Miguel Tejada and Hunter Pence Make N.L. All-Star Team

As a Houston Astros fan, I should be excited that Miguel Tejada and Hunter Pence made the All-Star team (howbeit, as reserves).

Sorry, but I'm not.

Granted, Tejada's doing great and Pence is showing he's a rising star.

As much as I love baseball, I honestly can't remember the last All-Star game I watched.

Let's see... I remember Baltimore Oriole outfielder Fred Lynn hitting the first All-Star game grand slam off San Francisco Giants pitcher Atlee Hammaker.

I remember watching Nolan Ryan, when he was with the Texas Rangers, striking out Kevin Mitchell and Will Clark back-to-back (Clark, who homered off Ryan in his first MLB at-bat, normally had great success against the Ryan Express).

I remember Bo Jackson hitting a tape-measure home run off Giants finesse pitcher Rick Reuschel, and earlier in the game, Wade Boggs—not generally considered a home run threat even though his 3,000th career hit was a homer—even homered off Reuschel.

And, yes, I remember the Randy Johnson/John Kruk incident. That was funny.

Other than that, I don't remember a whole lot else.

The All-Star game has just rapidly devolved into a popularity contest. Sports Illustrated reported back in the late 80s there was an Oakland Athletics fan who used his carpentry skills to design a patterned hole punch to mass vote for all his favorite A's players in hundreds of ballots.

I don't mind All-Star games where the coaches and other professionals vote in the starters, but when baseball fans vote in their favorites no matter how much of an off-year they're having or no matter how much more someone else clearly deserves it better, then I have a problem.

The only reason to watch the game is because now the winning team receives home-field advantage in the World Series.

Otherwise, it's not something I can get into.