One week from now the 79th All Star Game will be at Yankee Stadium's final season. 25 years ago Comiskey Park had its final All Star Game. I knew I had a picture, but it was in really bad color so I changed it to black & white. What's different about the game today than back then? Rosters were smaller back then. Today it's a ridiculous 32 players per team. The DH rule was not enforced in A.L. parks. Games started around 5pm, unlike today's near 8pm Central Time. They also didn't have the stupid rule of the winning league getting home field advantage in the World Series since 2003, which is unfair so far, especially since the A.L. is 5-0.

What do I remember from the '83 game? Nothing, because I was too young and was probably watching Mork & Mindy reruns on WFLD at the time. Eventually I'd find the starting lineup intro's on Youtube, which was pretty cool. Sox rookie outfield slugger and eventual A.L. rookie of the year Ron Kittle would get the biggest standing ovation from the crowd. It also featured the last game for Red Sox great HOFer Carl Yastrzemski who was retiring, and the game featured the only grand slam ever in ASG history, by Fred Lynn.

Back then there was also league pride, which is pretty much unheard of these days. Players took the game seriously. Now, we see players declining invitations so they can stay home and rest, others leave the game early after they're taken out, many use it as a bargaining chip for contract negotiations, and it's turned into some week-long media circus and convention, with so much preview garbage. Plus tickets are really expensive and hard to come by. When the ASG rolled around here in 2003 for New Comiskey Park/U.S. Cellular Field's first time, I didn't even bother getting tickets. So not worth it and had very little interest in going. Last year in San Francisco, they had Giants HOFer great Willie Mays hauled out from the outfield in a pink convertible throwing baseballs to various fans. WTF??!! Please. Baseball doesn't need cheesy tactics like this. It's lame.

Now this brings us to 2008. I have to say, I am not pleased with some selections. Joe Crede does NOT deserve to be an All Star. 17 errors by the 3rd baseman, hitting stats are middle to near the bottom amongst A.L. 3rd basemen. Jermaine Dye should had been the White Sox picked over Crede. Plus with manager Terry Francona filling up the roster with Red Sox, inexplicably the players voted catcher Jason Varitek, who I last saw was hitting .215! No hitter, batting a lousy .215 deserves to be in ANY All Star Game. It's ridiculous. It's things like that are why fans don't care about the game anymore, Bud Selig. I propose we take away fan voting, because most of them go by name recognition rather than actually looking up stats (broken down old man Ken Griffey Jr lost his outfield spot in the popular vote in the last week) and it's clear that the players are idiots as well in their say for the hitting reserves. The managers pick out the pitching staff.

So what do we do? First, we take way World Series home field advantage. 2nd, take away the fan's & player's vote and the manager's picks. Invent some kind of point system that rewards the very best. For hitters, say 1 point for every game played at the position, every hit, every RBI & walk & SB, but -1 for every K & CS & E. So this way perhaps the singles hitters aren't punished for not hitting homeruns. Pitching, 2 points for a win, 1 point for a K, -1 for a BB or H, 1 point for every 1/3rd inning, -3 points for every earned run, and 2 points per save. I don't know, it could work with some tinkering. That way we don't have too much punishment for pitchers with low Win/Loss records or outdated ballots that lists Detroit's Miguel Cabrera is 4th in voting who doesn't play 3rd base anymore. And no more online voting either. It's a waste of energy and paper ballots are a waste of paper. Or maybe my gimmick is just as bad as the current system.