Jul 15, 2025; Cumberland, Georgia, USA; National League designated hitter Kyle Schwarber (12) of the Philadelphia Phillies hits a home run in the swing off of after the 2025 MLB All Star Game ended in a tie at Truist Park. Mandatory Credit: Jordan Godfree-Imagn Images
Twenty-seven years ago, when I first broke into this business, I promised myself I would never be a grumpy old sports writer.
With each passing day, I'm realizing that I'm breaking my promise.
But I can't help it. I don't understand what gets people riled up in sports conversations these days. It doesn't make sense to me why certain things matter so much to fans today that were never even part of the conversation when I was growing up as a fan first and then as a reporter later.
It boggles the mind how much people care about the clothes the athletes wear when they walk into the stadium or the arena. It's befuddling how much conversation there is by the younger members of the press corps - who, in fact are representative of the next generation of fans - about the music that is played when batters come up to the plate, or what the game presentation people play during timeouts or between innings.
You know what people of my generation cared about? Wins and losses, and how they happened.
It's not that the concept of game outcomes is lost today, it's not. The problem is, rather than have good, contextual discourse about a game, we live in a world where everyone overreacts to everything, and there is no changing extreme opinions.
In Philadelphia, where we were once a city of diehard sports fans who lived and died through every moment of a season, we are now a city that just wants to dismiss any notion of team or individual success unless a championship trophy is attached to it, and we have become insufferable once we have that championship and perceive anything that doesn't result in the highest of praise as an intentional slight to our great name.
The latest example of this ridiculousness, is the ESPN ranking of the Top 10 quarterbacks in the NFL in which Jalen Hurts came in at No. 9.
By the reaction in this city, you'd have thought the the 70 executives, coaches and scouts polled for this ranking conspired to collectively board a chartered jet, arrive in the Philadelphia region under the cover of night, sneak into each and every fan's home, and kick their pets. ... twice.
My reaction? Who the hell cares?
And don't come at me with the "disrespect" nonsense. I'd be honored if I was told I was the ninth best person in the world at what I do. Jalen should view it that way too.
Jalen Hurts ranked the 9th best QB is DISRESPECTFUL 🦅😡
(h/t @firsttake) pic.twitter.com/GR47WlodyH
And yeah, I understand that people in our industry feel the need to create content during the slower, summer months - so we exacerbate things like this, but to what end?
Does it matter if Hurts is ranked 6th, 8th? 12th? or 15th? It doesn't. He won a Super Bowl. He was Super Bowl MVP. Sure, if you look back at the 2024 season, he wasn't the straw that stirred the drink for the Eagles. That was easily Saquon Barkley, the offensive line and an incredible defense. But, Hurts did his part, too - and that's all that matters.
Which brings us to another point of contention - why is everything dictated by the quarterback in a sport that requires 22 players on the field at once? I'm not trying to say it's not an important position, because it is, but tell me one quarterback who all by his lonesome won a championship for his team.
Go ahead, I'll wait.
You won't come up with one because every Super Bowl-winning quarterback has had help. Football is not an individual sport. It's a cohesive team game. In fact, there's less individualism in football than maybe any team sport except hockey.
So the whole "most important position in sports" thing is baloney. Yeah, you can't win a championship with a bad quarterback - just like you can't win a championship in hockey with a bad goalie, or you can't win a championship in basketball with a bad point guard, or you can't win a championship in baseball with bad starting pitching - but none of these people have to be the best in their craft to get that ultimate success.
At the quarterback position, ask yourself where Jim McMahon, Trent Dilfer, Mark Rypien, Jeff Hostetler, Nick Foles, Joe Flacco, Brad Johnson, Doug Williams and Jim Plunkett rank on you all-time quarterbacks list?
They all won Super Bowls. Plunkett won two. It's a team sport for a reason. Getting angry over rankings in a poll of people - even if they are people intimately involved with decision-making in the sport, is time wasted.
Jalen Hurts is good enough to win a championship. End of story. Where he ranks amongst his peers at his position is irrelevant.
I was with a group of 25 baseball fans this morning. They were all talking about how awesome it was that Kyle Schwarber basically won the All-Star Game in the first swing off in the Midseason Classic's history.
I'm sure that MLB would love to know that this gimmick was so well-received by a cohort of fans.
Never mind that they are all rising seventh graders.
As for the adults I spoke with today, they were as annoyed as I was that the All-Star game has devolved into this.
It's more of the same. The game doesn't matter like it used to, so we are forced to resort to made up new conventions to try and get people pumped up for the outcome of an exhibition contest.
So, they had a home run derby to decide the game.
Wait, didn't we just have one of those the night before?
And some people think this should be employed to actually decide games.
How long before there’s a petition to replace extra innings after the 10th with a swing off in regular season games?
every game in the regular season that is tied after 9 innings should be determined by a swing off
I'm sold:
Swing Offs for all non-playoff extra innings from now on in MLB.
Seriously? Hitting batting practice off a coach to decide games that matter? Even the NHL's shootout isn't this awful a concept.
It's nonsensical. And it was taking place at 11:30 at night on the East Coast. Of those rising seventh graders, three stayed up to watch it. The other 22 found out what happened this morning.
Way to attract new fans to the game, MLB. Baseball will never get that right, unfortunately.
However, unlike my colleague Tim Kelly, who called for the All-Star Game to once again have consequences - like deciding home field in the World Series again - which honestly, is even dumber than the "Swing Off" we saw Tuesday - I advocate for one of two things - one that won't happen but could be good. The other that just should happen and be done with it.
First idea - Make the All-Star Game a battle between young stars and old stars. This would also eliminate the nonsense that happened with MLB naming Brewers pitcher Jacob Misiorowski to an All-Star team after pitching just five games while far more deserving players weren't named, and a bunch of grumpy, veteran Phillies players, who may or may not have inspired the idea of this opinion column today, grumbled about it.
Think about it, the All-Star game being between two leagues has jumped the shark. American and National League teams play each other constantly in season. The concept of them playing each other in the All-Star game has lost its shine.
But wouldn't it be better if there were a team of Under-25s and a team of Over-25s going at it it in the game? Imagine that excitement. You can get the stars of the game all together pulling on one rope against the kids trying to take their mantle.
Put a big prize pot up for grabs - like $500K per player, or something - and watch them compete like the dickens. And play a real game. None of this "everyone needs to play" nonsense. Play the game. I get you have to manage pitchers a little differently, fine. So allow for there to be extra arms - guys who can only pitch if it reaches extras. An All-Star taxi squad, if you will.
That'd be fun - and real baseball. Not the silliness we saw Tuesday.
Second idea - just get rid of the All-Star game and give the players a well-deserved, full week off. Baseball is a grind, man. Fans will survive. Just let them refresh, recharge, go on vacation, and then come back ready to perform.
In the interim, have like a one week, baseball masters tournament. Retired players representing each team playing against each other for an in-season championship. Imagine the interest in that. Our old men are still better athletes than your old men. Isn't WIP making an entire summer's worth of content out of something similar and drawing fans out to watch Joe and Jack try to one up each other in "athletic" competiton?
Hell, if you made it slow-pitch softball, fans would buy in. Old-timers games used to be the coolest thing ever for fans. This is a chance to see them play for their city one more time.
Anything is better than a freaking "Swing Off " and giving the MVP to a guy who didn't have a hit in the game - no offense Kyle.
If you haven't read the excellent ESPN story about Joel Embiid that came out on Wednesday, you should. Dotun Akintoye did a marvelous job getting to know Embiid on a different level than anyone else has, and told a story of a melancholy superstar.
If you read that story and don't have a new appreciation for Embiid - even during the parts of the story where his warts are exposed - than you are just unwilling to accept that athletes - no matter how popular - are no different than us.
Being a superstar is hard. It makes you a recluse. It makes you trust no one.
But it also shows how sometimes people of his status can't see the forest for the trees. Embiid has his faults, and they are clearly outlined. He deserves criticism for the way things have played out in Philadelphia, but he also deserves grace.
Because sometimes, the things you want to criticize him for are either not accurate or not his fault.
The Sixers organization looks far worse than Embiid in this maddening story. They have been a clown show of organizational mayhem for years with many different people putting on the red nose and the wig.
This entire article shows that the Sixers organization has failed Joel Embiid in more ways than just putting the wrong team around him.
The number one priority with your superstar player should always be their health, and it seems like the Sixers have totally mishandled that. https://t.co/MiExSqAlpB
It's a story that leaves you with so many conflicting emotions about the Sixers. Part of you wants to root for a reclamation story much like last year's Eagles. Another part of you wants to just excise the whole damn situation for good.
And deciding which side to land on is exactly the kind of debate that should be happening in sports. Not whether a player has a good "fit" or their walk-up song is a "banger." Or being so out of touch with competition that you think games should be decided by batting practice.
Prioritize, people.
