As baseball’s annual All-Star game gets under way for the 78th time in 2011, I feel compelled to redirect my thoughts and from the ills of the world to America’s sport and all the heroes and legends that it brings to mind.

All-star games are supposed to comprise the very best players in the game into one field, regardless of the team or city they play for. Yes, it’s a commercial enterprise, but the fans love it, and it’s worth seeing players like Pujols and Halladay and Fielder and Bautista and Jeter all together at one time, one place, one team, one game, even if the end result means nothing.

Baseball is a game Ddominated by statistics. Player contracts, team performance and entry into the fabled Hall of Fame are all based on the numbers. But numbers can be deceiving.

Pitcher Nolan Ryan had almost as many losing seasons as he had winning. That was because he drew the short straw in playing with losing teams who couldn’t swing bats and score runs. Nevertheless, he amassed 324 lifetime wins with four teams which would have easily totaled over 400 had he played for the Yankees or the Dodgers. In one …

One moment can alter the life of a human being forever.

Such was the case on October 3^rd, 1951.

I was a lad of 12 years, stopping off at a friend’s house after school. He and his father were listening intensely to the small wood radio atop a dresser. Baseball. Didn’t interest me much…then. The mood seemed tense. I could hear the crowd hooting and hollering in the background as the announcer jabbered on over the static. My friend motioned me over to listen. Our ears neared the machine.

Ninth inning. The count was two balls and two strikes. Two men on base for the Giants. One more out and the Dodgers would win the pennant. Suddenly, the sound of a “crack” echoed in a brief chasm of silence. The crowd roared. The announcer (Russ Hodges) went ballistic, screaming over and over… “The GIANTS WIN THE PENNANT, THE GIANTS WIN THE PENNANT…” My friend and his father started dancing and screaming all over the living room, and I felt this surge of elation, caught up in the excitement, so I danced with them, singing, “The Giants Won The Pennant, The Giants Won The Pennant…” not knowing what …

In 1997, golfer Fuzzy Zoeller suggested that Tiger Woods would have everyone eat fried chicken and collard greens for the champion’s dish at the post-Masters dinner. Well, Zoeller didn’t eat fried chicken or collard greens. Rather, he at his words. He was vilified in the public eye, lost a million-dollar sponsorship and will be forever remembered for making such a comment. Neither did Zoeller know that the man he made fun of would make mince-meat of him as a professional golfer.

What did Tiger — who happens to be of color — make of it? Nothing. He ignored it and went on to enjoy his first of, what was destined to be, many major championships. By doing so, Zoeller’s ignorant remarks stood on their own. He had to live with them.

If similar comments were said of other well-known persons of color, we would have heard speeches about racial inequity and prejudice and divide. In Tiger’s case, he only needed to be better.

Rarely does one get the feeling that they live in an era of greatness. My respect for Tiger Woods is not only limited to his sport, I admire him as a human being, and as an …

Imagine, being a Christian and then learning that Jesus was a thief. Or that Celine Dion never really sings, she lip syncs.

This isn’t quite that drastic, but I’m crushed nonetheless. One of my sports idols has fallen from the pedestal. It’s not an easy feeling to have admired a person for so long, and then learn he or she isn’t worthy. It’s no different than having trusted a good friend only to learn that trust has been violated.

It doesn’t matter if it’s sports, music or acting, we human beings admire, and often idolize those who excel over others in their field because, well, they deserve it. Deniro, Streep, Heifetz, Pavarotti, Ruth, Woods, are all names that are instantly recognized and associated with greatness in their respective fields, because they deserve it. That’s the operative word: Deserve.

The best athletes excel over others because of two salient factors: Talent and hard work. The premise is that all competitors start out on an even playing field, and only the best rise to the top.

There is no room for a third factor: Cheating.

When the Mitchell report was released this past Thursday, naming more than eighty baseball cheaters …