG: 9407120422
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BOB MOLINARO
LENGTH: Medium: 70 lines
Add the Major League Baseball All-Star Game to the list of sporting events that aren't what they used to be.
The All-Star Game is a pleasant wrinkle in the long baseball season. It just isn't as special as it once seemed.
Times change. Technology changes. In the age of cable, with 30 games a week on TV, almost any summer night could be an all-star night of baseball.
Before the days of wall-to-wall baseball and incessant studio chatter, the All-Star Game was America's prime vehicle for absorbing the images of Willie Mays, Maury Wills, Pete Rose or Steve Carlton.
Now, anybody with a remote control and a lot of free time can dissect the games of Barry Bonds, Cal Ripken, Tom Glavine and others almost nightly - either from live TV, or from watching the endless string of video highlights.
As for the rivalry between the two leagues, even that isn't what it used to be. How can it be when players jump from league to league, chasing the big bucks?
This year's American League All-Star could have been last summer's National League All-Star. In another four years, he could be a National League All-Star again. The affiliations blur. At times, they seem fake.
Mostly, though, it is the saturation of baseball on TV that takes the edge off the All-Star Game. This is the price of having the sport at our fingertips.
There's still a place on the calendar for the All-Star Game. It just doesn't hold the same place in our hearts and minds that it once did.
It isn't alone. Over the years, other events that once enjoyed a unique stature in our pop culture have lost prestige.
On the first Saturday of each May, considerable fuss is made over the Kentucky Derby. Out of habit, TV and the press continue to give the royal treatment to the Run for the Roses.
Once again, the media are behind the times. Next spring, try finding somebody who has an intelligent opinion about the Derby. Or who will sit still for a discussion of horse racing. It can't be done.
Since the late '70s, the Derby and Triple Crown have gone into steep decline, despite the media's attempts to prop them up.
It has been 21 years since Secretariat elevated thoroughbred racing, 16 since Affirmed became the last Triple Crown winner. TV ratings for this year's Derby were the lowest ever in the nation's 30 largest markets.
For sure, segments of America continue to pay homage to the Derby, as well as to the All-Star Game. The same is true for those cult favorites, the Indianapolis 500 and Boston Marathon.
As traditional events, they are accorded great respect in the manner of foreigners genuflecting before ancient royalty. But like royalty, they have lost relevance.
When the Derby and Indy 500 were truly a big deal, the spring schedule wasn't as busy as it is today. You had baseball, but not much else.
Now the NBA playoffs dominate May and June. At the same time, stock car racing keeps up a steady hum, pro hockey takes its share of the audience and golf is more popular than ever. All of it, including some sports that were invented yesterday, reach the tube day and night.
Sports are more popular than ever. But the landscape is altered. People care as never before. They just care about different things.
Take the NFL and NBA drafts, presented each year on TV with all the understatement of the Academy Awards. For better or worse, these livestock lotteries are far more in tune with the interests of sports fans than quaint events like the Derby or Indy 500. Or baseball's All-Star Game.
The rhythm of the seasons has changed, not necessarily a bad thing. The way we were is not the way it is today. by CNB