John Smoltz will call the MLB All-Star Game alongside Joe Davis on Fox on Tuesday night.
Ahead of the Midsummer Classic, the Hall of Fame pitcher spoke to Front Office Sports about the culture of baseball players who ultimately appear in the All-Star Game putting forth their full effort, what he thinks about teams positioning their aces to avoid the exhibition, and Davis’s rise. Smoltz also weighed in on looming labor issues and the question of whether MLB can sustain two expansion teams.
Front Office Sports: What is it about baseball, and the culture of the sport, where the players who do play in the All-Star Game really go all out physically relative to the NFL and NBA, where the Pro Bowl and All-Star Game often have so little competition they can’t even be characterized as glorified scrimmages?
John Smoltz: I agree; that’s why it’s unfair how everybody keeps calling for changes to the MLB All-Star Game. It’s the best All-Star Game. It’s absolutely played like a regular-season game. Nobody’s in there throwing 85-mile-per-hour meatballs to see if guys can hit home runs. I think that part has always been an intriguing shining star on our sport.
Now, can we spruce things up and do different things? Yeah, I don’t see why not. But I think that’s the sport that gets lopped in because other sports have had a hard time doing exactly what I just said.
