All-Star Game Thread (by Special Guest Reporter Slapweasel)

(dedicated thread for the game; off-topic chatter should go in the Open Thread below this one. -- ace)

The only All Star Game that is true to its sport is Major League Baseball. All the others are bastardized versions of their sport, mostly via defense. The MLB game allows for strategy and the game as it is played during the season. The only caveats being some pitchers won't play, per their team's request and some players only play because L.I.V. fans vote them into the game.
...such is America.

This season, Kansas City fans found a way to "stuff" the digital ballot-box. All voting now takes place online and either K.C. was a little too excited, or a few idiots found exploits to the online voting limit. (You can vote Thirty-Five times! Settle down, Beavis!) Either way, the American League now has Alcides Escobar starting at shortstop. ...thanks, idiots.

In any case, I simply love this game. I get to see the best-of-the-best batter versus pitcher match-ups with World Series Home Field Advantage on the line. No matter what you may think of that, this is no longer an Exhibition Game. (The old-timers would tell you that it never was!) Look to the Home Run Derby for exhibition nowadays, amigos!

-Great story about that here.

This year sets a record for youth. More than one-quarter of representatives are under the age of twenty-five. The sport has seen a revitalization that it hasn't seen since the mid-nineties. Position players and pitchers have been well-represented over the past three years with talented youth that bodes well for fans; well into the future.

In any case, I'll be drinking my favorite Lawnmower beer and enjoying The Boys of Summer trying to outwit one-another on the mound and at the plate.
-From the corner of Carnegie and Ontario in Cleveland, I bid you a Gooood Night, Ev'ry-Buddy!

Oh... My prediction? National League 7-4.

-Your Friendly Neighborhood Slapweasel

Use This Thread for All-Star Game and General Baseball Chatter. All other conversation should go into the Open Thread, below. -- Ace

posted by Ace at 08:16 PM

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