By Jerry Dowling

Among the less acceptable marketing contrivances cooked up by the Major League Baseball commissioner's office is the bit about how "this time the All-Star Game counts." It's the same line MLB took last year, and it wasn't really true then either.

We live in a nasty world today, and what once was a perfectly fine discussion about the parallel structure of the American and National leagues is a silly quibble in light of short memories, a wobbly economy and escalating madness in the Middle East. If the American and National leagues live nothing more than an artificial separation, it could be wrong, but it's not an important fight today. One almost longs for a day when it was.

At this time of year, though, some of us pause to miss it, to lament the lost differences that once made professional baseball truly a special game, one so cosmic that it needed to coin a term, Major League, to cover two major leagues when every other sport had only one.

The American League game was one version. The home plate umpires wore block chest protectors, forcing their heads higher relative to the strike zone and forcing the pitcher to throw a higher strike. The American League parks, for accidental reasons, were older and more tailored to baseball, generally shaped for conformity with city blocks. The designs resulted in outfield walls cut in angles to bounce batted balls back to the middle of the field, reducing the need for speedy outfielders and commending the use of stocky outfielders who could pull those high strikes over the angled fences.

The National League played the fast game on AstroTurf with circular fences. The pitchers worked lower because that's where the home plate umpire worked. Most of the bad ball parks were in the NL, which, not at all by coincidence, played the better, more exciting baseball. More action took place on the field, as opposed to the strike zone, because the outfields were large and played fast, valuing speed and throwing arms on outfielders who challenged their speedy counterparts running the base paths.

Once upon a time, Major League Baseball was, in essence, two different sports, never to meet except for meaningless spring exhibitions, the ultimately meaningful World Series and the symbolically meaningful All-Star Game.

At one time, the All-Star Game counted. The two leagues were nearly separate cultures with completely separate habits and histories. Each league office emphasized winning. But the world has changed around the All-Star Game, which will be played this year in Houston on July 13.

New parks have been built nearly everywhere, and now almost everyone plays on grass with angled walls, like the old American League. But all the home plate umpires wear the inside chest protectors of the old National League. Whatever the umpires wear and however they call it, they all answer to the same superiors in the commissioner's office, for the league offices to which they used to answer have been disbanded.

Finally, two years ago, the pretense of the All-Star Game under conditions of uniformity between the leagues came to full fruit with an extra-inning tie in the Milwaukee event, Bud Selig's gift to the town that made him famous.

So interleague play, by itself, hasn't hurt the All-Star Game or the World Series. It's more the case that both interleague play and the fall of the All-Star game are symptoms of a broader administrative trend away from the distinction between the leagues. And that does hurt the game, aesthetically if not economically.

Just to make it a little more interesting, the commissioner's office has put through the idea that the winning side in the All-Star Game should be given home field advantage in the World Series. Typically, Selig and his office, having compromised MLB's competitive structure and legitimacy, seek to fix the problem with a gimmick.

The home field stakes in the All-Star Game began last year and made no difference. The New York Yankees won home field advantage with an American League All-Star Game victory, only for the NL's Florida Marlins to beat them in six games and celebrate at Yankee Stadium.

So, now they tell us that this year it counts. Well, the All-Star Game would count only if it were truly a contest between two rival leagues, as it used to be.

Another detriment to baseball's All-Star Game now is the lack of eye-popping performances this season. In many cases, the ballot choices are the lesser of evils. Talent is condensed into a few positions, where the choice is difficult for the opposite reason.

Being familiar enough with the Reds to understand a thing or two outside the statistics, one noteworthy feature of both the balloting and the season in general is that the top two Reds players are putting in top years, meaning it would be permissible to vote Sean Casey at first base and Junior Griffey in the outfield. And as long as no obviously better shortstop has emerged while Barry Larkin makes his important contributions, he stands a good chance of making his last All-Star Game appearance.

Through June 27, Casey led the NL in hitting at .352 and his punch is up a bit this year. Casey led every NL first baseman except Milwaukee's Lyle Overbay and Philadelphia's Jim Thome, each with one more. Casey's 15 homers were bettered only by Thome (26), St. Louis' Albert Pujols (20) and New York's Mike Piazza (16) among NL first basemen. But Pujols leads the balloting and evidently will be the popular choice.

That said, first base in the AL is impossible to pick for different reasons. The big names aren't so great this year, and neither is anyone else. You can pick between Chicago's Paul Konerko (.281, 19 homers), Kansas City's Ken Harvey (a slumping .335 with eight homers) or Oakland's Scott Hatteberg (.319, 10 homers). Yawn. The vote leader is the Yankees' Jason Giambi (.237, 11 homers). Snooze.

Second base is another loser in the AL, with only Chicago's Juan Uribe (a dropping .294, 10 homers) and Texas' Alfonso Soriano (.296, 11 homers) appearing as worthy candidates. Perhaps living off the largesse of Yankees fans who have put Giambi into the first base lead, Soriano, the man traded for Alex Rodriguez, is in a tussle with Anaheim outfielder Vladimir Guerrero for the total AL voting lead. The National League selection is little more illustrious, but it includes Houston's Jeff Kent (.287, 10 homers, 51 RBI).

How would you like to be picking a shortstop in the NL this year? Perhaps you just can't make yourself vote for Larkin, the Reds' 40-year-old shortstop. But Larkin is hitting .299, third among NL shortstops, and he brings a lot more to the table than the two in front of him, Pittsburgh's Jack Wilson (.339) and Los Angeles' Cesar Izturis (.303).

Of course, shortstop has been the American League's strongest position for years. The choices are endless. Derek Jeter, the Yankee great, leads the balloting but is batting only .266. The position's best two offensive player this year are new names -- Texas' Michael Young, batting .327 with 10 homers, and Detroit's Carlos Guillen, hitting .312 with 11 homers.

Probably the most interesting balloting problem pops up at third base in the American League. ARod is right there at .288 with 19 homers and leads the balloting. But the best performances lie elsewhere -- Baltimore's Melvin Mora is hitting .355 with 12 homers, while Hank Blalock of Texas is hitting .310 with 18 homers.

While a good number of third basemen are producing in the National League, no one's in a league with St. Louis' Scott Rolen, hitting .347 with 18 homers, 76 RBI and a 1.042 OPS, all the highest league marks among third basemen. In another year, maybe Chicago's Aramis Ramirez, Florida's Mike Lowell or Los Angeles' Adrian Beltre would be moving up.

As is so often the case in All-Star balloting, it becomes a personality contest in the hands of fans. No other reason can explain how Piazza is leading the National League catchers, even though he almost never plays the position. The next obvious choice is the Dodgers' Paul LoDuca, though no one's better than the Atlanta Braves' Johnny Estrada, batting .339 with 44 RBI in 221 at-bats.

In the American League, it has to be the Detroit Tigers' Pudge Rodriguez, who's enjoying the best offensive season among all AL players, let alone catchers, hitting .372 with a .961 OPS and 54 RBI.

The outfield selections in the American League could have been easy. In left field, it's Boston's Marry Ramirez, hands down. In center field this year, the AL's best offensive performer was Kansas City's Carlos Beltran (.895 OPS, 13 homers) -- but the Royals moved him to Houston last week and he has almost no chance of being in the game now. Guerrero is the easy leader in right field.

The top NL names in the outfield -- Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa and Griffey -- are the top vote-getters. But as Sammy has batted just 165 times this year, Pittsburgh's Craig Wilson, Philadelphia's Bobby Abreu or Florida's Miguel Cabrera would be better selections for right field.

Bonds, as always, is off the charts in left field, but Houston's Lance Berkman is having a very nice year. In center field, it's got to be our man Junior. No NL center fielder has hit more homers or RBI than Griffey's 19 and 54.

One almost gives the nod to Griffey on historic greatness, much the same way Sosa leads in right field despite his 12 homers and 29 RBI. A half dozen NL right fielders are solid without being spectacular this year. The pick here would be Abreu, who has 15 homers, 15 steals and a .973 OPS.

The All-Star Game once again will showcase the game's best talent. But it isn't going to "count," whatever the commissioner's office says.