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07/11/2007: "All-Star Musings"
Say what you want about the rise of football and basketball - baseball is still the Great American Pastime, and I'm definitely a baseball guy. I'd always choose to watch a matchup of two Double-A baseball squads over the last game of the NBA Finals. It's particularly true when it comes to the various All-Star games. I'd rather pull out my fingernails than sit through the NFL's Pro Bowl, but last night, I was happily perched on the couch enjoying the MLB All Star Game from San Francisco ...
- OK, I admit it ... I may hate the bastard and all that he stands for, but every time he came up to bat, I joined the rest of America in screaming "C'mon, you pumpkin-headed freak - put one in the bay!" ... 
- I knew going in that it wouldn't be much of an evening for a Marlins fan, what with only one representative on the NL squad - and that one limited to a pinch-hitting role due to an injury. But I really expected more out of Miguel Cabrera than a weak strike out. The Mets' Jose Reyes is a fine shortstop, but I couldn't help but wonder how that 9th inning rally might have gone if Hanley Ramirez and his red-hot bat had been inserted into the lineup back in the 6th ...
- Sports has provided some amazing moments, and baseball has surely had it's share. But all of the best baseball moments are the ones that aren't scripted. Remember Ted Williams mobbed by the All-Stars in Boston shortly before his death? How 'bout Cal Ripkin being forced by his teammates to take a victory lap around Camden Yards after his record-setting consecutive game? The Super Bowl can get away with contrived moments, because we accept it as part of the event. But everyone else - whether the Daytona 500, the Kentucky Derby, or the MLB All-Star Game - should stick to their knitting. All the distractions last night, from Counting Crows before the game to Paula Cole singing "God Bless America" on the field during the 7th inning stretch to that lame attempt to recreate the Williams moment substituting Willie Mays, only served to muddle the affair.
- Speaking of the 7th inning stretch ... I'm as patriotic as the next guy. When I attend the game, I doff my cap and belt out the Star-Spangled Banner like I was on American Idol. I even know the unofficial last two words to the song ("Play Ball" ... 
). But please ... please ... stop with the "America the Beautiful" singing during the stretch. Yeah, it was nice to see in the wake of 9-11, when our spirits were shattered and there were still smoking holes in Lower Manhattan. But it's 2007, and it's long since time to move on. With all that's going on in the world now, one of the most patriotic statements we can make is to flip the would-be terrorists the finger by gathering in public to enjoy a ball game. Every time we do something that highlights how different things are - or appear to be to some - we embolden those who would do us harm. Take a page from the British, who mourn the dead on a blown-up bus - and then get right on the next one. We should never forget, but we must move on. The ultimate victory is to show those who would do us harm is that they cannot change our way of life, and the way baseball can do that is by singing the only song that should be sung during the stretch - "Take Me Out To The Ballgame". Save the phony patriotic posing for the politicians.
