The All-Star Game

[Spoonless]

Why is La Russa the manager of the NL team, anyway? If the game supposedly matters, and he's no longer a MLB manager, he shouldn't be managing. Maybe invite him to be a bench coach, but it's just silly. Make Roenicke the manager.

Also would have liked to see R.A. Dickey start the game. I know Cain threw a perfect game, but Dickey has pretty much been the pitching story this season. I'm not saying Cain doesn't deserve the start; I just would have liked to see R.A. get it.

[Can_of_corn]

Why is La Russa the manager of the NL team, anyway? If the game supposedly matters, and he's no longer a MLB manager, he shouldn't be managing. Maybe invite him to be a bench coach, but it's just silly. Make Roenicke the manager.

Also would have liked to see R.A. Dickey start the game. I know Cain threw a perfect game, but Dickey has pretty much been the pitching story this season. I'm not saying Cain doesn't deserve the start; I just would have liked to see R.A. get it.

Giants didn't want Posey catching Dickey.

[Don Quixote]

Why is La Russa the manager of the NL team, anyway? If the game supposedly matters, and he's no longer a MLB manager, he shouldn't be managing. Maybe invite him to be a bench coach, but it's just silly. Make Roenicke the manager.

Pennant-winning managers from the previous season are usually the All-Star managers. It's not often that pennant-winning - much less World Series-winning - managers immediately retire, as in his case. I guess they figured it's not like he forgot everything since last October and hasn't been keeping up at all. There's enough already wrong with the game that this doesn't really matter.

[ledzepp8]

Pennant-winning managers from the previous season are usually the All-Star managers. It's not often that pennant-winning - much less World Series-winning - managers immediately retire, as in his case. I guess they figured it's not like he forgot everything since last October and hasn't been keeping up at all. There's enough already wrong with the game that this doesn't really matter.

I agree with what you're saying. But I think spoonless is saying that, if Selig wants the game to decide home field in the world series, then it should be managed by someone who has a dog in the fight.

[Spoonless]

I agree with what you're saying. But I think spoonless is saying that, if Selig wants the game to decide home field in the world series, then it should be managed by someone who has a dog in the fight.

Pretty much.

This isn't to say that I think the AS game should be used to determine home-field advantage in the WS, but if you are and your premise is that the game matters, La Russa shouldn't be the acting manager if he's not an active MLB manager. I think that if you want to acknowledge that La Russa won the WS, you invite him to be the bench coach or something like that. Put him in the dugout, give him his accolades, name him the "honorary manager".

I wonder what they'd do if one of the WS managers switched leagues in the offseason. That'd be pretty interesting.

[Don Quixote]

I got the premise of the post I quoted, but in a game that supposedly matters yet has a starting lineup and "final roster spot" basically controlled by fans, La Russa's retired status doesn't matter. I have issue with the "counting" aspect of the All-Star Game, anyway - it should revert to exhibition-only and have no impact on post-season play, especially under the current roster construction method. As long as the roster selection is the way it is, though, if one of the previous season's pennant-winning managers has retired, it's just another "flaw" that has to be dealt with. If this game is exhibition-only, a recently-retired manager garners no discussion.

In 1965 neither league had its previous pennant-winning manager as All-Star manager, both managers having switched leagues. Yogi Berra was fired by the Yankees after they lost to the Cardinals in seven games in the 1964 World Series, then became a player-coach for the Mets beginning with the 1965 season. Meanwhile, Johnny Keane, who managed the unlikely victors, quit his post as Cardinals manager and assumed the helm of the Yankees a few days after Berra's firing. The second-place managers in each league then managed the All-Star game - Chicago's Al Lopez for the American League, and Philadelphia's Gene Mauch for the National League (Philadelphia and Cincinnati tied for second in the NL in '64, but Fred Hutchinson, Cincinnati's manager, had died in the off-season).