Some time-stamped reactions to watching the All-Star Game on TV.

6:19: Torii Hunter just won another Gold Glove.

Technically, all he did was steal a home run away from Barry Bonds, snaring a Bonds drive that cleared the center-field wall by more than a foot. But if Hunter weren't already assured of winning a Gold Glove this year -- and he probably already had it locked up, since he won one last year, deservedly so -- he certainly is now. I don't think Hunter is quite the equal of Andruw Jones with the glove, but I do think he's the best in the American League.

Hunter's amazing catch was the last out of the first inning, and on his way to the dugout Hunter was lifted into the air by the always-jovial Bonds.

Great fun for those guys, but once again we see a perfect example of why the All-Star Game isn't as interesting to people like me as it used to be. Everybody's just out there to have fun and avoid embarrassing themselves rather than win. It's exhibition baseball writ large.

6:33: Perfect example of this. Sammy Sosa just got thrown out trying to go first to third on Vladimir Guerrero's routine single to left field. Granted, Sammy's not the greatest baserunner that ever lived, but I doubt if he'd try something so stupid in a game that mattered. Fortunately for the National League, Guerrero was paying attention and moved up to second on the play, which allowed him to score after a balk and a grounder to second base.

6:37: Scott Rolen ended the second inning with a fly to center. The consensus seems to be that the fans did a good job picking the starters this season, but I think they (or we) were just lucky. Fans typically vote for the names they know, simple as that. And in the case of Scott Rolen, it's all the negative publicity that might have got him elected to the starting lineup.

That said, he's not playing nearly as badly as some might have you think. Rolen's 807 OPS, while perhaps not up to his own standards, ranks fourth among everyday National League third basemen, and one of the three guys ahead of him plays half his games at Coors Field. Rolen remains a hot commodity, and he should be.

6:53: I should admit that I'm fanatical about this playing-to-win thing. I'm sure that virtually everybody watching the game was thrilled to see Roy Halladay throw a thigh-high fastball to Barry Bonds on a three-and-oh count, which of course is something that wouldn't happen during a real game.

Me? I'd rather see Halladay pitching to win. And with Bonds depositing that aforementioned fastball beyond the right-field fence to give the NLers a 4-0 lead, a win for Halladay's team isn't looking too likely.

6:58: Just saw an old Pepsi commercial featuring Junior Griffey and Sammy Sosa, which made me wonder if we'll ever see Griffey in another All-Star Game.

7:01 Alex Rodriguez has now struck out twice on a total of six pitches. Could he possibly do that if he really cared? I'm not saying he couldn't, but if he were playing to win, he might have figured out a way to work the count. This game's in the top of the fourth and it seems like they just started playing a few minutes ago.

7:28: Damian Miller just blasted one off the fence in left-center for an RBI double. Just seconds before, Joe Buck (who I usually like) and Tim McCarver (who I usually don't) bent over backwards in defending Bob Brenly's selection of Miller over Paul Lo Duca. What they didn't say is that if you ignore batting average, Miller's actually been nearly as good as Lo Duca with the stick, albeit in marginally less playing time. Brenly's got a tougher argument when it comes to Luis Gonzalez, because there are at least a half-dozen National League outfielder having better years than Gonzalez. And please don't argue that Gonzalez deserves some sort of reward for what he did last season; he was well-rewarded in 2001, with an All-Star berth and a World Championship ring.

Brenly shouldn't be defended, because he does have a responsibility to pick the best players available, and it's pretty clear he didn't. On the other hand, was anybody really surprised? This is like the corporate shenanigans that we're learning about. Gosh, you mean CEO's will lie and cheat to enrich themselves? As Claude Rains said in Casablanca, "I am shocked, shocked to find out that gambling is going on in here!"

And in both cases, mechanisms exist that are supposed to keep these things from happening. The SEC is charged with regulating corporations, but of course that agency is underfunded and lacks any real legislative muscle behind it. MLB is charged with final say over All-Star rosters, but of course Commissioner Bud is too busy calling baseball writers to tell Bob Brenly that he can't bring his entire roster to Milwaukee.

8:05: What a joy to hear Ernie Harwell's voice again. Three years ago, I spent 15 minutes talking to Harwell in his crow's nest of a broadcast booth at Tiger Stadium, and those 15 minutes will always rank among the highlights of my life.

I believe today's players are better than ever. I don't believe that's true of broadcasters, though. Describing a baseball game over the radio is largely a matter of literacy, of painting a picture with words. And the sad truth is that we simply aren't as literate as we once were. More of us know how to read, but that's not what I'm talking about. We don't talk as well as we did, don't tell stories as well as we did. There are still a few guys who can do it -- Jon Miller and Dave Niehaus are still going strong -- but in another 10 or 20 years the great radio broadcasters will be a thing of the past, just a hazy concept remembered by old farts like me.

8:22: With runners on second and third and two out, Lance Berkman drives a two-run single to center field to give the Nationals the 7-6 lead. After which, McCarver said that if this were a regular-season game, Kazuhiro Sasaki would probably have issued an intentional walk to Berkman.

Managers like to hand out the free passes, but would any manager really be stupid enough to walk Berkman and load the bases with Adam Dunn on deck?

9:01: And so we got to the 10th inning. It struck me, just now for the first time in my life, that when the managers are holding back a starting pitcher for this exact situation, they should hold back a pitcher who does not toil for a team mixed up in a pennant race.

Joe Torre may be forced to summon Freddy Garcia from the bullpen, and you know that if Lou Piniella is watching, he doesn't want to see his best pitcher going three or four innings. But what if Torre had held back, say, Mark Buehrle? Would anybody really mind if Buehrle tossed three or four frames?

But now it's going to be Garcia. And the minute he begins to feel at all taxed, he should throw batting-practice fastballs until the National League pushes across the winning run. Because as much as everybody should try to win, the pennant races must remain everybody's No. 1 priority.

9:22: Garcia just batted in the top of the 11th, which helped the NL snuff out a budding rally. Another brainstorm. The fans should select the eight starters for each team, then the managers should select 22 reserves, and then the fans should select two more reserves -- one hitter, one pitcher -- per team, via the Internet. But there's an extra stipulation: those two extra players may not enter the game unless it reaches extra innings. So you expand the rosters and increase the number of players who get honored, but you give the managers some flexibility at the end.

In tonight's game, Torre could have pinch-hit for Garcia in the 11th, then brought in a fresh pitcher in the bottom of the inning.

9:27: Boy, these guys are a bunch of geniuses. The umpires and the managers are all clustered around Bud Selig, trying to figure out what to do if the National Leaguers don't score in the bottom of the 11th.

Gee, didn't anybody think about this before the game? Didn't anybody remember that baseball is the one game without a clock? Apparently not, because the delay just goes on and on while Selig "thinks" about what happens next.

There's now a great chance that the 2002 All-Star Game will end up in a tie. Which, come to think of it, is the perfect conclusion for an exhibition game.

9:36: Even more perfect than we could have imagined. It's Bud's Big Night, and the festivities conclude with many thousands of fans booing Selig's decision (justifiable though it was). I don't have a problem with him stopping the game, but he really screwed up when he (presumably) instructed the P.A. announcer to tell everybody that the game would end after the 11th if the Seniors didn't score against Garcia. If nothing else, Commissioner Bud certainly is a master of public relations.