Brock Lesnar: Fusion Sports StarIrvin Muchnickbyline‚ Jul. 14‚ 2009They used to say that the day before the major league baseball all-star game (Monday of this week) and the day after (Wednesday) were the only two on the calendar in which not a single major sports event was held. How obsolete that notion has become. It's obsolete, first of all, because the all-star game itself requires some serious grading on the curve in order to regard Tuesday as a major sports day. That extravaganza is the latest joke shoved down the throats of fans by the lords of baseball. It manages to combine disparate and self-canceling farces: bloated player rosters and an illogical selection system that trivialize the concept of an all-star; lack of effort in every area, save that of cross-promotion by the Fox television network; and, to give the meaningless a last perverse twist, the gimmick of tying the game's outcome to the winning league's home-field advantage in the World Series. I stopped tuning in years ago, and I won't bother to watch this one even though it emanated from my hometown of St. Louis. |