The Sports Monitor

Tony La Russa won't go away. The guy retired from baseball after winning the World Series with the St. Louis Cardinals last year. But he won't go quietly into the sunset. He's back for the All-Star Game and he's ticking off some people. The Reds and Brewers aren't happy with La Russa's picks. Milwaukee thinks Zack Greinke (9-2, 2.82 ERA) should be on the team, while Cincy says Brandon Phillips (.285-10-46) and Johnny Cueto (9-4, 2.26 ERA) should be, too. It's hard to argue. The fact is, La Russa is the one who shouldn't be there. Commissioner Bud Selig asked him and La Russa accepted. Mike Matheny, the current Cards manager, should be the one making the picks, not La Russa. And Matheny should be the one getting the criticism for the picks.

I get it. Baseball is all about tradition. When it comes to the All-Star Game, I've had it with the tradition of every team being represented. I didn't agree with it when the Pirates were represented by Mike Williams, and I like it even less when Bryan LaHair is named as an All-Star. I have nothing against LaHair personally. He's just not worthy of being an All-Star this season . I'm not sure anyone from the Chicago Cubs deserves to be at the game, but LaHair was named as the guy to represent the Cubs, so it's his name that gets the attention. LaHair is having a respectable season , hitting .284 with 13 home runs and 28 RBIs, but it's not All-Star worthy. And when you look a little deeper and see that LaHair hit .390 in April but followed that month up with averages of .253 and .231 in May and June, and you see something that got a nice little bonus living off that one hot month. But this isn't about one player. This is about ending one bad rul...

My idea of baseball's All-Star Game is that the best players in the world would gather for an exhibition game for one night. So much for that. One by one Sunday, the list of players to miss the game grew. I think the total is up to 16 players who will miss the game -- as of this writing. Some, like Alex Rodriguez, who will miss four to six weeks, it's understandable. Others, like Derek Jeter, should play. Some of the best pitchers in the game won't be there Tuesday. Justin Verlander, C.C. Sabathia, Felix Hernandez and Cole Hamels pitched Sunday and are ineligible (another bad idea by baseball -- they should at least be allowed to participate in the festivities). Instead, players like David Robertson, Kevin Correia and Michael Pineda will be in Phoenix. The biggest story in the first half of the season was Jeter's 3,000th hit. He won't be there, either. Instead of being celebrated, he'll be watching on TV. Apparently, he's too exhausted from the...

I wasn't thrilled with the choice of Evan Meek as an All-Star. But after watching the All-Star Game on Tuesday, I realized I could have been wrong about the Pirates reliever. Meek belongs in the same class as the Yankees' Alex Rodriguez. Both didn't play in the Midsummer Classic. Not bad company, eh?

Evan Meek. All-Star. It's been more than a day and I still can't get used to those two words being tossed together in the same sentence. It's not that Evan Meek didn't have the statistics to deserve being an All-Star. Everyone is throwing around his ERA (0.96) and assures us it's a good choice. And, besides, someone from the Pirates had to make the team. I would prefer it be someone else. I'd prefer someone other than a middle reliever. I don't think middle relievers belong in all-star games. Sorry, I just don't think they are that deserving. I understand middle relief is part of the game these days, I don't believe it should be part of the All-Star Game. While Meek has a stellar ERA, he does have five blown saves this season and only five holds (one of the few, unreliable statistics out there for relievers). They way I look at it, the All-Star Game is still an opportunity to showcase the best players in the league for the fans. And...