The All-Star Game is dead. Long live the All-Star Game.
As I begin writing this, the United States of America and Canada are tied 2-2 going into the third period of the finals of the inaugural 4 Nations Face-Off, the NHL’s new international tournament that replaced its regular All-Star Game. The USA and Canada make up half the squads with Finland and Sweden being the other two.
It’s been a rousing success.
Two of the games haven’t been much, but, that hasn’t mattered that much. USA smoked Finland 6-1 in their first game of the tournament. In their third game, the USA, having already wrapped a spot in the finals, lost to Sweden, a team that had already been eliminated due to Canada’s regulation win earlier in the day against the Fins.
Really, this tournament has been about USA versus Canada. They faced each other this past Saturday in Montreal, where the first half of the tournament took place, and the game started with three fights in the first ten seconds of game time. Things calmed down after that as the USA won a slog, 3-1.
Thankfully for the NHL and ESPN, American hockey fans, and Canadian hockey fans, Canada won the following Monday, setting up this final’s matchup in Boston, the first time in 15 years that USA and Canada have faced each other in the championship of a men’s best-on-best international tournament.
Major League Baseball should take note.
Sure, the NHL sacrificed its All-Star Game for this week-long tournament, but it’s clear that these hockey players give much more of a damn representing their countries in a brand-new tournament than they did representing their regular-season employers in a meaningless exhibition.
As evidenced by the NFL’s Pro Bowl and the NBA’s All-Star Game, all-star games are a thing of the past.
Originally, all-star games were a great idea. Let’s take the 1960s for example. Back then, outside of the World Series, Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game presented the only time fans could see the stars of the other league. Plus it was the only time to see certain Hall of Fame players even play.
There didn’t exist MLB’s streaming service to watch out-of-market games, so outside of a few games when certain teams traveled to, say, St. Louis, the All-Star Game was the only chance for Cardinals fans to see Willie Mays, Henry Aaron, and Roberto Clemente.
Television changed that—like all things, it happened gradually, then suddenly. Now if you have T-Mobile, you (usually) get MLB.tv for free. Good luck watching your local team, but here’s access to the rest of the country.
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Speaking of St. Louis, this USA-Canada contest is very St. Louis heavy, what with the Blues’ Jordan Binnington in goal for Canada—and he’s actually playing…well?—and the Tkachuk brothers, born in St. Louis, driving things for the U.S.
And lest we forget about Parayko.
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The same goes for football and basketball—television, and then the internet, and then streaming, killed the novelty of the all-star game. A football fan in Kansas City didn’t have to wait until the end of the season to catch a glimpse of a game-changing wide receiver from the Buccaneers. All you had to do was—first, turn on ESPN. Then: open YouTube. Or: buy Sunday Ticket.
Same with NBA fans in Minneapolis wanting to watch players from the Rockets or the Warriors or the Heat or the Magic. NBA League Pass is the one for you.
MLB, bless its heart, tried to make the All-Star Game matter. Bud Selig pushed through an ill-advised rule that gave the All-Star game “meaning”—whichever league won, that league’s champion would have home-field advantage throughout the World Series, regular season record notwithstanding. A National League Wild Card team squeaks in with 85 wins and faces an American League squad that paced the majors with 104 wins but the NL won the All-Star Game? NL gets up to four of the potential seven games at home.
Gregory Fisher-Imagn Images
Thankfully, MLB soon came to its senses and eliminated the rule. But then the All-Star Game, once again, like all other all-star games, became meaningless.
Both the NFL and NBA have altered their all-star games, but to be honest, I don’t think I’ve ever watched the Pro Bowl, and having read about this past weekend’s NBA All-Star festivities, I didn’t miss anything by skipping things.
But the NHL’s alteration? Now that’s worth copying.
An international baseball tournament consisting of four teams (more on this later) would look something like this: a three-game round-robin first round with the two teams with the best records playing in a winner-take-all championship. Like this 4 Nations Face-Off, not all participants in the tournament must play in the majors.
The All-Star break would have to be longer than it is now. And this tournament wouldn’t even have to take place every season, but maybe, like the World Baseball Classic, once every four seasons. Or maybe more often—every other year, depending on the popularity. The point here is that with baseball already having the longest season of the major sports, the year of the tournament would have to a) start sooner, b) end later, or c) included fewer regular season games, like 154 instead of 162.
What nations would the baseball tournament include?
Well, like the NHL, let’s axe Russia from international competition since they, you know, started a war a couple of years ago. Excluding the Kremlin is easier in baseball than hockey, but I still thought it should be mentioned that Russia started a war with Ukraine and not the other way around.
The United States, obviously, would be involved, so that’s one. Another part of the 4 Nations to copy is having first half of the tournament in one country and the second part in another. But I don’t know if that would work. The only other feasible country in which to play is Canada—home of the Blue Jays, of course—but there aren’t that many Canadian players in the majors. Still, here’s where that participants-don’t-have-to-play-in-the-majors rule comes into place. Canada’s in.
For the other two, I’m leaning toward the Dominican Republic and Venezuela. Or Japan. Dang! That’s tough. I believe there are more players in the majors from the D.R. and Venezuela than Japan, but that’s cutting out some major star power. Japan gets the last spot over…Venezuela?
Brad Penner-Imagn Images
There is another way to format the tournament, which isn’t 4 Nations, but 4 Continents. This way, USA and Canada and the Dominican Republic (not to mention Puerto Rico) could link up for Team North America while Japan and Good Korea (and other nations around the area) form Team Asia. Players from South America could make up—wait for it—Team South America, and then there could be a crappy Team Europe.
The continent idea may make more sense as that would allow more players to participate, including players from Nippon Professional Baseball and Korea Baseball Organization.
And still, we’d exclude the Russians, again for invading and starting a war with Ukraine. Europe and Asia would be on board with said exclusion.
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This third period flew by. J.T. Miller nearly had an own goal that would’ve ended things in favor of Canada. Guess he remembered he doesn’t play for the Canucks anymore. On to overtime.
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If we went by countries: U.S.A., Canada (so we can play in Toronto), Dominican Republic, Japan.
If we went by continents: North America, South America, Asia, Europe.
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There are a few potential downsides to this tournament.
For one, would baseball players care about it? International baseball isn’t nearly as exciting as international hockey. The tourney would take some investment from the players, and I’m not sure that would be found.
For two, would the owners allow it? It would take some altering to the regular season for this to occur, possibly (gasp) shortening the season (which equals less revenue). It would also mean that owners of teams in the playoff hunt would allow their important players to play in at least three, at most four more games that mean nothing regarding the World Series chase.
For three, would fans care? Sure, it’s baseball, and any baseball is fun and good, but would an international tournament create enough fan interest?
I don’t know the answer to these questions. Watching the 4 Nations Face-Off has been a blast, but international hockey has always been dope. Hockey is much more of a global game than baseball, at least when it comes to best-on-best tournaments.
International baseball is a phrase I hardly hear and have maybe only written for this column.
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Is Kurt Russell addressing both teams at intermission? Wild. Loved him in 3,000 Miles to Graceland.