The biggest news of all coming out the 2012 MLB All-Star Game festivities over the course of several days in Kansas City might just be the booing of Robinson Cano during his time here, specifically at the Home Run Derby. After Cano said he would add a hometown guy like Billy Butler to the Derby, Cano apparently went back on his word and had Prince Fielder, Mark Trumbo and Jose Bautista chosen as the players around him.
No one can argue with those names and the performances on that night speak for itself. But somehow Kansas Citians took it upon themselves to boo the Yankees second baseman to deafening levels. Apparently it was embarrassing enough for baseball that Bud Selig is open to changing the rules about the event.
"We'll talk about this [potential rule change]," Selig said during his annual session with the Baseball Writers Association of America. "While I understand [the feelings of fans in] Kansas City ... I felt very badly last night. I felt badly last year for Prince. This was tough."
"If we move to something where there's a spot reserved for one of the home-team participants, that would probably generate a lot of excitement in the ballpark," MLB Players Association executive director Michael Weiner said. "But I don't know how the ESPN producers would have felt if Mark Trumbo or Jose Bautista or Prince Fielder were left out of the event instead of Billy Butler.
"So on the one hand, if the union and the commissioner's office want to continue the captains format, the last thing we want to do is say to a player who volunteers to participate in an event and volunteers to be a face of the event [that] he is setting himself up to be booed. We don't want that. ... It sort of defeats the purpose of having players select their peers to be on their team if you have these kinds of restrictions. So I don't know which way it goes. But there will be continued discussions. And I don't know what kind of aftereffect it will have."
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