So do you remember when it was vitally important to debate whether Yasiel Puig belonged on the All-Star team? And all the heated debates over whether he should be selected? And whether it was a slap in the face to guys who'd played years - or at least whole seasons - if he were selected? And you absolutely could not get away from the debate and the rants and the geshrying?
And then, do you remember when they put Puig up for the fan vote, and he lost a close race to Freddie Freeman of Atlanta? And all the purists were so happy that the fans had rewarded a guy with a long career (OK, 2 1/2 seasons) with a track record of sustained excellence (avg 22 HRs/year, OPS+ of 117, which is good but not jaw-dropping, nevermind) by voting him in.
And then Freddie got hurt and missed the game anyway, and got replaced by his teammate Brian McCann, who had way better stats despite missing part of the season due to injury (giving him roughly the same number of plate appearances as Puig) and a longer track record of success. And it didn't matter anyway, because the NL got stomped.
Oddly enough, the world has failed to end because of any of this. Which, if one were so inclined, one might remember the next time the dudgeons get need-an-oxygen-mask high over some minute point of unwritten baseball etiquette.
Or maybe not. I hear that Sano kid flipped his bat too high. Got to be a blog post in that, right?
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