Way back in the day, I played Micro League II baseball. It was a game played with two 5.25" diskettes. And the game put together the greatest teams of all time. The 27 Yankees were there. As were the 1945 Cubs, 72 A's, 75 Reds and so forth. It had a lot of the teams from the previous five years. 84 Tigers and 85 Royals. But it aslo had the rosters from the 1986 National League and American League All-Star Teams.

I can't tell you how many times I played those two team. I picture it now, a team led by Dwight Gooden, Ryne Sandberg and Darryl Strawberry locked in a best of 3,121 series. I was a National League guy, so I played the N.L. most of the time.

One of the things that pissed me off was that the game put limitations on how long you could use players. It wnet along with MLB All Star rules and said that the starting pitcher could only go the first three innings. But Micro League would also occasionally make you take out other players citing an inning rule.

I bring this up only because it pissed me off royally that I would have to take out Keith Hernandez in favor of Glenn Davis. In the end, it didn't matter. None of the players' stats had anything to do with whether the players got hits or didn't. You were the one swinging the bat. But it was the principle of the thing. If I wanted the N.L. to beat the A.L., I wanted the best players in there to do it. Ozzie Smith, and not Barry Larkin. Who the hell was Barry Larkin?

And I brought that up only because Rob Neyer once again said some smart stuff. It's no wonder that nobody tunes in to the All-Star game around the end. Who wants to see the game come down to a matchup of Raul Ibanez vs. Jung Bong?

Not that either will necessarily make the All Star Teams. I just like saying their names.

But do you get my point? Do you really?

If I don't necessarily care to see it, the average goofball fan out there definitely doesn't want to see it.

And that ain't right.