Baseball has the home run derby.  Hockey has the skills competition.  Basketball has the slam-dunk and 3-point contests and Football has, well, great weather.  Today we sit hours away from the mid-summer classic and we have something to beef about.

Depending on the person, some feel the home run derby has run it's course.  I remember when I went to the 1991 All Star festivities to watch the old timers game and the home run contest I was thrilled about it.  I was 8 years old at the time so perhaps the joy was caused by youthful intrigue.  But some of the complaints are invalid.  While you see the derby as the same thing over and over again, watching long bombs, you get to see some guys you may not really know well.  Granted, you see more of the same thing but the difference now from 1991 is you have more than one round (as well as the body-type, but that's another story).

What probably set me off was the notion that there weren't enough big names in the contest.  They wanted to see guys like Barry Bonds, Ken Griffey - great power hitters.  However, why was there complaints about the competitors last night?  We watched 2 hall of famers, Albert Pujols and Vladimir Guerrero, who are the two most consistent and best hitters of this decade.  Yes, I just snubbed Alex Rodriguez - ask yourself when Albert and Vlad hit under .300 and the answer is never.  Vlad and Albert are the two best hitters in the game today - and had Miguel Cabrera not pulled out of the competition we could have had "The Next One", so to speak.

We also had reigning MVP's Justin Morneau and Ryan Howard (also the HR champ and last year's derby winner), current home run leader Prince Fielder, current batting average leaders Magglio Ordonez and Matt Holliday, and newcomer Alex Rios.  Aside from Rios, who ended up hitting the most bombs yesterday, there were guys who deserved to be there.  So the knock on the competitors not being marquee or not being big-names is horseshit.  Years from now we could be saying "wow, that 2007 derby had some great players", and potentially more hall of famers.

Now, we would have loved to have seen Barry in the competition simply because it's his house.  But he declined and that was his choice.  But we did listen to him being interviewed during the broadcast and he really handled himself well during the interview.

There are a lot of people who are defending Barry's actions and will continue to use the argument that there is "no proof" that he did a thing - which is naive to think.  However let me play devil's advocate for a second: one of the parts of both Bonds books stated that he was ticked that guys were getting away with using illegal supplements (by law) yet he was getting by on pure natural ability without any #### in his system.  If you had the opportunity to take something to enhance your legacy with the knowledge that the game itself does not care would you at least think about it?  Barry Bonds has a huge ego and quite frankly that is not necessarily a bad thing.  I'm not the person that will condone what he did but I have always seen the reasoning behind it.  Ungrateful and undeserving players taking the awards, credit and respect that he felt he earned during his career.  Had he been better to the media when he was younger they may have been going out of their way to say something great about him during the midst of baseball's dark age.  Regardless, many baseball players know they have gotten away with something both Bonds and Jason Giambi haven't, along with the rest of the players who have tested positive over the last few years.

At least Bonds isn't the one losing his head over this record.  That goes to Commissioner Bud Selig.  He's taken this personal because he doesn't want to see his buddy Hank's record broken, and that is human nature.  He also may feel deep down that he let this happen under his watch.  Or he knows more than he's letting on and cannot share it with anyone - allowing it to eat away at him.  Only those close to the situation knows the truth, but Selig not being present for the record-breaker does not provide fans any confidence of this entire scenario.  True fans know he has to be there and if he doesn't show up a lot of fans will lose faith in the game if they haven't already.

Let's just get through tonight and then we can focus on the pennant races for the second half.

...Other notes...

- How does a guy get robbed twice in his life?  Antoine Walker managed to have that happen to him.  That is either a total coincidence or someone really enjoys taking stuff from him.  He may want to leave Chicago and head to Miami.  It's warmer down there anyway.

- There is no question that Roger Federer is more dominant in his sport than Tiger Woods at this present time.  He has been in the finals of every major for the last 9 Majors.  That is incredible.  That is pure dominance.  This does not take anything away from Tiger, who's phenomenal.  What needs to be pointed out is Federer's lack of hype surrounding his greatness.

- The Tour de France started already?  Did anyone notice?  Even the NHL said they were pretty quiet.

What's The Deeley-O back this Thursday.  Doesn't matter what you write to me just WRITE.  Thursday's are your day bloggers so check in and dazzle me.  Cheers. (chevradionoise@gmail.com).

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In case I have not officially said this, count this post as the first time The Dan admits to this: I am a Ryan Howard fan.  This has probably been evident for over a year now.

The man has waited a long time to finally get his chance to be the stud he is today.  The Philadelphia Phillies were looking to trade him due to the logjam at first base named Jim Thome.  With the financial status of the Phillies, trading away Howard would have made their 2005-2006 offseason even more interesting than it was.  And had he been traded to my favourite team, the Toronto Blue Jays would have had a compelling offseason spending spree.

The trade was Howard for Ted Lilly.  JP Ricciardi said no.

How?  Was it because Howard was a career minor leaguer (who mashed every pitch he saw)?  Was it because Lilly has talent that he has yet to fulfill?  Was it because Lilly was a former Oakland A, which would have shown Ricciardi was wrong in his unlimited faith in Lilly?  Or was this just an absolute blunder?  Regardless, the Blue Jays would have stole the deal back then and the evidence would have obviously become apparent today. 

The homerun derby might be a joke to some people, but this further showed Howard's ability to hit for power.  It also gave him star power and recognition from the entire league.  The whole world now knows who Ryan Howard is: The Next Superstar.  Anyone who has followed Howard since the minor leagues knew he could have been special.  Now people can see that he infact is.

Hypothetically speaking, had Howard been traded to Toronto the offseason would have been very interesting.  Which one of these guys would not be a Jay: Troy Glaus, Lyle Overbay or Shea Hillenbrand?  Or would they have put Howard into the outfield and traded away Alex Rios?  Other than Rios, the numbers prove Howard would have been an upgrade.  Also, the Jays would have had to have taken a run at another pitcher to replace Lilly's void.  They would have had the money, saving on one of the players I mentioned plus Lilly's salary (minus Howard's, who makes very little).

What about Philly?  They traded Thome to Chicago thanks to Howard.  Who's the wild card leader?  Chicago.  So guess who helped make Chicago better (indirectly)?  The Blue Jays.  That one move may have hindered the Jays to a possible wild card shot this season.  Again, this is hypothetical.  However, what we see out of this city is a smart GM who might cater to certain guys more than others: Lilly, Hinske, Menechino etc.  Those 3 mentioned, and there have been others during Ricciardi's reign, are all former Oakland A's.  However, JP knows his baseball and has done a good job under the circumstances in Toronto.  GM's make mistakes on guys all the time.  But when you have 'you guys', that gets in the way.

Moreover, Ryan Howard has a shot at being one of the best hitters in the major leagues.  What is stopping him might be the high strikeout totals.  If he cuts his K's down a little bit each year and steps closer to a .300 average, you can book him with the top class of hitters in the bigs.