All-Star Game

Manny Ramirez hit two doubles and a single in Saturday’s Red Sox game, and played all 19 innings of Sunday’s game.

One is inclined to see this as just something the average ballplayer would do, or in the case of a superstar like Manny, actually rather pedestrian. But one would be deceived, because Manny was playing injured. He is so injured in fact that he is opting out of tonight’s All-Star game because of a sore knee.

**Quick little side note: When did “one” become the serviceable term for a generic person we refer to? It’s the pretentious gender neutral way of speaking of some unknown solitary example person, for those who don’t want to offend the politically correct police while at the same time wishing to avoid the grammatically incorrect singular “they”. Alright, back to my column.

Manny is not the first professional athlete to somehow come down with a mysterious injury right before his sport’s All Star game. The Pro Bowl in football is legendary for players pulling out with phantom injuries. We shouldn’t even count that because the Pro Bowl couldn’t be any more irrelevant if it was a WNBA game. The NHL All Star game has a tough time mattering when hockey doesn’t even matter. The NBA All Star game has no defense in it, but it does have some importance. All Star weekend isn’t the Black People Super Bowl for nothing. But, the one All Star game that matters, the Mid-Summer Classic, when baseball is the only sport going on, is the baseball all star game. Yes, it is just a glorified scrimmage, even with it affecting home field advantage for the World Series. Home field rarely matters in the playoffs anyways. The All Star game used to matter because of National and American league rivalry. That no longer exists, but the players honored by being picked should show up.

I know, they could use the rest. But, part of their job is entertainment for the fans and ambassadorship of the game. It’s the equivalent of your regular 9 to 5 worker who has to go to annual company party, or go to some regional business meeting. No one enjoys those galas predicated on bullshit, nothing really is accomplished at these events, but it’s part of the job. If you receive the “honor” of being picked to represent your company at some night meeting, you just go. And, if it’s an overnight business trip, there’s always the hotel bar after the meeting and the possibility of some extra-curricular fun :-)