No Stars

What a joke!

The All-Star game used to be fun until baseball's lords on high started messing with it forty-one years ago when they decided to have two games in 1960. That was the beginning of the end.

Skip ahead to today. Whereas the biggest news used to be who got snubbed and who got in but didn't deserve to, the current climate is all about defending or decrying decisions by those actually chosen and whether they decide to play or not to play. Oops, let's make that "show or not show". Derek Jeter, undeserving this year but a great player over his career, was chosen for this year's game but declined to play. Yesterday, he even declined to show up. Now everyone who thinks he could hit a fastball has jumped in with an opinion. I neither condone nor condemn Jeeter. Why single him out?

Trust me, no one gives a damn whether he or anyone else plays or not other than the network broadcasting the whole sorry mess and ESPN, which usually fawns over the home run derby contest the night before like it meant something to anyone other than Budweiser or Geico.

Here's all you need to know about baseball's All Star game: fans are invited to vote online early and often. That's right. You can vote up to something like 28 times. MLB even makes it easy by remembering your selection(s) so you don't have to re-enter anything other than the security code each vote.

The All Star game is beyond fixing. It should be taken out and shot.