The All-Star Game, the Chicago Cubs, and Procrastination

The classic 1976 movie "Rocky" is a great American story about somebody who is too stupid to stop getting up when he's been beat. This may in fact be what America is all about. I'm not sure because people regularly claim America is "all about this" or "all about that", and there is usually no way to tell that they are right. In this movie the heavyweight champion Apollo Creed decides to fight an unknown boxer and give him a shot at the title, it is basically a publicity stunt. Buy the unknown boxer, Rocky Balboa, gives the champ a harder time than he expected. As the rounds tick past, Apollo's trainer Duke eventually tells him "He doesn't know it's a damn show! He thinks it's a damn fight!" (a lot of people thought that Duke stole the show, but to my knowledge Tony Burton has never been nominated for an Oscar).

All-star games are perhaps the most worthless thing in sports. The NFL's is held after the season, and just barely in the country. The NHL's is pretty much a normal game, provided you have ever seen an NHL game with a 14-12 score and no hitting. They are almost playing a different sport. I hear that basketball has an all-star game, but I really don't care. That brings me to baseball, whose all-star game is equally worthless as the others. A few years ago, the all-star game had to be ended in a tie because it ran too long. People were angry because there are not supposed to be ties in baseball. My thoughts:"They don't know it's a damn show! They think it's a damn baseball game" (try to picture Tony Burton's voice w/a different one overdubbed on the appropriate words).

So now to make the all-star game actually matter, the winner ("winner" is Latin for American League Team) gets home field advantage for the World Series. To quote Max Klinger, "I think it's the most stupidest thing in the world. You call it a police action back home, right ? Over here it's a war. A police action sounds like we're over here arresting people, handing out parking tickets. A war's just killing that's all." Ok, really only the first sentence applies, I just thought it might be funny to include all of it.

On to the Chicago Cubs... They're bad. Really bad. I would like to thank the Pittsburgh Pirates for somehow managing to be worse. The Cubs have been plagued by injuries to key players, and the fact that, apparently, they just aren't very good at baseball. However, leading up to the all-star break they had won three games in a row. I understand this is called a "streak", and it was tied with their other best streak of the season. I thought about writing about this, but I didn't. If you see how terrific my last couple of posts are you will probably understand why I waited.

Today the Cubs played their first game after the all-star break and lost to the New York Mets. I should have written about that streak while I had the chance.