by John May @Juandemayo
The MLB All-Star Game is coming up next week, and unlike other sports All-Star games it's actually entertaining.
Sports fans like to pile on the NBA All-Star Game and NFL Pro Bowl for being terrible and boring. The MLB All-Star Game in comparison is far superior, but it has a built-in advantage that is often overlooked.
The MLB All-Star game is the only all-star game that gives fans a product nearly identical to what you see during the regular season. This is because it is a non-contact sport where most of the running is of a predictable nature leading to significantly less injury risk.
The NBA does not involve quite the same amount of contact and collisions that the NFL does, but there is some and the unpredictable cutting on offense and defense compared to an MLB game creates more injury risk.
It will be interesting to see if stolen bases become more of a thing in this year’s all-star game since that particular statistic is on the rise in the regular season but does come with some injury risk.
The biggest difference between the MLB and other all-star games is defense. In an MLB All-Star game, the defense looks the exact same as the defense in a regular season game. The same can’t be said for the NBA or NFL. Not to blame the NBA or NFL players, as they are doing the right thing. Both sports just have a significant injury risk if regular season defense is played during the all-star game.
The other big difference is the overall effort level. Giving it 100 percent in an MLB all-star game does not come with much injury risk. NBA and NFL players are much better off just going through the motions in an all-star game to make sure they don’t get a major injury of any sort.
On a slight tangent, I would also like to point out that the Home Run Derby is also far superior to any NBA or NFL skills competition. The new tournament-style Home Run Derby creates a fun head-to-head matchup between some of the game's top power hitters.
Enjoy the MLB All-Star game, but please don’t add to all the piling on of NBA and NFL all-star festivities that are already taking place!
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