The Front Row with JASON ELLIOTT July 13, 2011

Between the voting process of Tuesday's All-Star game held in Phoenix and the game itself, you really have to wonder if the true all-stars in baseball are really still showing up for the game.

With fans getting a chance to vote in their favorites and managers having a chance to select their own players, it doesn't seem like it anymore.

SINCE THE winning league gets the chance to host those important first two games of the World Series, the game is supposed to be as competitive as any of the others played during the regular season.

Eventually.

Those first couple of innings are usually spent watching the stars get rolled out, play a couple innings and gracefully exit somewhere between the third and fourth inning to give way to some of the younger players that eventually decide the game.

In the past, some of those starters even left before the game was decided, instead jumping flights back home or to meet with their team for their next series.

Giving the fan a chance to vote is important, but at the same time, does a Yankee or Red Sox player really deserve a starting spot at every position on the field?

Both those teams have huge fan bases, and while they both are usually the best teams in baseball, does that really earn them the right to start every mid-summer classic?

Granted a few of them might deserve it with players like Adrian Gonzalez and Alex Rodriguez leading the league in a couple categories, but to have some players that deserve the honor to get bumped out because of where they play is crazy.

Just because a player like Tampa Bay's Evan Longoria plays for a team that doesn't get a lot of national television attention, doesn't mean he can hit like A-Rod or make those same big-time plays.

Between the other 28 teams in professional baseball, you’d think there might be at least a few worthy of sharing the field with them.

IF NOTHING else, at least the game and weekend showed that baseball is still worth watching.

Lockouts in the NBA and NFL may have fans wondering just when they’ll get to see their favorite teams again.

The games might last up to three hours, but the players aren’t going anywhere — and that’s a good thing.

Should the NFL lockout remain into August, the pennant races in both leagues will start to get a little more interesting.

And with the Seattle Mariners still in the hunt, who knows — maybe they’ll make a trade by the July 31 deadline that will spark the team.

Whether it might be for Chone Figgins or Erik Bedard depends on if any team wants to take its chances.

Both are capable of playing in games like the one last night — just neither has shown they were as bright of stars as they once were.

Or likely can be again.

Jason Elliott is a sports writer for the Coeur d’Alene Press. He can be reached by telephone at 664-8176, Ext. 2020 or via email at [email protected].