All you need to know about Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game is that its television ratings annually languish behind those of the much-abused Pro Bowl.
For all the bashing and bemoaning the NFL’s all-star exhibition evokes, it is continually higher rated and more watched than baseball’s mid-summer classic.
Which is one reason MLB could do itself and its event a favor by making sure it saves a place for rookie Yasiel Puig on July 16 at Citi Field in New York.
The Dodgers’ 22-year-old outfielder is the most exciting new face to emerge this season, a beyond rare combination of power and speed in a 6-foot, 3-inch, 245-pound package. The kind that makes him a threat to hit for the cycle with regularity.
Think of Denver linebacker Von Miller or Kansas City’s Derrick Johnson recast as a five-tool baseball player stealing bases, crashing into outfield walls and clouting home runs and you get the remarkable picture of what this Cuban defector has been bringing to the ballpark since June 3.
And that, some tell you, is the hang-up with putting him in the all-star game — Puig’s only been in the big leagues a month. Too small of a sample size, some, including relief pitcher Jonathan Papelbon, argue, on which to make a case for all-star inclusion.
But what a month it was — seven home runs, four doubles, one triple and 16 RBIs with a .436 batting average, .713 slugging percentage and on-base average of .467 plus four stolen bases. Joe Hardy-type numbers. Only Puig is real.
Nobody who has seen Puig’s considerable talents should dismiss him as a flash in the pan or a one-month wonder. Call him raw (especially on the basepaths), perhaps, but understand that as long as he avoids those outfield-wall collisions he is only going to get better.
Speaking of the right-field wall at Dodger Stadium, manager Don Mattingly put it best: “They checked the wall. It’s fine.”
In June, Puig had 44 hits, the second-best opening calendar month for a rookie since 1900. You might have heard of the only guy to have done better: Joe DiMaggio, who had 48 hits in May of 1936.
DiMaggio appeared in 57 games before his 1936 all-star debut and Puig is on course to play in 39 before the all-star break. Not that it should be held against Puig that the Dodgers waited so long after a sizzling spring training to bring him up because they had trouble imagining the leap from Class A to the bigs could look so easy at the plate.
If they didn’t believe their eyes in the spring, when he hit .526, they assuredly do now. Without him, they were 23-32. With Puig in the lineup, the Dodgers are 16-11 and moving up as contenders in the National League West.
Baseball should believe what it sees, too, and capitalize on it. It shouldn’t get too hung up on how many games Puig has played — or not played.
Here’s an opportunity to trot Puig out on the sport’s biggest stage before the playoffs and add a buzz to an event that could really use some. Only Bud Selig, among sports promoters, you fear, might question the number of games Puig has played.
On his Instagram account, Puig is campaigning for a berth in the All-Star Game with the plea “Voten por mi para el all star game” as a write-in candidate since he wasn’t on the original ballots.
But it shouldn’t have to come down to fan votes to get him to the game. In any language, that’s a call, whether it comes from MLB headquarters or NL manager Bruce Bochy, that should be obvious.
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Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.
