My age may be showing here, but I remember a time when you could go to Major League Baseball park on a warm June evening, grab a handful of All-Star ballots and spend the better part of the first two innings punching out those little holes by your favorite players' names.

You had to be sure to not leave any hanging chads, though. It had to be pristine or you risked your votes not counting.

Baseball democracy at its finest.

You poked out a few serious ones — using your brain, not you heart, to vote for who you thought deserved to go.

Then you punctured a few from the heart — your favorite players, or a ballot of all players from your favorite team.

Then, just for fun, you submitted a terrible one — voting for every undeserving player you could find. Players who were hurt. Players who were batting .199. Players who might have already been released or retired. You got a kick out of that. It made you laugh.

Now, those days are gone.

You can no longer cast punch-card ballots at the ballpark. You can only vote electronically.

And something has been lost.

I may be showing my age here again, but there was a time when I lived for the All-Star Game. I spent the day waiting impatiently for it to arrive.

Now, I couldn't care less.

I took a look at the All-Star starters list for this season, which was released last night, and was, “Meh.”

Sure, the starters look impressive and there are some nice stories, like Carlos Santana getting the nod at first in the American League at his home park in Cleveland (after a one-year hiatus last season in Philadelphia).

Hunter Pence gets to make a start at designated hitter in the AL and he deserves the nod, even though he currently resides on the 10-day Injury List (don't call it the DL).

The average age of the NL starting lineup is 25.8 with Freddie Freeman the greybeard at 29 years old.

Freeman narrowly beat out Pittsburgh Pirate Josh Bell by 1.1 percent of the vote.

Bell will be there, though.

So will other deserving players who didn't win a starter's slot.

Other than the prestige of being voted a starter, it means nothing.

The reserves often play just as much as the starters.

Bell will get ample opportunities to mash.

Really, the home run debry has become much more popular than the game itself, which is little more than a scrimmage at this point.

The days of Pete Rose barreling into Ray Fosse are long gone.

And so are the days of me breathlessly awaiting the All-Star Game, sadly.

So, here's to the derby! And here's to someone bringing back the paper ballots again!

Mike Kilroy is a staff writer for the Butler Eagle.