1-on-1 with DP – 93.7 The Ticket KNTK - The Evolution of the All-Star Game Format: July 7th, 11:00am

Episode Date: July 7, 2025

The Evolution of the All-Star Game FormatAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

It's time to go one-on-one with D.P. Coming at you live from the heart of Lincoln America, a 93-7-a-ticket and the ticketfm.com. Here is your host, Derek Pearson, brought to by Canopy Street Market. Boom. In your... In your face! On a Monday, you never...

What you're going to get, DP Bot. of you. All of you. You can be a part of the show, and we're asking you to. We're inviting you to. 402-464-5-6-8-5 is the Sartner-Haman text line. You want to be a part of what we're doing? You can.

Hit us with a what's up. Greatly appreciate it. And we will include you in the show. Greatly appreciate it. You can follow on all of the live video streams, Facebook, YouTube X, L-O channel, 961. If you have not downloaded the ticket app, do so. Good for you. good for your soul.

Take us wherever you go. That way, it doesn't matter. Doesn't matter. The device, doesn't matter. Time, place. Otherwise, means we're with you. We can hang out and you can be a part of what we're doing. Greatly appreciate that.

Take your time. Amazon Prime, if you like. Take a app every other way. Saucy. Sossy is what I say. Happy Monday to you all. Hopefully you made it through the weekend well. you you had some good times, good food, good family, etc.

Over the course of this thing, let's talk about over the course of this thing. I was playing with the idea of having conversations about one, All-Star, like it's baseball all-star time. And I don't know why it's so difficult for us to get the All-Star games right when it comes to pro sports. I don't know what the problem is. I just know that it leaves me wanting.

There's something about pro-ball, Major League Baseball All-Star game, NHL All-Stars, NBA All-Stars, even like women's pro volleyball all-stars. I'm just, I'm not sure why this is so difficult. And I know that money changes, as Cindy Lauper says, money changes everything. And often,

not for the better, for the fan. That if money is at the top of the priority list, when it comes to a thing in sports, that if money sits at the top as the priority, it's not going to be a good result for the fans. Why do we not know that? It exists in sports on the college level,

on the high school level, on the Little League level, on the travel ball level, AAU. we, but we simply, are we, let me ask you, are we greedier than we are logical? Yeah, probably. I mean, I think it's probably come to that.

And that's, again, when you talk about the problems here, I mean, that's the primary problem. The business, you know, back in the day, the All-Star game was such a great idea, a collection of talents, the league's best, everybody gets to see. But the business of each one of these brands or sports leagues has grown so much that now these contracts are gigantic,

if you just don't want to risk injury. And so, you know, like you said, you kind of going through different All-Star games. It's fascinating. I think Major League Baseball is still the closest to something. But even at that time, it just kind of turns into the like, let's play everybody. Everybody gets in.

And so it's just a weird dynamic that's hard. But at least, I mean, at least it's not the Pro Bowl, which they've had to turn into games, the All-Star game, which they just don't play any defense. whatsoever in the NBA, at least Major League Baseball is hanging on to something. Yeah, I don't because, okay, so in baseball is a sport where they will tell you that it's hard, it's hard to fake baseball. But then football will also tell you, it's really hard to fake playing NFL caliber

football. Like, it's really difficult. It's hitting, tackling, block. Like, it's a thing, right? There's some aggression built into it. same for NHL, that if you're going to send people into the boards to get a puck out, and if you made the All-Star team because you're a defender or that you're an aggressor, you're not, I mean, ask Sean Taylor, not the late great John Taylor, sorry,

but Chantella will tell you who I am to get here is who I will be when I get there. Like I made the Pro Bowl to punish people. So if I get into the Pro Bowl and you, as a punter, you disre, respect me, the toll is coming. You're going to pay. And I don't know what the answer to me is. And I think there's a moment in the All-Star game that changes everything. So think of Pete Rose in an All-Star game and Ray Fossey, catcher for the Cleveland Indians. And in a competitive All-Star game, tie score, base hit to the outfield, play at the plate. Pete Rose barrels over Ray Fossie at home plate.

And I mean full shoulder, shoulder to the core. And if I'm not mistaken, he broke Ray Fossie's collarbone. Like Fossi missed, and this again, he's having an all-star year. he's the number two catcher in the entire league next to Johnny Bench. But he's out now because of an All-Star game. And immediately people start doing business. Well, this All-Star game wasn't as a... And the All-Star game meant more then because it was the only time you got to see

National League Talent versus American League talent. This is before the blend, right? This is before the blend. where you're playing each other, you're crossing over and playing each other. It was the one opportunity you got to see Viter Blue versus Willie Mays. Now, ultimately, the league changed and Viter Blue ended up over there anyway. But Catfish Hunter, you didn't get to see Jim Palmer unless it was the World Series. But the Pete Rose bowling over of Ray Fossie, and mind you, Fossy was never the same again.

Ray Fawsey was never the same after he got he got knocked out of that game. People started doing business. The same things have been said about the NFL, same things were said about the NBA. I don't know as a fan whether I'm wrong in wanting to see the best talent versus the best talent,

even in exhibition form. Another case and point. The NFL used to have an All-Star game, that the world champions would face the college all-stars in a game or two. And it got feisty. It got saucy. Because if you were the Green Bay Packers, you weren't going to allow some college seniors to beat you. But they competed.

And there were games where this thing matters. Now, the business took over and then the weather took over because they were having these games. And you could go back and do this again because now you have dome stadiums. You just have the game in dome stadiums. But they kept, again, greed. The greedy people who own the rights to the game or at least thought they had the rights to the game demanded they play the games in certain stadiums. And it always reigned. It would rain.

And they had this terrible storm that they made. made that I want to say this was the Pittsburgh Steelers that they had to sit through hours of delay. But just imagine Chuck Knoll who didn't like this stuff anyway, right? Imagine that you had Vince Lombardi, Chuck Noel, Tom Landry having their teams, Don Shula, having their teams on standby to play in an exhibition game. against college players. Now, these are college all-stars, right?

And Jay and I have talked about it. His dad played in one of these games, and it was a pretty big deal. But I remember Walter Payton playing in this game and just going, oh, this is the future of the game. Like, this is... And somehow they... Bach, would you...

Okay, let's just say for the sake of discussion, that last year's seniors, college seniors, put together an All-Star team to face the Philadelphia Eagles. Would you watch it? Would you be interested? Oh, absolutely. I mean, the NFL draft since then has exploded. So absolutely for draft purposes, I'd be really interested. Now, I might change the format a little bit instead of the world champions to go down to the Carolina Panthers or somebody

down the line that doesn't have the one in a while. It doesn't be more interesting. But the league's never going to allow the last place team to play. Because if they beat them, what are you even doing? Right? Think about that. Can you imagine that now, mind you, there's a whole lot of really good fun in that when that is like, oh, we're going to play for you. Like, and you're playing against the guy who you might be competing for his job in a

couple of weeks, right? Yeah. Imagine that the number one quarterback is playing against a guy that isn't playing well. Oh, man. The drama. The drama. So there might be, there might be some space. There might be some space in this, right?

Who was the worst team last year? Who was the worst NFL team last year? Trying to think, because did they trade the first pick? Right. Or did they land on it? Who was the worst team? Google for me, the worst team. Because it would be funny if you, if,

I don't know who the worst team. I don't know. line let us know who was the worst team last year. Who had the number one pick, I guess is the question than if they had traded it. Yeah, because there was three teams, the three wins. So who were those teams?

So the Cleveland Browns, the Tennessee Titans, who did have the number one pick and the Giants. My apologies to the Carolina Panthers for throwing them in there. No, they deserve to be. They won five. They deserved to be. Listen, there were a whole lot of things that they could have put Okay, so the official title of this thing was the Chicago Charities College All-Star Game.

And they played this game in Soldier Field, right? Right, right. And every transition of it, right, and every version of Soldier Field that existed. And this happened all the way through, this happened in this version from 74 to 76. But there were games that existed before that. And then the last one was played then. So then, so Cleveland,

given to me again. Cleveland, Tennessee, and, who's the other team? The Giants. Oh, wow. Okay. So for grins and giggles,

I wanted to be the Giants. I want the media capital. Like, I want the media capital. to have to, and I want Giants fans, quite frankly, let's be honest. I want Giants fans to have to swallow their pride, right? Because you make, you would make them host the game.

Mm. Right? Revenue, money, money. That's one way. That's wrong. Or you can say at the college football, the Football Hall of Fame stadium. Right? that the Giants and then the college all-star.

So go and find last year's college All-Americans. And they did, you know what they don't do anymore? They used to do awards based on senior players, where there were like senior All-Americans. I don't know that they do that anymore, that they separate it, but it would be amazing to know who the seniors were on that, on the All-American team.

And then it's very presumptive of us, but I think that college seniors would play in a charity football game. You would have to pay them. You would have to pay them. And then you'd have to make it worth enough that they're willing to play. Whatever that number. Because most people who are college all-Americans, think of themselves as a high value player in the NFL draft.

So if you're going to walk into a $7 million a year contract, you're not going to play in a $100,000 charity football game. Yeah. Right? So you need to find, you need to find players who need the exposure. You could still call them All-Stars, but it wouldn't really be All-Stars. not that I think of that.

Maybe three rounds of the draft right. Right. So who were, what was the All-Star? What was the All-American team? So Cam Ward was quarterback. Okay.

So Cam Ward probably wouldn't play. Dylan Gabriel was second team. You might be able to get Dylan, right? You might be able to get Dylan. Running back Ashton Genty. Who I think

you would have gotten. Right? Because he didn't know. He didn't know what he didn't know. Okay. Dylan Samson was the bag of, so he might have to go there. But yeah,

he's a top 10 pick. But maybe he'd want to prove it. Cam Scataboo, the other running back. My thought would be that Scataboo might have played. Yeah. And Caleb Johnson was second team.

Of course, they'd be four running back total. so Caleb Johnson, you probably get to play. Right, right. Oh, man. Wide receiver was Jeremiah Smith and Nick Nash from San Jose State. Oh, absolutely. Yeah.

Like, there's some players that you could get. And here's my thing. So let's speak about it from the Nebraska standpoint. That it would have made sense for several of past Nebraska Husker seniors to play in this. this type of game, right? Oh, yeah. To raise stock, to get risk versus reward, right? Ty Robinson this past year probably be interested.

Right, at least to consider it, right? Because, and there's a line between the way rookie salaries are slotted in year one, that you, if you're projected to be a third round, you kind of know what those contracts are going to look like versus fifth rat. And the difference that if you are projected, as a fourth or fifth rounder, it makes sense for you to play in this All-Star game, right? And then the other side is trying to get the New York Football Giants

to get its players to play in this game. Now, you have the practice squad guys, right, who would probably play, right? Your practice squad guys are looking to get resume. Yeah. And then your second team. but as a fan, would you go and watch the Arizona Cardinals second team and practice squad against college all-star players? I would.

Again, I think it kind of depends on who you're able to draw. This is almost, you know, it's hard to. Well, you as a Cardinals fan. Yeah. Well, I mean, as far as the talent, right, because if you do the college all-stars and you throw away, you know, we're kind of playing in fairy tale. because it would be a tough thing to put together and get the top names to come in. But if you had the all-stars, like the legitimate All-Americans, you know, the outgoing ones, you'd have, you know, like Jeremiah Smith wouldn't be involved in this.

But then, yes, because again, you're so interested in the NFL draft, the top end of that, and you want to see if your team can compete against that sort of thing, because in that case, there would be what? You know, and I don't know how many guys would sit out for this reason or that reason, but you'd be talking about a team of the college allsters that's comprised of a lot of first-round draft picks because they would, you know, they would be there. So it kind of depends on how we put this out there.

But just at least for the first version of it, I think almost anybody would be interested just to see what exactly it would look like. So this is funny. So my friends are, again, we have friends all over the country who listen. And he texted and he goes, hey, by the way, the last one that was played with Steelers, included Terry Bradshaw.

And Terry Bradshaw, and this is young Terry Bradshaw, but this is established because they won in what? They won the titles in what, 74, 75? 75, 74, 75, 78, 79? I think those are the four. Somewhere along those lines, right? Yeah. Because 72 was Dolphins.

73 might have been Steelers, right? But he texted and he goes, Terry Bradshaw versus the college all-stars. He played for three quarters against the college all-stars and was 11 for 26 for 174. He was 11 of 26 for three-quarters against the college also. As a matter of fact, Joe Gillum, Jefferson Steve Joe Gillum, who ended up beating out Bradshaw that summer for the starting job, had to come in and bail out the Steelers. Otherwise, they would have lost to the college All-Stars. Right?

And it's just, you just, so you, there was, there was some real thing in the last game, right? The final game played, the Steelers won at 24-0, but again, it was played in Soldier Field, and it rang. So people were not. In 1975, they talked about, uh, man. They had some real problems back then. I just think that if you said you have the futures game, right? You have the futures game in baseball. And you now have a futures game in basketball.

But if you said you were going to bring or allow college seniors to play against, or let's shake it up, G League All-Star. have the G League All-Stars play against All-Stars, NBA All-Stars. Like, it would be a great measuring stick, right? Yeah. To show, hey, here's the difference between being a development All-Star and an All-Star. If you did that and said, Major League Baseball has done a pretty good job of having the minors, right? Futures game is AAA All-Stars playing against.

Yeah, I think they played AAA and AA. I think that's how they mix it up. So there are ways to make it interesting. I just know that as it currently stands, it doesn't work. I was looking at the All-Star list last night. Bach, I'm officially the old guy in the room, and I didn't know 40% of it.

the players playing. And I don't mean vaguely familiar. How many, text line, please tell me. How many of, what percentage

of the Major League All-Stars announced do you know? What percentage, Bach, what percentage of Major League Baseball All-Stars do you know? Oh, boy.

You're exposed to me, too. I'm, I'm not. No, I'm going to see both. I'm in the same boat. I don't, you know, in baseball, somewhat of a regional sport, at least your team, right? So I kind of recognize some of the Royals and Red Sox, but outside of that, you know, there's, there's a few big names.

There's some names that other people that are fans like the Cubs will talk to me about. And that's why I recognize. Right. But for the most part, yeah, I mean, and there's a lot of new all stars. Last year there was like 24. I think this year was like 19. So there's a lot of new all stars too. And so it's, it's definitely not.

Yeah, it's definitely not my heyday. of recognizing the players. Ages, ages undefeated. Like, ages undefeated, but it's, I mean, unless you're, you're Nick Sainter, Austin, Orman, where you're paying attention at such a high frequency, my thing is, I'm not that dude anymore. Like, I'm not that dude.

That's why you hired Nick Sainter. Like, go, go and be Rain Man when it comes to identifying today's players. But the number of players that if they walked into the studio right now, Okay, Bach, tell me if, so you would recognize Otani. Yeah. Out of uniform. Out of uniform. Show Hey, Otte.

Yeah. Cause Warbur. Yeah. Freddie Freeman. Might not. Pete Alonzo. Maybe. Right?

Matt, like he'd have to have. But at least these are, like even if he had the hat on, like even if they have the team a hat on, I'm not sure. Yeah. Right. So I'll say with the hat or with that. Right. it fair. Marte from the

Debacks, zero chance. No. Even with a hat on, I wouldn't know. Brendan Donovan Cardinals. No. Linderor with the hat, yes, probably without the hat as well. Gila Cruz Reds with the hat, yes, without the hat,

no. Bach, Mani Machado, no hat. I should. Probably not. Suarez, Dbacks. Like, I won't recognize any of the Diamondbacks. Like, is that a fair statement? That's probably fair.

There's some teams, yeah. Right, there's certain teams that you just, Hunter Goodman from the Rockies, no, Wilson, Smith, from the Dodgers, not even with a hat. Not even with a hat. Crow Armstrong from the Cubs. Nick Sanders is the only one that would recognize. Easily.

Acuna Jr. Bach, would you, no hat? Probably because of the, no, bearer. Yeah, possibly. Right, definitely with the hat, but probably Kyle Tucker, Cubs. Hat or no hat? No. With the hat?

No. He can walk by me at Wrigley Field. Right. This is the humbling, right? That I know. Fernando Tatis, yes. Yes. Yeah.

He's got enough swagger that I would know. James Wood for the Nats. with the hat, yes, because he's six foot seven. With the hat, he actually, on one of my trips to D.C., he and C.J. Abrams actually walked into the sports bar I was in, and they were out of uniform, and I went, oh, there's CJ and James Wood. They did recognize it. I did recognize them, but D.C. required.

Jason and Adam from the Padres, no. Pitchers have lost the identity. Because I wouldn't know. Would you know Evan Diaz? No. McKinsey Gordon, absolutely not. Kirshall, yes. Yeah. Thanks for adding Kersh out of the case.

Right, right. Paralta, no, Robbie Ray, no, Randy Rodriguez, no. Chris Sale, no. No. Love the guy. No. Paul Skeen. No.

You don't think so? With no hat. He just walked in. He just walked in. He was sitting at the table. He was sitting on the couch right here, and he was having a coffee at the mill. Would you recognize schemes?

If he's got his girlfriend by him. You are absolutely correct. You are absolutely correct, that is what's required. I just want to point this out. This is just the National League. We'll get to the American League because I need to know. And Texan line, let me know

what percentage of Major League All-Sars, the current list of players, what percentage would you recognize without them wearing the hat, or even with the hat, because I think even with the hat, it's a tough sell. So we'll get back into the list

when we go back.