National League wins All-Star Game

For at least one night during the 2010 baseball season, the Cubs, or rather the Cub, stood taller than the White Sox.

Marlon Byrd may have been a dubious All-Star selection considering he's an outfielder, and outfielders without great power or speed are a dime a dozen, but he handled himself well in last night's 3-1 National League victory in Anaheim.

Byrd did something that I wish he'd do a lot more often for the Cubs — put together a great at-bat to coax a walk out of White Sox reliever Matt Thornton. That allowed him to score one of three runs on Brian McCann's big double. Later Byrd helped the NL preserve its victory, making a nice defensive play to retire David Ortiz on a fielder's choice from right field. Some said Byrd played well enough to merit MVP consideration — I think it going to McCann instead was warranted — but Byrd certainly held his own.

Thornton and Paul Konerko did not represent the White Sox nearly as well. Thornton served up both the walk to Byrd and the double to McCann and was on the mound when the NL took the lead, though Phil Hughes ended up with the loss. Konerko's 0-for-2 offensive performance was hardly helpful for an American League team that surprisingly struggled to score runs.

I was happy to see the NL win, but I must confess to sharing the nation's apathy toward the All-Star Game in general. It was the lowest-rated ASG in history, meaning commisioner Bud Selig's efforts to restore interest in the game by awarding World Series home-field advantage to the winning league can offically be called a failure. It's just not something I look forward to, especially since it comes with more than three straight hours of Tim McCarver. I'll take Len and Bob and the Cubs, horrible as they may be, over the "Midsummer Classic" any day.