Celestial Beings

From the perspective of my fourth floor sitting room where all televised things baseball pass before my eyes, there were not one but two perennial burning questions as the All-Star rosters were announced Sunday afternoon. Let's begin with the the one I ask myself each year as balloting gets underway on line and at the ballpark: does anyone give a damn about this game any longer? Number two: if MLB in its infinite wisdom were to withhold the vote from the fans and hand it to some other constituency (the players and managers?), would fan interest further decline? I say "further" because if the ratings for the mid-summer "classic" continue to slide at their current rate they soon will be somewhere in the neighborhood of those for the NCAA volleyball championships.

I know you are dying to have these questions answered, so here we go....

The greatest interest in the All Star game takes place prior to the game itself and is confined pretty much to who's in and who isn't, who was slighted and who wasn't, and who was named because the rules say every team must be represented or they had an "in" with the manager? Once the votes are tabulated and the arguments over who was and wasn't deserving have subsided, no one really watches the game for more than an inning or two...if that. Jeez, even baseball has been indifferent on occasion, subsidizing, nay ordering, a tie!!

Now, don't get me wrong, some people do like the game. Players' agents like the it because when a client is named to a squad it boosts his market value, especially in a contract year. Players who are named to the squads like the game because their bonus clauses kick in. Some players like the idea of spending time with other ballplayers whom they admire. No doubt a few actually like the competition though it can hardly be said to rival that of the first five decades of play when bragging rights meant a great deal to players and fans and the NL and AL genuinely disliked each other. We can thank Bud Selig for killing off that rivalry once and for all with the introduction of interleague play. This Bud also gave us a home run derby to expand television coverage, i.e., marketing opportunities. Every batting practice pitch seems to come with its own brand on it. The Chevy this and Bud (no relation) that. The Phils' Ryan Howard was not named to the squad this year but has been invited back to defend his title in the Derby. Here's hoping he takes his all-or-nothing swing home to St. Louis and literally gives it a rest for three days.

MLB's head honcho recognized the All Star game has seriously slipped in the hearts and minds of participants and viewers alike and instituted a winner-takes-World Series-home-field-advantage as the prize for the winning league. That's patently unfair, of course, but, then, when did "fair" ever enter into the equation. Bud just wants these guys to act like something is at stake. I'm sure the representatives from the Kansas City Royals and Pittsburgh Pirates are going to go all out even if their teams are a long way from appearing in a World Series. After all, they're professionals.

As for the balloting, let's just say I have a healthy skepticism for any process (online in this case) that encourages people to vote early and often. Just the idea that one can enter as many votes as one has the stamina to log or the skill to write a small routine that would automate the process is bad enough, but when one realizes the technology also exists to limit voting to a single ballot it makes the whole thing even more of a joke. For those cyber-challenged devotees of the game, ballot stuffing of the 20th century variety is still an option at the ballparks, where one can punch as many hanging chads as one is physically capable of doing before beginning to worry that the car or house key might bend under the strain.

I'm happy for Chase Utley, the finest second baseman in the league if not all of baseball, and Aaron Rowand, who gives his all every play and even Cole Hamels, who wants badly to succeed and until recently had done so sufficiently to impress those naming the pitchers. And I'm happy for old pro and friend Placido Polanco, who has been named to the squad (as a starter, too) for the first time in his distinguished career. But as you can imagine, I won't be watching them that night...whenever it is.