The All-Star Game Will Save Us: Finally, sports will show some class

Taking a key from the droning powerhouse band that is Staind... it's been awhile.

In what has been a month of constant sports turmoil, (college football becoming more and more of a joke, more NFL arrests, the NBA being... well the NBA) I have to quickly interject some thoughts about the classiest event in sports: The Major League Baseball All-Star Game.

Baseball is it's own one-man show tonight, providing the only sports entertainment of the evening. The Nathan Lane of the sports universe, if you will. I ask that every die-hard NBA fan who has been trying to justify the actions of the entire league, from dickface liars like LeBron James and Dwayne Wade, to irrelevant reporters like Jim Gray, to owners like Dan Gilbert (insightful and honest, albeit classless), to David Stern, the worst commissioner in sports, watch how a real American sports outfit comports itself.

Since 1933, Baseball's greatest players get together to play the mid-summer classic, and... gasp... actually put forth the same effort they would in an actual regular season game. There are no rule restrictions in which pitchers can't throw breaking balls or runners can't steal? And what's that? They don't dance in the dugout and come up with elaborate pre-game dances when they are announced along the foul lines?

No, the game is about the talent of pitchers like Ubaldo Jimenez, Roy Halladay, Joakim Soria, and Josh Johnson, just to name a few, matching up with hitters like Albert Pujols, Josh Hamilton, Joey Votto, Joe Mauer, and Paul Konerko. It's about watching the best in the game represent every team in the league. So for one night, Pittsburgh is represented alongside New York, Twins and White Sox represent the same team, as do Reds and Cubs (or Cub in this case). It's not about the self-absorbed "all about me" players, it's about the fans, it's about the game itself, and if you turn down your volume so not to listen to Joe "Joe Buck Yourself" Buck and Captain Obvious Tim McCarver, it's mostly about class. Something the rest of sports should take some notes on.

Oh, and watch how quickly MLB will come up with a classy way to show respect for George Steinbrenner, who died this morning, even though he probably has done more to hinder the quality of the sport than help it. Baseball is just the best sport in the country, and probably the best sport in the world, and douche bags like Bill Simmons can continue to sit on their Celtics bean bag chairs, playing with their Starting Lineup figurines, pretending that the NBA is "America's Sport". yeah, maybe for 8 year old suburban kids, which Bill Simmons continues to act like.

Thank you MLB, for keeping some respectability in an otherwise disrespectful sports world.

NL wins 5-3, Joey Votto MVP.

-Ben Wills