Here is something baseball officials should know: There is no such thing as baseball alchemy. They cannot take the baseball world as it exists in 2003 and turn it into the baseball gold that was 1955.
No amount of tinkering and tweaking and manipulating will make the baseball All-Star Game what it was 70, 60, 50, 40, 30, or even 20 years ago. These are different times, and the principals are different people.
As difficult as it may be for the under-40 fan to comprehend, the All-Star Game was once one of the top five events on the American sporting calendar. The World Series ruled, of course. Then you had, in some debatable order, the Kentucky Derby, the Rose Bowl, the Indianapolis 500, and, yes, the major league All-Star Game. Pro football and pro basketball were unimportant. Pro hockey was largely unknown. The only other challenger for the top five was a big heavyweight title fight.
