I kind of like the writing of Jeff Passan, who writes for Yahoo! Sports, mainly because he is one of the few writers who seems to go above and beyond, and sometimes brings some creativity in his columns, not quite as creative as designing a mini-fridge that tosses beers at the touch of a remote control, but creative nonetheless.

His latest from yesterday brings up a very good idea: WBC during the All Star break. I might be alone on this one, but the All Star game just really is not what it used to be. Its now a five hour spectacle that includes like two hours of introductions, pregame speeches and ceremonies and it just really is not all that much of a big deal with cable TV, MLB Extra Innings, MLB.tv, etc where fans from one market have a chance to see players on each and every team multiple times a week. It used to be that with local TV coverage, you were limited to watching your home team’s away games. So when the All Star game came around I used to lavish the opportunity to watch all those players I only knew from baseball cards and box scores. Now, I’m not even sure players want to be there, its almost a drag to some of them to have to give up their 3-day or so break.

So this goes a little further than Passan’s idea, but I say let’s just nix the All Star game altogether. I think that a future stars competition does really well with the fantasy crowd, and during the years of the WBC there may not be a better time to have the semifinals and final. During non-WBC years, maybe it would be better to have the best players from around the world who are non-MLB. I know that American fans might balk at this, but the house would be packed with Japanese, Dominican, Costa Rican, and fans from countries around the world. Give the players the break they want, and let the United States be the center of attention for a few days as they host the “best of the rest”. If our over payed players aren’t thrilled to be spending their 3-day break being worshiped and admired, let someone else come in, steal the show, and put their jobs in jeopardy.

I know there are still some MLB players who are thrilled to be at the All Star game, so I’d still want to let those guys in, but at least it gives an out to any non-willing participant and would definately solve the problem of the game not being competitive… especially if the foreign players essentially saw the game as an MLB audition (see D-Mat is the ‘06 WBC).

• A Classic argument (Yahoo! Sports)