It rolls around every year, as inevitable as the change in seasons and as welcome as the end of a too-long winter.

Well, sort of. Because, while we all love the All-Star Game — baseball’s annual midsummer classic between the National and American Leagues — it seems there’s always something to complain about. From the “tie” fiasco a few years back to the “this time it counts” nonsense that followed, there’s been plenty to talk about in recent years especially. And that doesn’t even include the always stunning final roster announcements — year after year there are always at least a few who don’t belong in the game. And this year is no different.

Long story short: There’s plenty to like about the All-Star Game. There always has been. But there’s also plenty to complain about. Heck, griping about the All-Star Game may have even become a yearly pastime as significant to baseball’s hardcore fans as the actual game itself. With that out of the way, here’s to the cheers, and here’s to the jeers, too.

Cheers to Bud Selig’s decision prior to the 2003 season to award home-field advantage to the league that wins the All-Star game, insuring that at least some people (those with good teams to root for) will be paying attention. As unpopular as the move was at the time, I can’t deny that it does lead me to hate the talk of American League superiority a bit more, and hate the fact that I can’t disprove it still further.

Jeers to the unfairness of it counting. Clever marketing or not, why should the quality of a league on the whole determine which individual team gets home-field advantage for the World Series? Ideally, that advantage should go to the better of the two pennant winners, but since there’s no real way to measure that in baseball, where teams in different leagues only rarely face one another, it’s best to keep it a nice, random kind of flip-flop, as it was before.

Cheers to sending Yankee Stadium out in style. One of the most historic ballparks in baseball is going the way of the dinosaurs who once played there (surely baseball has been around since at least the Jurassic?), and will be bulldozed in favor of a new home for its storied New York franchise following the 2008 season. And given the rise of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and continued post-curse awesomeness of the Boston Red Sox, it’s unlikely the old girl will see any games in the playoffs. One more game in the national spotlight is just what the doctor ordered for all those Yankee-lovers to say goodbye, and the Yankee-haters to say good riddance.

Jeers to the fact that Yankee Stadium is going away at all. Off topic? Yes. But some things are just too sacred to be axed. The truly legendary ballparks — Fenway, Wrigley and Yankee Stadium — should be preserved for future generations to admire, not torn down to appease the wave of the future and earn a few more bucks. I’ve been to the former two parks, but never to Yankee Stadium, and now I apparently never will get to go. A shame, if you ask me.

Cheers to the voters getting it mostly right in the National League this year. Pretty much everywhere you look around the diamond, the deserving were favored over the famous. Hanley Ramirez at shortstop over Miguel Tejada. Lance Berkman at first base over Albert Pujols (who was injured for a good stretch to start the season). Yes, you could make the case that some of those Cubs starters deserve to be backups, but then again you can’t argue too much with the best record in the league getting maybe a bit more than its fair share of midsummer publicity. Add young Phillies ace Cole Hamels to this roster in place of one of the relievers and it’s just about perfect.

Jeers to the American League’s sham of a lineup. How is Dustin Pedroia starting over Ian Kinsler? How is David Ortiz the “starting” DH (who won’t even play) after missing so much time with a wrist injury? How are Jason Varitek and his .220 batting average even on the roster? The answer? Style over substance. Yankees and Red Sox get the pub, so they get the votes, so they get to start, fair or not. Let’s just thank our lucky stars that fans only get to pick the starters, or this would be much, much worse. It should be pointed out that the real head-scratcher here, Varitek, was voted in by his peers within the game, though. If they call Sean Casey “The Mayor” for his pleasant demeanor at first base, they’d better start calling Varitek “The President” after pulling a coup like this.

Love it or hate it, the All-Star Game is back.

Denis Griffin likes neither the Red Sox nor the Yankees. Pat him on the back or call him a loser at djgriff "at" stanford "dot" edu.