MLB All-Star Game: it ain’t what it used to be

Millions of baseball fans will gather about their electronic hearths Tuesday to watch Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game live from San Diego, California.

I’ll pass.

The game–first played in 1933–has become a bore, resembling more that kickball game in your seventh grade gym class than a sporting event of any consequence whatsoever.

(Let me be clear. I love seventh grade kickball games. Just don’t try to tell me it’s something else.)

Everybody played in seventh grade. Everybody plays in the All-Star Game.

That’s great. Except, winning the All-Star Game matters.

The winning league gets home field advantage at the World Series.

Again, a great idea. But only if the teams go all out to win. They don’t.

So we’re left with an exhibition (and loosely played) game having a profound effect on what could be the most important game of the whole Major League Baseball experience–the seventh game of the World Series.

As P.T. Barnum once said….oh, never mind.

But I digress.

I am happy for the players from my Blue Jays who will be there, especially British Columbia’s Michael Saunders, whose had a tough couple of years because of injury, and pitcher Marco Estrada, a journeyman who finally found his chops last season.

I’m also happy for the other Jays–Josh Donaldson, whose heart and ability to hit in the clutch can be mesmerizing, and Edwin Encarnacion, who appears reincarnation of the former Expo Hubie Brooks, a Zen master with a baseball bat.

So go play, guys. Have a blast.

I missed Home Run Derby on Monday. I will miss the Game on Tuesday.

I have this thing about being conned.

Still…..

Looking in the mirror and seeing the face of a grinch, I decided to made contact with my friend Richard Griffin to discuss my anger.

Griffin is the Toronto Star’s baseball columnist.

Turns out, he’s is not going to the All-Star Game for the first time in 22 years.

He joined me from his Toronto home Tuesday morning.

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