GIVING THE GAME ANOTHER CHANCE: If you're like me, baseball's All-Star game always makes you think of one thing: swimming.

Growing up, I had a swim meet every Tuesday and Thursday night in the summer. As a big baseball fan and card collector, I was forced to listen to the game on the radio in between events. Every once in a while our meet would get rained out or cancelled, and I'd get to see the game on TV. I loved every second of it. And I rooted like a maniac for my beloved National league to kick the tar out of that other dumb league. I remember feeling heartbroken on the rare ocassion the Nationals blew it. Back then, you see, we were dominant. Not so much lately.

But right around the same time my swimming career wound to an end, the game itself changed. For whatever reason, it started to mean less. And I tuned out. Oh I'd flip past it every now and again, but everybody seemed way too chummy for me. All this laughing and back-slapping had taken the place of real competition. Nobody seemed to care who won or lost, just so long as nobody barrelled into the catcher.

Tonight, though, I'm back. No swim meet and high hopes. I'm giving the All-Star game another chance. I hope it's a good one.

Too bad the national anthem was so lame! Who in God's name was that? Get a real singer in there to belt it out live. And was that a guy playing the cello? I was halfway through composing this happy post when that whole thing knocked me off my moorings. Icky. At least they had those planes fly over. That gives me chills no matter how hokey the anthem performance is.

Let's play ball.