I was done with work a little earlier than usual on the night of Tuesday, July 16, so I rushed home as quickly as I could.

I wanted to be in my recliner in my living room in time for the bottom of the first inning of the 2024 Major League Baseball All-Star Game. I hit a lot of red lights, but thank goodness I made it home just in time (let’s hear it for all those ads). Why did I want to see the bottom of the first inning of this year’s MLB All-Star Game so bad? Paul Skenes, the Pirates rookie pitching phenomenon, was the reason. After that frame ended with Skenes setting the American league down, 1,2,3,4 (there was a controversial walk in there), I immediately switched over to the movie, The Other Guys, on Freevee. I had never seen the movie before, but I heard it was good. Unfortunately, I fell asleep fairly quickly and didn’t finish it.

Oh well.

Anyway, I heard the American League won by a score of 5-3, and Bryan Reynolds, the other Pirates’ All-Star, got a hit but also struck out to end the game.

What I’m trying to say is this: That bottom of the first inning was the most I watched of any MLB All-Star Game in years, and I can’t imagine wanting to see even one out of that event next year–even if Skenes is starting for the National League again.

I guess I began to lose my love for the midsummer classic in 1997 when Major League Baseball started interleague play. Don’t get me wrong, the idea of the Pirates taking on the Yankees (or even the Royals and Twins) was intriguing at first. However, like anything else new and exciting, interleague baseball became common and ordinary. If an interleague matchup is just another stop on your favorite team’s regular-season schedule, it stands to reason that you’d feel less fascinated by an exhibition game involving the American and National Leagues.

It wasn’t like that in the 1980s, of course. I couldn’t wait to see my favorite Pirate (usually Tony Pena) standing on the same field as Reggie Jackson. What about a non-Pirate like Dwight Gooden of the New York Mets pitching against Don Mattingly of the New York Yankees?

That was totally rad.

In the early ’90s, when the Pirates were becoming good again, I got to watch Barry Bonds and Bobby Bonilla play in the same game as Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire.

I loved every second of it.

Simply getting older would likely have caused me to lose interest in baseball’s All-Star Game anyway, but interleague play certainly hastened the process.

A lack of defense ultimately ruined the NBA and NHL All-Star Games for me, while the outlawing of blitzing (and, eventually, tackling) permanently put my love for the NFL Pro Bowl on Injured Reserve. Baseball’s All-Star Game is the only one where you feel like you’re still getting that sport’s real product. Unfortunately, the players now realize it’s only an exhibition.

It wasn’t like that when I was a kid, and that was because of a very real rivalry that existed between the American League and the National League.

Thurmon Munson wanted to get revenge on Johnny Bench for the previous year’s World Series. He also wanted to show the baseball world that he was the best catcher around.

You believed the players from the American League when they said they wanted to end the National League’s winning streak in the event.

It may have been an exhibition, and we may have had television access to both leagues, but the American League was still the “other” league in those days. The designated hitter was inferior. Pinch-hitting was superior.

Our stars were better than their stars.

Interleague play changed all of that.

Today, I’d much rather watch The Other Guys than witness my guys from the National League take on their guys from the American League.