They still schedule All Star Games in Major league Baseball but they don’t have them. Not really. They have talk shows featuring somewhat live entertainment, this day including Patti La Belle and lots and lots of people in military outfits or 21st century versions of what the colonial signers of the Declaration of Indepenence might have looked like. It was in Philadelphia, see.

Lots of people starred in the talk show format. Players got to sign their names with a feather pen like they were declaring independence. Dylan cease got to converse on the air with Joe Davis, the best that Fox could come up with, while pitching the first inning. Apparently, the “heaters” were being thrown in order to “get ahead”. John Smoltz probably could have handled that but talk shows are for talking. Cease got credit for the win for his inning partly because Christopher Sanchez of the host city’s team gave up three runs before getting three outs. I don’t know whether or not Sanchez got to talk with Joe Davis because I muted the sound when Joe started chatting with Cease while i wondered how Bob Gibson or Steve Carlton would have responded to his lollipop inquiries.

Oh, by the way, the American League won, 4-0. The National league tallied three hits for the game. When the two leagues were separate they usually had better All Star Games because some people were trying to win and not just talk and pretend. I’ve had a lifelong love of baseball, as in the game. I have no memory of being attracted to it because of what I ever heard anyone saying.

Now that the All Star Game has been played, many sports writers and speculating fans will turn their inattention to the almighty trade deadline. The general consensus is that there are buyers and sellers. Those baseball executives that opt to “stand pat” or not “buy” or “sell” are dismissed as being insufficiently eager to “help their team.” The idea that all of that arglebargle might be hogwash does not seem to occur these wannabe experts on assembling World Series contenders. The way this thread goes is, if you have a chance to be “winners” you buy. If you don’t, you sell. I think it traces back to the “Moneyball” Oakland Athletics who peddled their most promising young players to contenders before they qualified to be paid closer to what they were actually worth That somehow morphed and suckered these fantasy general managers into believing that owning an MLB team wasn’t about anything more than money Over time it has morphed again into this insane belief that, if your team isn’t doing well and 60 per cent of the schedule has been played, you should get rid of your best players. I know, it seems crazy, but I read every day that the San francisco Giants should trade Luis Arraez. Also, Jung Hoo Lee, who is finally playing well and healthy, should hit the road Maybe Detroit would take both of them for Tarik Skubal. The idea that anyone should think long term about building a strong roster with good planning investment, and talent assessment does not seem to occur to these screenheads. No wonder Fox TV is so popular.