2018 All-Star Game: Not exactly Aaron, Clemente and Mays

So when I was a kid, the baseball All-Star game was a really big deal.

Take, say, 1961 for example. Being a National League guy, what a thrill it was to watch a baseball game that could feature Hank Aaron, Willie Mays and Roberto Clemente in the outfield all at the same time, not to mention Ernie Banks and Frank Robinson, and infielders like Stan Musial, Maury Wills and Eddie Mathews.

Roberto Clemente, Willie Mays and Hank Aaron

Would you like to go into a season with starting pitchers that included Warren Spahn, Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale and a closer like Elroy Face?

Even the Yankee-heavy American League roster boasted names like Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, Yogi Berra and Whitey Ford, Al Kaline, Harmon Killebrew and Brooks Robinson.

Fast-forward to 2018. The All-Star rosters were just announced, and of the 31 players on the NL squad, Bryce Harper is the only one I recognize as a legitimate star from the same galaxy as Mantle, Mays, Koufax and the rest. The AL has two or three such guys.

Back in 1961, on All-Star game day, the kids in my neighborhood would take magic marker to white t-shirt, scribbling a team name on the front and a number on the back. Mine always said “Giants” across my chest and “24” on the back for Willie Mays. Other kids came out with “Braves” and “44” for Aaron and “Pirates” and “21” for Clemente. Of course, the Pirate shirt would have the sleeves cut off the way they wore them back then.

We played our own baseball game in my neighbor’s side yard, went home, had dinner and waited anxiously for the game to begin. (At least I think the game was played at night. I could be wrong. I mean, I haven’t been 11 years old for a really long time.)

Today, I’m just old, and my interest in Major League Baseball is gradually fading away. What with free agency, team-hopping, multi-million-dollar contracts, poor player attitudes, taxpayer-funded mega-stadiums and worst of all, instant replay, it just isn’t the game I grew up loving.

Check that. I still love the game itself. Baseball was the only sport I could play with any degree of skill, and when baseball was no longer an option, I played slow-pitch softball well into my 40s. I still like going to Morgantown to watch WVU play in the spring and the Minor League Black Bears in the summer, but I don’t watch MLB on television much any longer.

It just isn’t any fun.

Oh, I’ll probably watch the All-Star Game because it’ll be Tuesday night and what else have I got to do, but please excuse me if I don’t get excited by a Crawford-to-Baez-to-Freeman double play or seeing Josh Hader pitch to Gleyber Torres or Salvador Perez.

I never heard of these guys, or 40 of their favorite teammates, and it just won’t be the same.