Setting aside all of the completely justified complaints about the MLB All Star Game- all the snubs, all the hype, and jesus god, no, this one should not "count"- I still love this event. Of course, I'm entirely in the tank for baseball, so consider that when I say this. But I'll defend my idea that this is a good use of our valuable sports-viewing time.
What I like best is that Major League Baseball has turned the All Star Game into a weeklong celebration of whatever city it's in this year. In this year's broadcast, we heard the history of the song "Kansas City", got a mini-tour of the Negro League Museum, learned that Kansas City is the "City of Fountains" and heard numerous peons to Kansas City barbecue (my twitter feed this week has also featured multiple arguments between baseball writers on the best barbecue in Kansas City). Joe Posnaski- former beat writer for the Royals, now one of the better baseball writers on the planet, summed all the KC love up in this post.
This is something sports really excel at. They can foster tremendous civic pride without using militant jingoism or sketchy racial politics. Teams just become part of a city's DNA, a reason to love your city and a way to feel a part of it without putting down any other place. They make us feel like we're part of something bigger, without that "something bigger" having to exclude a certain group of other people.
As I've said before, sometimes, these feelings descend into tribalism, and that's a blight on sports. But that doesn't change the very real ways sports can bring us together.
And anyway, that's not happening in Kansas City tonight.
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