I so wish I had the strength to boycott the MLB All Star Game. It is by far, the whackest of all the all star games (Out of my many flaws, the biggest, may be unsubstantiated loyalty).
Tallying up, all the injured/vote-in/special vote-in players, the AL had 36 total all stars & the NL had 38. 74 all stars! Whenever, you have nearly 75 of something, the word 'elite' gets muddled a bit. Though, baseball doesn't work this way, that's 3 back-ups per position. Whats worse is that, out of the 36 AL all stars, 18 of them only participate in half of the game! (I'm with Crash when it comes to the DH!)
Like Crash, I have a set of principles that govern my life, this one, being one of my top:
IF EVERYONE IS AN ALL STAR, NO ONE IS AN ALL STAR
The reason it's so important is because it speaks to many facets of life. Whenever we deflate the excellent or inflate the reprehensible, we lose meaning. As it pertains to the all star game, the word, 'all star' is then stripped of its meaning. If everyone gets a trophy, then your 1st place trophy, becomes null & void. If someone notices a trend, that a lot of the people in prison, happen to be black and then is called a racist, it strips the meaning of the word, when you need to call the people who have set-up the system that facilitates fast passing black people into prison, racists. If everyone who has ever played a practical joke on someone, is a bully, it strips the meaning of the word, when we need it for the people who make someone a target & put all their energy into terrorizing that person. For instance, in 5th grade, someone put glue on my chair, and I got stuck to my chair for a little while, that is a practical joke. Also, in 5th grade, 2 of my friends made a cripple girl cry so many times, that they were keeping score, to see who could make her cry the most; the winner had 29. See the difference. So, if we call that kid who put glue in my chair a 'bully', and in the same breath, call my 2 friends 'bullies', it doesn't really make much sense.
It speaks to this bigger need of accomplishment based praise. Praise should be given to only those that achieve. The kid that aces his test, needs to be recognized for it. If another kid fails that same test, yet gets treated the same & given the same praise, then it strips the motivation from the achiever & subdues their accomplishment. The failing kid will grow-up, feeling more capable than he actually is & will be greeted by an unforgiving world that will have no patience for his ineptitude. It is NOT cruel to tell the failing kid that he is failing. The truly cruel thing would be to pat him on his back & tell him good job. Instead we should, come alongside the failing kid, give him the true report of his skills and then, coach him up so he too can achieve.
I guess, bottom line is this: what's the thing that successful people have in common? They all at one point, to some degree, fail. Lets not do our society the disservice of appeasement. Let us expect much! Let us be honest with ourselves, and our peers, so that those who achieve, get recognition & those who do not, get help to achieve in the future.
Part 2 of this post will be posted Friday.