It’s been a long time – in fact, I am sure there must be a country song written about it. The last time the NL beat the AL was 1996. A lot has changed since then. The internet has taken over our lives – like this blog has taken over mine – and the Marlins have won 2 titles. My nephew, who is turning 9 this year, has never seen the NL win the midsummer classic. Maybe that is one of the reasons he’s a Red Sox fan (he does love the Marlins though, too).

Certainly, Josh Johnson can’t take any responsibility – he didn’t get to set foot on the mound tonight. Now, let’s not go blaming old Charlie Manuel. Sure he’s the Phillies manager and got his seat because they won the title last year. And sure there were a lot of Phillies at the All Star Game in St. Louis tonight – but don’t think for a second that he didn’t want to get double J out there to help give his team an edge. Nah.

And don’t think he is bitter because Hanley Ramirez beat out Jimmy Rollins for the starting gig. Hey, 3,218,917 fans can’t be wrong. Even if it is really more like 20,000 fans – as I voted some 3,198,917 times myself.

Hanley did get to play – in fact he went 0-3 stranding a runner (in typical Marlins fashion, I suppose).

It was a tough night though for NL fans – the streak continues. Impressive though is Mariano Rivera who continues to baffle NL hitters with 8 straight appearances in the All Star game and he hasn’t given up a walk, let alone an earned run. He took the NL hitters down in the 9th to close the deal. Jonathan Papelbon, Joe Nathan and Rivera were like a royal flush closing out the NL from any chance of getting the win. It was Carl Crawford, however, who may have made the play of the game when he stole back a possible home run by reaching over the fence to rob the potential go-ahead run. “Definitely probably the best catch I ever made,” Crawford said. Well, which is it – definitely or probably?

One thing is for sure, the NL just doesn’t seem to have the stable of stars that the AL has. It always seems that the NL has more questionable all stars on their roster than the AL. Maybe that has something to do with this streak, as there were noticably a lot of Yankees and Red Sox hanging out in the dugout. The World Series will once again be giving home field advantage to the AL.