I watched the first three innings of the All-Star Game last night and felt nothing. No Ohtani, Skenes not starting for the National League, Skubal not starting for the American League. It felt more like a best-stats-so-far-this-year and most-fan-votes game than an All-star game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sure, if I was in Philadelphia and found a last-minute ticket for around a hundred bucks, I’d go check it out. A chance to be at an All-Star Game is historic, and getting to see all these players, many of whom will be future Hall of Famers, together would be surreal. But as a spectator watching on TV, what exactly am I looking at?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I’m watching a game that has no bearing on the division races or playoff picture. My main concern is that the players I like don’t get injured, and I felt for Rays fans who had to watch Junior Caminero get hit in the hand by a 97-mph sinker. After the game, Cardinals pitcher Riley O’Brien apologized, saying, “I definitely wasn’t trying to do that. It got away from me.” Caminero took it in stride, saying, “We’re here to have fun. We’re here to enjoy the night.” I understand that, but as a fan, it wasn’t easy to do as a television viewer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The All-Star Game has long had a problem with the relevance issue, and they errantly tried to correct it for years by awarding home-field advantage in the Fall Classic to the winner. It did give the game stakes that made it more interesting, but it was in no way fair to the teams that would meet in the World Series at the end of the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Every single out and every single at-bat in a baseball game has meaning. It all becomes a part of your permanent record, your career statistics, and how that measures up against others across time. No matter how mundane the play, you know that you\u2019re watching a small piece of history. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I think of, weirdly enough, a blockchain. And no, don’t worry, I’m not a Bitcoin maximalist who’s about to go on a diatribe about how it’s the future and everything is Bitcoin. I’m definitely not that guy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But blockchain technology is layers and layers of code placed together that become something unique, part of this massive catalogue that comprises how the technology works. Each play in baseball is, in essence, a line of code in the history of America’s pastime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What was on last night has no bearing on that, and it’s one of the reasons it couldn’t hold my interest for more than a few innings. I prefer to treat the All-Star break like the players who didn’t get selected, as a brief four-day reprieve from a long and grueling season to dabble in my other interests. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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