A Tribute to Our Annual Mid-Summer "Representatives"

I will never forget the day, June 12, 1994. I was warming up on the baseball field at McDonald Park. 8 years old and destined to become a professional baseball player. I mad at my father; 1. For not getting me tickets to the All-Star game in Pittsburgh which was that night and 2. For even having the audacity to call a practice on the day of the All-Star game. I was like any other normal 8 year old; I could name the starting lineup for every team in the league, the starting rotation for every team in the league, every manager, every mascot, and used to keep a scorebook and calculate batting averages for players when I played backyard baseball with my brother. Normal – anything but. But I didn’t have tickets to the one game that I would never have a chance to see again.

After the beginning of a routine infield drill, I can vaguely remember my mother’s car pulling into the parking lot. This was odd for several reasons. First, she never came to practices. She was the mom who would support at games, but practices were out of the question. Second, it was about 6:10 and she usually didn’t get home from work until about 7. She walked over to the field and after a brief conference with my dad; he called me towards home plate. My mom pulled an envelope out of her purse which contained two tickets to the game! Now this may not seem like a big deal to a lot of people for whatever reason, but this is one of the most memorable and exciting moments of my life.

After hurrying off the baseball diamond, and hopping into my dad’s truck, we drove us straight to Three Rivers Stadium. That night I got to witness all of my childhood icons, most of which I had on my team in the backyard; including Frank Thomas, Cal Ripken Jr., “The Crime Dog” Fred McGriff, and everyone’s favorite Ken Griffey Jr.

I had absolutely no idea what was about to happen next…Or should I say for the next 17 years. The elation that I felt when I opened those tickets has changed dramatically over the years. The Major League Baseball All-Star Game has turned into me sitting around, on a muggy night in July, watching a game full of players that the Pirates at one time passed on in the June amateur draft or players that we didn’t want to spend the money on in free agency.

If you can’t remember the Pirates only All-Star in 1994 was Carlos Garcia. If you don’t already know, Major League Baseball has a rule that requires every team in the league to send at least one “representative” to the mid-summer classic. Over the course of the next 16 years, including 2010, the Pittsburgh Pirates have sent the “mandatory” one “representative” 13 times!

This means that our organization has sent “two or more” All-Stars to the game just three times in 16 years. (The two or more is sarcasm as we have not sent more than two All-Stars since 1990.) One of the three times was last year when Zack Duke replaced Matt Cain because Cain was injured. Freddy Sanchez was our second representative in 2009 and he did not even play. So if Freddy Sanchez wasn’t even good enough to play last year, how often in these 20 years have we had a player good enough to start?

The answer: 2. And both of these occurrences come with their own asterisks. Remember in 2000 when Roger Clemens beaned Mike Piazza in the head? I do. So does Jason Kendall. He got to start in place of Piazza in the All-Star game. Remember 2006 when Jason Bay got to start in the All-Star game? I do. The game was held at PNC Park and Pirate fans did all they could to stuff the ballot boxes in order to get Bay onto the field for the opening pitch.

Let me use a numbers approach to put the Pirates “representatives” into perspective. (I am only going to use the last 10 years because it was just too painful to go back any further.) Since 2001, the Yankees have sent 45 players to the mid-summer classic; the Red Sox – 44. As for a National League comparison; the Cardinals - 32, the Braves - 27, and the Phillies a lowly 26. Since 2001, the Pirates have sent 12. In that span the Yankees have had 21 All-Star Game STARTERS; the Red Sox – 19, the Cardinals – 15, the Phillies – 9, and the Braves - only 6. The Pirates had 1. (See ballot box stuffing incident of 2006).

I don’t necessarily mean to cast the “representative” tag in a negative light. Since our last winning season in 1992, the Pirates have had many legitimate All-Star “representatives”, including 2006 National League batting champion Freddy Sanchez. Others include Jason Kendall, Brian Giles, and Jason Bay. But boy are there some funny ones. In 1997, Tony Womack was our “representative” with a .274 batting average and 109 strikeouts. He did swipe 60 bags, but that wasn’t even a career best. My favorite Pirate All-Star has to be the 1999 “representative” Ed Sprague. Sprague had a career year in 1999 posting a .267 average, 22 homers, and 81 RBI. All-Star numbers? – absolutely not. Finally, there is Mike Williams. Williams made the All-Star team in 2002 and 2003. Williams’ career ERA is 4.45 and he remains the only pitcher to play in an All-Star game while having an ERA of over 6.00 during the same regular season. (As a side note on Williams – The Pirates traded him away in 2001, reacquired him, and traded him away again in 2003. Both times for one single prospect who never made it to Triple A.)

I always think it is funny that our only “representative” those two years was a relief pitcher. Don’t get me wrong. Sending a relief pitcher to the All-Star Game would be fine if it was, say, Mariano Rivera. Well, history sure does find a way of repeating itself. It is 2010 and Evan Meek is the Pirates lone representative for tonight’s game. Evan Meek is not and will never be Mariano Rivera. Meek was a Rule 5 draft pick of the Pirates in 2008. (Rule 5 pick - means that a player spent either four or five years in another team’s minor league system, was not good enough to be in the big leagues, and other teams are now allowed acquire the player’s rights as long as he spends all of the next season on that team’s big league roster.)

Evan Meek has been projected as the Pirates closer of the future as we assemble a young core for our push “in 2 years”. For the 8 year old future major leaguer still in me, I hope more than anything that Evan Meek turns out like fellow Rule 5 Draft pick and 4x All-Star, Johan Santana. Or better yet, I hope he turns out to be a 15x All-Star like a former Pittsburgh Pirates Rule 5 Draft pick; Roberto Clemente. Here’s to hoping we don’t trade him for a prospect that never reaches Triple A – twice.