Sleepless in Forgan
Not only have I been sleeping less because of chronic pain in my digestive tract, but last night I watched all 15 innings of the All-Star Baseball Game. I actually stopped rooting for favorites and started rooting for it just to be over.

The game is to be a showcase for star athletes, trying to use as many as possible in a 9-inning game. I think major league baseball could introduce some kind of sudden victory after 9-innings don't produce a winner. In softball, they place a runner at 2nd base at the beginning of extra innings. Thus, there is an immediate possibility to produce a run. Since the only benefit from winning the game is the home-field advantage in the World Series, it wouldn't take away from the way normal baseball games are decided. Even professional tennis introduced tie-breakers in their sport and it made the game more interesting. To answer the baseball purists, what is the same about baseball now anyway? We have different equipment, juiced players, and changing some of the traditions wouldn't take away from the enjoyment of the game.

An alternative would be to allow the starters who leave after 3 innings to return to the game in the extra innings, so we could see the best compete for the win. I doubt the starting second basemen would have made 3 errors late in the game like the ones that occurred. So last night we watched so many extra innings with players who were in their first all-star game.

You may ask, why did I stay up so late, if I wasn't enjoying the game? Really, it was the introduction of all the Hall of Fame players, most of whom I had watched actually play in their prime. I have not followed baseball for years, so I wanted to see the new potential Hall of Fame players. Seeing and hearing Yogi Berra again was a real treat last night, especially in the stadium in which he played. Losing Yankee Stadium is a sentimental downer. The only reason I can justify cheering for the Yankees during my childhood was following the career of the Oklahoman, Mickey Mantle. I have always been partial to dynasties, and the Yankees organization has surely been that through the years.

I also noticed that so many of the Hall of Fame players played for the same team their entire careers. A few had two caps to show, because they retired with a different team than the one for whom they had played the majority of their careers. Now we have so many trades and free agent moves, that future Hall of Famers will have to hold a variety of caps.