A single All-Star game no longer grabs the attention of the American public. It's become a silly exhibition with nothing at stake, other than bonuses, and interest has waned. Interleague play, Bud Selig, incentive-laden contracts, steroid-related injuries, multimillion dollar average salaries, the retirement of "good guys" like Ripken, Ryan, etc. have changed the nature of the game. In this era of excess, however, we need to keep pace.

Let's not have just one All-Star game. Let's go back to the notion of two games. But here's the twist — the games will be held two days apart (i.e., Tuesday and Thursday) and in "paired" ballparks. So the first year, the first game is in Wrigley, the second in Comiskey. The next year, San Fran and Oakland. New York and New York. Then LA (or San Diego) and Anaheim. And let's not just limit it to major league cities — Seattle could be paired with Portland, Little Rock with Memphis or New Orleans. DC and Baltimore. Bring the game to the people! This way, the notion of everyone plays actually takes on meaning. If you have 10 pitchers on your roster, you are going to pitch Schilling 3 innings, then the Padilla for 3 in the first game, and Smoltz, Williams, and Hoffman close it out. Then Unit starts the next one, and is relieved by Perez and relieved by Gagne, Remlinger, and Nen. Bonds, Green, and Sosa play the OF for all of the first game, Dunn, Berkman, and Vlad in game two. By expanding, not only do you make a ballgame out of it, you make TWO ballgames out of it, plus you allot for extra innings, pinch-hitting, and all the strategy that good managers should have.

It benefits MLB since they can sell a two-game prime-time All-Star games, plus they can have a full week of events — shut down baseball from Sunday through Saturday for All-Star week and space out and add events — like a Wednesday pro-am golf tournament (hey, most of them are golfing on the off-days anyway, why not televise it?), and a couple of Friday 3-on-3 basketball games (Winfield would have loved it). Can you imagine the Unit at posting up against Richie Sexson? Kim shooting under Sasaki?

The Home Run Derby would still draw folks on Monday — but I'd certainly want to watch Barry Bonds putt (Barry — there's no Intentional Walk for a 2 foot putt buddy -- no gimmies in golf!)