All-Star Selections

I know that a lot of people don’t pay attention to the All-Star selections anymore. Just because of how subjective it is and that ultimately a few guys get left off every year that should have been included. I get that, but there is the kid part of me that gets excited every year.

I do think the all-star game has lessened in … I guess the word is anticipation, in the last few years. I think some of that has come due to the fact that there is inter league play. We get to see Albert Pujols face off against Justin Verlander, you get to see Felix Hernandez versus Justin Upton, Josh Johnson face off against Evan Longoria. Now those once a year or even once in a life time match-ups occur every few years.

It deadens the excitement to a degree. But again, that 11-year-old baseball nut inside of me can’t wait for a Mariano Rivera vs. Hunter Pence or Jose Reyes match up (two of the best hitters in the national league against cutters).

I don’t care about the who gets home field advantage in the World Series because, lets face it home field advantage means less in baseball than in any other sport, but I will always care about the match-ups. Seeing multiple hall-of-famers on the same field at the same time gives me goose bumps.

Remembering that Ken Griffey jr. hit a long home run off Greg Maddux in 1992 or the epic match up where Curt Schilling stuck out Alex Rodriguez and Ken Griffey Jr. back-to-back with a runner (Brady Anderson) in scoring position.  Then of course there is the Randy Johnson strike out against John Kruk and the Ichiro Suzuki inside the park home run in San Fransisco or the epic Randy Johnson versus Ichiro match up in 2001.

The point is there are tons of different memories and while the game and the players specifically aren’t important there are plenty of moments that will last for a life time.

There is no point in making a big deal for one play or another that should have been chosen. We had our chance as fans to make our voice heard. Now it’s over and time to at least enjoy the game.

Congrats to Brandon League and Felix Hernandez. It’s going to be fun to see what they can do as well as what happens in the game.