Hey now, you're an All Star!

Yesterday was the NHL All Star Game, which the Eastern Conference won in an 8-7 squeaker with a last minute goal. Last year the Western Conference won the game 12-9. I watched it mostly because there wasn't anything else on television, but the NHL All Star Game is always worth checkin out if your problem with hockey is that there isn't enough scoring. There's no body checking at the All Star Game, so there's always a bunch of scoring.

The All Star Game phenomenon for professional sports is limited exclusively to (North) America. Nearly every major and minor sport has it's own version. And February is All Star season. The Pro Bowl is in two weeks (after the Super Bowl gets out of the way) and the NBA All Star Game is the week after that. Every professional sport in the USA and Canada has its own All Star Game.

There aren't any "All Star Games" in overseas sports leagues though. Japanese and Latin American baseball don't have all star games. None of the European soccer leagues have "all star" competitions. There's no Russian hockey all star game. All Star Games are clearly something that the rest of the world hasn't caught on to yet.

Probably because they really don't make a lot of sense. The Major League All Star Game gets a big buildup for the homerun derby and who ends up getting voted on the team, but very few people care about the game itself, even if the winning team does get a home field advantage in the World Series. The NFL's Pro Bowl is after the regular season, and most of the players seem to be focused on getting a free trip to Hawaii and not getting hurt.

All the various college football All Star games seem to serve no purpose whatsoever. Why aren't there any college basketball all star games? And I don't understand the minor league all star games in baseball. If these guys are so good, why aren't they at the next level? The NHL All Star Game is the most fun to watch though, especially if you like 12-9 hockey games. It's almost like playing without a goalie!