I effing hate the all star break. Both of my favorite sports have them, and they drive me nuts. I think that I’d actually be happier if they would just drop the pretense of the game and just say that all the people involved need a week off.
At least the game itself can be interesting in baseball. Double play combinations notwithstanding, there really isn’t a lot of teamwork involved so guys can play their normal game. More importantly, there isn’t that much physical impact in baseball, so they can play all out in the all star game without much downside (although Ray fosse might disagree). They have also put a small stake in the outcome of the game, whichever league wins gets the home field advantage in the world series.
It’s very different in hockey. Hockey requires lots of contact, sometimes violent contact to be what it can be. Any given play into the boards can result in an injury of a varying degree. Since there is nothing at stake during the all star game, there really isn’t any reason to risk injury by playing normally. In other words, there is every possibility of getting hurt and no reason for it. The result is a game that resembles hockey, but without a lot of defense or teamwork. In other words, it isn’t much of a game…
I do watch at least some of the baseball all star games, but I never bother with the hockey one. All it does is remind me that I can’t watch the real thing for 3 or 4 more days…