Fireworks, grilled meat, beers and a firepit. All I was missing on the Fourth of July was some action on the diamond.  Luckily, Major League Baseball was kind enough to provide more than enough games to keep me interested, not to mention all the story-lines from the week…

Ladies and Gentlemen, your 2009 All-Stars! Who isn’t excited to see some of the all-time greats like Jason Bartlett, Yadier Molina, Ben Zobrist, Chad Billingsly, Ted Lilly, Adam Jones and Freddy Sanchez?  In other news, I predict ratings will collapse shortly after the Star Spangled Banner is completed.  Assuming anyone actually tunes in for anything other than the Hone Run Derby during All-Star Weekend.

Welcome Back Manny? It’ll be interesting to see the reaction he gets in LA when the Dodgers make their return home after the recent roadtrip.  I doubt the fans will do anything as drastic as boo him, though I’m sure there will be the isolated boobird there to spoil everyone else’s “fun”.  And by “fun”, I of course mean drinking overpriced beers in seats you paid too much money for while getting to the game late and leaving easly and wondering when the men in uniforms will get off the grass at the park so you and your buddies can get a game of ultimate frisbee together.  Damned Californian hippies.

Why even bother playing it out? I don’t care who the American League names to their side, the National League is winning the Derby.  Albert Pujols, Ryan Howard, Adrian Gonzalez and Prince Fielder.  97 Home Runs combined before the Monday games.  Gawd.  The American League can’t name any combination of four guys that will have more than 84 HRs before Monday.  And of course, somebody like Jeromy Burnitz, Garrett Anderson or Justin Morneau will sneak in to the finals and do their best to muck up the show.

D: Overrated - All-Star snubs and the outrage that comes with them.  For as much as we all like to pontificate about how someone gets screwed out of an All-Star spot (not to mention the contract bonus money that usually comes with one), it doesn’t matter.  Very few of us personally know somebody who is really and truly offended by not making an All-Star team.  I don’t get paid more if “my guy” makes the roster.  But we all love to argue about it so much.  Underrated – Carlos Pena.  How the hell is this guy not already on the All-Star Roster?  Man he got snubbed…

Sparty: Overrated - The struggles of the New York Mets.  There has not been a team more snake-bit than the Metropolitans.  They are missing 3 of their best hitters from their lineup.  This was a team that was expected to score a lot of runs, even though they are in park that plays  as big as Yellowstone. Underrated - The struggles of the New York Mets front office.  How could they not find better depth than they have right now.  They have several crappy journeymen or young ball players playing out of position this season.  On top of that, they did a terrible job of setting up a rotation.  Sure, Santana is still a stud, but there is nobody after that.  When Livian Hernandez is your #2, you got issues.  BTW-Derek Lowe is having a very good season in Atlanta.

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