Old

I must be old school verging on dinosaur because the All-Star Game last night nearly drove me to extinction. Was it a ballgame or family reunion? At times, I couldn’t tell with all the embraces. Baseball is worried about losing relevance as games push past three hours, this one excepted, it seems. I mean, three hours and eleven minutes of strikeouts; David Ortiz crashing in the AL dugout; and drivel talk from players micced for sound (thank you, FOX Sports). If this is the future of the national pastime, give me the 1950s anytime. Speaking of a brave new world, it was there on display for the analytics’ crowd. I wonder how many front offices went crazy seeing reliever after reliever come in to throw smoke for an inning, max? The National League used nine pitchers, the AL eleven. You want homeruns? There were three. Strikeouts? Try twenty-two in total. Hits? One for the NL after the first inning. The AL won for the ninth straight time, 3-2. There were a bunch of strikeouts, some homers and an “ump cam” showing what it looks like from behind the plate. What it looked like to me was the earth shaking. No, thanks.