It's time has passed, this vestige of the steroid era, just like the oversized foam hand, the hyper white guy in the rainbow afro and the Mark & Sammy show.

Yes, kids love the Derby.  ESPN loves the Derby.  PED pushers love the Derby. 

But unlike the modest 1950s TV show Home Run Derby, the Bud Selig version has always been a steroid showcase.

I'm not against skills competitions per se, although the Punt Pass & Kick always chapped my hide.  As if, the kid who could throw or kick the farthest was somehow a future football star in the making?  Yeah, right.  Just like our spelling bee champ was the most gifted kid in school (see Cheap Seats).  

How do you claim to be vigorously fighting PEDs on the one hand, and on the other you stage / promote the best advertisement there is for the benefits of cheat-drugs like HGH?

The All-Star game has always been an exhibition, sometimes bumping-up against the competitive spirit of people like Pete Rose and a hundred beer-throwing Milwaukee fans. 

But in their desire to milk every possible dollar out of the mid-season classic, Selig & Company have reduced the actual game to nothing more than an anti-climatic sideshow only to be endured after the over-hyped Derby.     

Steven Keys