BCB After Dark: All-Star nights

Welcome back to BCB After Dark: the music, movies and baseball club for night owls, early-risers, new parents and Cubs fans abroad. Come on in and relax for a while with us. Or you can ask for something you can pound to take out your frustrations. If you need anything from us, don’t hesitate to ask. There are still a couple of good tables left. Bring your own beverage. No dress code required.

BCB After Dark is the place for you to talk baseball, music, movies, or anything else you need to get off your chest, as long as it is within the rules of the site. The late-nighters are encouraged to get the party started, but everyone else is invited to join in as you wake up the next morning and into the afternoon.

The Cubs lost to the Baltimore Orioles, 7-1. It was Baltimore’s tenth-straight win and the Cubs’ sixth-straight loss. Ouch.

Last night I asked you who you thought was the best shortstop in the city of Chicago, Nico Hoerner or Tim Anderson? By a margin of 66 percent to 34 percent, you voted for Nico Hoerner. Is that home fans cheering for the Cubs player or just a fair assessment? I guess history will tell.

I’m trying to have a kind of vacation, so I haven’t been able to watch any films this week. So there will be no film discussion tonight. But I always have time for jazz, so those of you who skip the music, you can do so now.

I’ve played the Modern Jazz Quartet before in this spot, and they’re kind of the perfect group to just wind down for the evening without actually putting you to sleep.

So here’s a television broadcast of the MJQ from 1962. In case you don’t remember, the Modern Jazz Quartet were John Lewis on piano, Milt Jackson on vibraphone. Percy Heath on bass and Connie Kay on drums.

Welcome back to everyone who skips the jazz.

When I was a kid, the All-Star Game was a big deal. Because teams in different leagues didn’t play each other, except in the World Series, there was a real mystery about the other league. How would Reggie Jackson do if he had to face Steve Carlton? How would Jim Palmer pitch to Joe Morgan? On top of that, because there were far, far fewer games televised, fans in one-league cities often did not get much chance to see star players in the other league play. While you certainly knew what they looked like from photographs and you may have seen a game or two from the other league on the “Game of the Week,” you really didn’t get that much exposure to the stars from the opposite league of your local team.

MLB would desperately like the All-Star Game to be a big deal again. They’re willing to try pretty much everything short of ending interleague play, which I’d argue is the only thing that would make the All-Star Game a really big deal again.

Having said that, I still watch the game every year. I still like the pomp and rituals of the entire thing. I like to see how excited the players are to be there. (Well, most of them are excited to be there.) I even like to see Cubs players and Cardinals players having a good time together as teammates.

So on a scale of 1 to 5, tell us how much are you looking forward to the All-Star Game? If you vote a “5,” then you’re saying that you find it to be one of the highlights of the summer. If you vote “1,” then you probably won’t even watch and are just waiting for the All-Star Break to be over.

A four is more along the lines of “It’s not what it once was, but it’s still fun.” A two is “I’ll (probably) watch, but I just don’t care that much.” A three is somewhere in the middle.

If you want to tell us how your opinions of the game have changed over the year or any favorite memories, don’t let me stop you.

So how much are you looking forward to the All-Star Game?

Thank you for stopping by tonight. If you need a ride home, please let us know. Check around your table and make sure you didn’t forget anything. Please tip your waitstaff. And join us again next week for another edition of BCB After Dark.