pablo sandoval

All-Star games are not a spectacle anymore. Across the board, in every sport, All-Star games are starting to lose their luster, the interest of wanting to see glorified exhibition games slowly waning.

The general belief is that players recovering from hamate bone surgery -- as the Orioles' Nick Markakis is now -- have a short recovery time, but it can take a while for them to regain their power at the plate.

His right arm in a sling after morning surgery to remove a broken bone in his wrist, Orioles right fielder Nick Markakis said he hopes to be back in the lineup before the estimated three to four weeks of recovery time.

Sports nicknames, a once grand convention of American sportswriting, have been downgraded to mere abbreviations or nonsensical appropriations. How long until China passes us up on this one, too?