Baseball Toaster was unplugged on February 4, 2009.
Well, I guess I wasn't the only one who thought the All-Star game was a bore. The ratings were down for the second straight year. I guess they missed the memo and the continual reminders, including slogan-chanting foul lines, that "This time it ciounts."
But what do you expect when you kick off a broadcast with a Fantastic Four/baseball infomercial montage followed by a scouting report by "Scooter". And if that's not bad enough, you actually have to sit through a Tim McCarver/Joe Buck broadcast. Add in a 7-0 lead that slowly erodes to 7-5 as fan interest fades, and you end up with the audience switching to "Rock Star:INXS" faster than you can say "Autoerotic asphyxiation"
Could the hole the NL at first found themselves in have anything to do with the crappy choices that the fans stuck the NL with in the starting lineup (the sub-par Eckstein, Beltran, and Piazza, a collective 1-for-7).
Anyway, with the 2005 classic in the can, I ran the all-time numbers and came up with some interesting little factoids. The NL, which hasn't won since a 6-0 win in 1996 at the Vet, leads the series 40-34-2. However, the AL and NL have scored the exact same number of runs, 324, in 76 contests. Well, how about that?
The 1996 game is also tied for fourth-most lopsided. For a while it looked like this year's game was going to be near the top of the list:
| Year | Site | Winner | RF | RA |
| 1946 | Fenway Park, Boston | American | 12 | 0 |
| 1983 | Comiskey Park, Chicago | American | 13 | 3 |
| 1992 | Jack Murphy Stadium, San Diego | American | 13 | 6 |
| 1996 | Veterans Stadium, Philadelphia | National | 6 | 0 |
| 1993 | Oriole Park at Camden Yards, Baltimore | American | 9 | 3 |
| 1976 | Veterans Stadium, Philadelphia | National | 7 | 1 |
| 1973 | Royals Stadium, Kansas City | National | 7 | 1 |
| 1969 | RFK Memorial Stadium, Washington, D.C. | National | 9 | 3 |
| 1960 | Yankee Stadium, New York | National | 6 | 0 |
| 1944 | Forbes Field, Pittsburgh | National | 7 | 1 |
Yesterday's was one of the more higher scoring games all time but just the fourth highest this decade and the eighth highest since 1992:
| Year | Site | Winner | RF | RA | Tot |
| 1998 | Coors Field, Denver | American | 13 | 8 | 21 |
| 1954 | Municipal Stadium, Cleveland | American | 11 | 9 | 20 |
| 1992 | Jack Murphy Stadium, San Diego | American | 13 | 6 | 19 |
| 1949 | Ebbets Field, Brooklyn | American | 11 | 7 | 18 |
| 1983 | Comiskey Park, Chicago | American | 13 | 3 | 16 |
| 1934 | Polo Grounds, New York | American | 9 | 7 | 16 |
| 1994 | Three Rivers Stadium, Pittsburgh | National | 8 | 7 | 15 |
| 2002 | Miller Park, Milwaukee | Tie | 7 | 7 | 14 |
| 2004 | Minute Maid Park, Houston | American | 9 | 4 | 13 |
| 1962 | Wrigley Field, Chicago | American | 9 | 4 | 13 |
| 2003 | U.S. Cellular Field, Chicago | American | 7 | 6 | 13 |
| 1979 | Kingdome, Seattle | National | 7 | 6 | 13 |
| 1977 | Yankee Stadium, New York | National | 7 | 6 | 13 |
| 1946 | Fenway Park, Boston | American | 12 | 0 | 12 |
| 1993 | Oriole Park at Camden Yards, Baltimore | American | 9 | 3 | 12 |
| 1969 | RFK Memorial Stadium, Washington, D.C. | National | 9 | 3 | 12 |
| 2005 | Comerica Park, Detroit | American | 7 | 5 | 12 |
| 1941 | Briggs Stadium, Detroit | American | 7 | 5 | 12 |
Another oddity: the average All-Star game score is 5.68-2.84. That's exactly double.
The city that's hosted the most ASGs? Chitown, 7 times. Three times at Wrigley, three times at the old Comiskey and once at the new. However, Cleveland's Municipal Stadium hosted the most games, 4. The only current teams not to host an ASG are Florida, Tampa Bay, and Arizona. There are two cities that hosted an ASG that no longer have a team, Brooklyn and Montreal.
OK, enough of that, now let's play some games that actually count.
Batgirl captured my feelings pretty well:
http://www.bat-girl.com/archives/001022.php
I think I'll boycott Taco Bell. Who's with me?
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