Recap of the 2012 MLB All-Star Game

The 2012 MLB All-Star Game was played on Tuesday. The National League beat the American League 8 to 0. This game is important because who ever wins the NL win have home field in the World Series since the winning league in the game gets home-field advantage in the World Series. Home-field advantage has been important since the gave the winning league home-field advantage in 2003 the team with home-field advantage has won 6 of the 9 World Series. I thought the AL was going to win because of all the greats players they have but the NL stepped it up to win. The got 5 runs off Verlander in the 1st inning. The other time they scored was in the 4th inning when they got 3 more runs. Melky Cabrera won the All-Star game M.V.P. He had 2 hits in 3 at-bats and 2 R.B.I.s. Cabrera became the 6th player with 2+ hits and 2+ RBI in an All-Star game, all as a CF. The others are Stan Musial in 1949, Joe DiMaggio in 1949, Mickey Mantle in 1955, Ken Griffey Jr. in 1992 and Ichiro Suzuki in 2007. They were also a lot of firsts in this game since the game was not very close. The National League recorded a 5 run inning for the fourth time, in the 1st inning for the first time. That has happened 3 other times in 1954 in the 4th inning, in 1969 in the 3rd inning and in 2003 in the 5th inning. Tony La Russa managed the N.L. and became only the 2nd manger to mange a All-Star game after retiring joining John McGraw in 1933. Bryce Haprer's selection to the All-Star Game at age 19 made him the third youngest player ever to be named an All-Star among position players. Pablo Sandoval highlighted the N.L.'s big first inning with the first bases-loaded triple in the history of the All-Star game. The shutout in this game was only the 8th time in All-Star game history lasted happening when A.L. got shutout in 1996. Mike Trout got a hit and was 3rd youngest player to get a hit in the All-Star game. Chipper Jones became the 3rd oldest N.L. player to get a hit in the All-Star game. Derek Jeter now has 11 career hits in the All-Star Game, the most of any Yankee. Mickey Mantle had 10. Justin Verlander is the 3rd All-Star Game starter to allow 5 ER. Others were Tom Glavine in 1992 and Jim Palmer in 1977. Verlander is the only one with 1 IP or fewer. 61 players (32 N.L., 29 A.L.) took part in the game, surpassing the nine-inning record of 60 set in 2011. There were also 5 rookies who were selected most all-time. There 26 first time All-Stars and 19 players under the age of 26. There was a lot of fun young players coming up in the future and I will be excited to see these guys in future All-Stars.

A Four Team College Football Playoff Agreed To From 2014-2025

A four team college football playoff was agreed to on June 26th. The playoff likely will begin in the 2014 season which means we have to live through 2 more years of this currently broken system. The approved playoff agreement extends through the 2025 season, so the playoff won't be expanding to eight teams or 16 teams anytime soon. My preference is a 16 or 32 team playoff but 4 team is a start and maybe we will actually a tournament in college football like there is in college basketball. The 4 teams will be selected in a similar way college basketball does using a selection committee. The committee will probably including 15 members of a mixture of current conference commissioners, athletics directors and former coaches. The committee will have to give all teams an equal opportunity to participate in the playoffs and will also consider factors such as strength of schedule, head-to-head results and whether a team is a conference champion. The semifinal games will be played in a rotation among six bowl sites and the championship game will be offered to the highest bidding city. At this point, only two games are guaranteed a spot in the semifinals rotation: the Champions Bowl (which will face Big 12 against the SEC) and the Rose Bowl (which face the Big Ten vs. the Pac-12). The ACC is close to finalizing an agreement with the Orange Bowl, which would also become one of the three contract games included in the rotation. Under the 12-year agreement approved by the presidents each of the six bowl games would host a semifinal game four times. Commissioners said the first semifinals games will be played on either Dec. 31, 2014 or Jan. 1, 2015. The first national championship game is scheduled for Jan. 12, 2015 and commissioners plan to play the championship game on the second Monday night of January in each of the first five seasons. The  ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and SEC champions will be guaranteed a spot in one of the six major bowls and in one of the semifinals if they're selected by the committee. The teams in college football's other leagues have to hope they're good enough to be selected by the committee. By adding two more major bowl games, the commissioners feel like they've increased the chances of a team in non-BCS conferences playing in one of the six bowl games. There will be more teams going to the bowls going from 8 teams and the championship to 12 teams and 2 teams getting to play a second game. Some people think this will fix all the controversy but I things it increases. Now instead of the #3 and #4 team complaining you could have teams #5-#8 complaining. An example in 2010 season you had a obvious top 3 teams. #1 Auburn at 13-0, #2 Oregon at 12-0 and #3 TCU at 12-0 and then #4-#8 teams all had 1 loss and 3 teams were from the Big Ten and were co-champions because the Big Ten didn't have a Title Game yet. This system solves some problem not all problems and in 2023 or 2024 there will probably be a new agreement to fix this new system.