Tie causes more woes for Bud Selig and baseball
By By Austin Bishop / regional sports director
July 10, 2002
Writing words of wisdom on a Wednesday while wondering whatever happened to Earl Weaver …
Well, goodness. A tie in the All-Star Game
That's not exactly what commissioner Bud Selig and Major League Baseball was looking for. The fans are already on edge with the dark cloud of a possible strike on the horizon. Now this.
In reality, Selig probably made the right decision. After all, when you are out of pitching you are out of pitching and nobody wants to see position players pitching in an All-Star Game. It's just the timing of everything that is so unfortunate.
But, before the game was halted, there was some good action and plenty of drama. The pregame ceremonies were outstanding and the tribute to Ted Williams and the other retired baseball players were great.
In the past few years it seems like Major League Baseball has been making more of an effort to get the older and younger players together.
There are two logical reasons for this. One, it is important for the players of today to meet and know who blazed the trail for them to roll in their riches.
Secondly, it is important for the fans to remember who these stars were, and know who they are now.
I was fortunate to actually see some of the greats Hank Aaron, Willie Stargell, Jim Rice, and more play in person. And of course, television has given me the opportunity to watch even more of the stars perform.
But other than old video, I never saw or even heard on the radio Ted Williams, Joe DiMaggio, Jackie Robinson, Whitey Ford, Yogi Berra and such play.
So, bringing them back, and the memories of their play, is a good move on the part of baseball.
So, just what
do you think?
I was surfing the internet the other day, checking out several websites, when I ran across something interesting on SECsports.com.
One of the items was a fan poll, asking surfers to share their opinions on what would be the best non-conference game of the year for an SEC team.
The options were Auburn vs. Southern California, Georgia vs. Clemson, LSU vs. Virginia Tech, Mississippi State vs. Oregon, Alabama vs. Oklahoma, Florida vs. Miami, Tennessee vs. Miami, and Florida vs. Florida State.
I guess what surprised me most was the game that got the most votes and the one that got the fewest.
Dragging up the rear at just 1.08 percent was the Florida-Florida State game.
The game that I chose Florida vs. Miami was just fifth with 6.04 percent. The Georgia Clemson game registered just 5.86 percent, while the Tennessee-Miami game (which will most likely be the orangest game of the season in college sports) drew just 5.98 percent of the vote.
Four of the games collected more than 10 percent of the votes.
Which won led the way?
It was the Mississippi State-Oregon game. While that surprised me, the thing that took me off guard the most was the percentage of votes. A whopping 41.61 percent picked that game as the best non-conference game of the year.
Second was Alabama-Oklahoma at 14.82 percent, followed by LSU-Virginia Tech at 13.85 percent and Auburn-Southern California at 10.76 percent.
While I agree that the MSU-Oregon game is intriguing, I was surprised by the vote totals.
Of course, that may just prove that very few of the votes came from the Florida area, and a lot came from Mississippi and Alabama.
Well, whatever. It's still interesting to mull over.
By the way, the Oregon-MSU game is set for Aug. 31 in Eugene.
