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Jul 15, 2008 10:22 am US/Central
Selig Still Embarrassed By 2002 All-Star Game
NEW YORK (AP) ―
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Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Bud Selig might never live down the infamous tied All-Star game.
The 2002 edition was cruising along perfectly. Lots of runs were being scored, the game was close the whole way, the crowd was electric. The two sides were still knotted 7-all after two extra innings, in the commissioner's hometown no less.
Then both teams ran out of pitchers, at which point Selig -- sitting in the crowd where the TV cameras couldn't possibly miss him -- declared the game a draw. It was a startling decision panned by just about everyone.
Including David Letterman, six years later.
"So the winning team gets home-field advantage in the Series," Letterman said on his show Monday, referring to a rule enacted the following year rewarding home-field advantage in the World Series to the winning league. "Is that enough incentive for the All-Star game?"
"Well, I think so," Selig replied. "The game had lost its, what I call intensity, because in 1993 Cito Gaston, then the manager of the American League, didn't put Mike Mussina in in Baltimore. And he got booed. So the managers then decided, 'We're going to get everybody in 'cause we don't want to get booed.' Well, what happened of course is we ultimately ran out of players in an extra-inning game."
"In a tie," Letterman said, laughing.
"You may find it amusing," Selig said. "I didn't think it was so amusing at the time."
Maybe if Clint Hurdle had been around, such a predicament wouldn't have happened.
The NL manager said Monday that he places plenty of importance on winning the All-Star game. Whether that means pitching starter Cliff Lee two or three innings or leaving hitters on the bench the full nine, so be it.
"We're not gonna play for a tie," Hurdle said.
Just what Selig wants to hear.
(© 2010 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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