Barry Tompkins: All-Star Game had more misses than hits

So, were you glued to the television Tuesday night? Did you pick up on the things that made the participants so good at what they do? Could you just taste the things that made them all great? The pitchers and the batters combining for an end result satisfying to the most discriminate judge?

I sure was.

Of course I’m talking about the Great British Baking Show. Pitchers and batters were heavy cream and  sponge cake and the taste was sweet.  Just when you thought I meant the MLB All-Star Game.

Don’t get me wrong here. I’m not a baker, and am as incompetent at putting forth a pineapple upside down cake as I always have been at hitting any thrown ball that doesn’t approach me in a straight line. But for sheer entertainment value, give me chocolate ganache over a “who cares” baseball game anytime.

The truth is, I hate all All-Star Games. Although I grudgingly admit, as All-Star Games go, baseball’s is still the best. That, however, is like saying I like blue M&M’s the most, but I really dislike M&M’s.

To begin with, any All-Star team that is voted on by the fans is simply a popularity contest and not a real sampling of the best there is in the game. I believe players should be selected by their peers and.. maybe the coaches.

Recent history tells us that, while appreciative of the honor of being selected as an All-Star, most every player would prefer to be out on a fishing boat, on the golf course, or tossing Wiffle balls to the kids at home. All the while every manager is secretly hoping their ace pitcher doesn’t get called on to pitch. Or worse yet, pitch an inning and go on the IL as soon as he gets back home.

To me it’s like watching an inter-squad game. I feel as though every player has two thoughts: 1) Do I get a bonus for making the All-Star team? and 2) What time’s my flight home?

As of this writing, there are no numbers on how well the All-Star Game did ratings wise, but if history is to be repeated, it’s in a backward slide. Last year’s All-Star Game ratings were down for the fifth time in six years — this time to an all-time low. The 2023 game had 7 million viewers. The 1980 game had 36 million.

In recent years a rediscovering of a 60’s television show, “Home Run Derby” became to the baseball All-Star game what the Dunk Contest is to the NBA All-Star weekend. And I put both of those in pretty much the same category as the July 4th Coney Island Hot Dog Eating Contest.

If you want to see balls fly out of the ballpark after being delivered with the words “Hit Me” clearly etched on them, you don’t have to watch the Home Run Derby. Just go to batting practice of any major league team anywhere and you get a Home Run Derby and a game that actually means something right in the same place on the same day.

And here’s a burning trivia question on the subject. Who won the Home Run Derby at the MLB All-Star Game in 2024?

See? I told you it wasn’t important.

But, Hermine’s Apricot Custard Crumble Buns on the Great British Baking Show? Now there’s something memorable.

Aiyuk’s request

Wide receivers are the thoroughbreds of pro football. Style carries equal weight with substance. Form  is maybe as important as function. They’re generally the best dressers, drive the hottest cars, have beauty on their arm and not often on their hands. They are peacocks.

And it seems that this year, NFL front offices have decided that it is the peacocks who shall inherit the earth.

Wideouts and running backs in recent years made the headlines, but not the money. They play injury-prone positions and, in the cruelty that is the NFL, because of that they were often thought of as  disposable parts. Until now.

So far this year five of the 10 largest wide receiver contracts ever, have been handed out to players not named Brandon Aiyuk and he feels he, too, is worthy. And, to that end, he wants to be traded.

That will almost certainly not happen. He’s obligated to the 49ers, who need only to pay him a paltry $14 million before he’s eligible to broach anything resembling real money. Wait. Did I just say that?

My guess is that sooner rather than later, Aiyuk and the 49ers will agree on a new deal that will make both parties happy. It’s a wild guess on my part, but I think the team would sooner part with Deebo Samuel next year than it would Aiyuk this year. The NFL lifespan of a wide receiver who takes and seeks to deliver as much punishment as Samuel is shorter lived than one who catches, runs, and blocks but doesn’t look to destroy people in the process.

So my feeling is, Aiyuk, should he not be able to strike a deal, will just have to try and eke by on a paltry $14 million a year.

Tough I know. But I think he can do it.

Barry Tompkins is a 40-year network television sportscaster and a San Francisco native.  Email him at barrytompkins1@gmail.com.