MLB All Star Game

There are many traditions in baseball that make it America’s pastime, but none have the history and excitement associated with the MLB All-Star Game. The 2014 edition of the Midsummer Classic will live up to the lofty expectations.

With many of the top players in the league taking the field at the same time, fans will be treated to an amazing battle between the best pitchers in baseball and the elite hitters in the sport.

With the 2014 Home Run Derby coming Monday, July 14—that's less than a week away!—and most of the players participating having just been picked, it's time to evaluate and grade the jobs done by Troy Tulowitzki and Jose Bautista, the captains who did said picking for the Nation

Voting for the 2014 MLB All-Star Game has officially come to a close.

As the Midsummer Classic approaches, all we can do now is speculate which players will earn enough votes to make the team and a starting role in the game.

The American League featured several close positional battles from the last time MLB.com released the standings. We won't know the official results until rosters are announced on Sunday.

The idea of Major League Baseball's All-Star Game is sound. It's designed to gather the best players in the league in one place, and it mostly succeeds at doing so.

But not always. On occasion, players who have no business being called "All-Stars" end up at the Midsummer Classic. It's our duty as honest, baseball gods-fearing citizens to not forget them.

It may not coincide with some ridiculous campaign commercials dished out by rich politicians, but the 2014 MLB All-Star vote has been entertaining nonetheless.

Like any formal political vote, the MLB's deadline is rapidly approaching, and each and every tally will count. Some positions are such toss-ups at this juncture that it's hard to imagine who comes out on top.

As long as MLB All-Star Game voting is done by the fans, there will always be cases where popularity wins out over production—and this year is no different.

While the game does mean something these days with home-field advantage in the World Series at stake, it is still very much an exhibition for the fans, and they certainly have the right to elect the starter they want to see play.

The third-round voting results for the 2014 MLB All-Star Game have been released, and while the game is still over a month away, we are already starting to get a good idea of what the rosters could look like on July 15.

Baltimore Orioles first baseman Chris Davis led everyone with 8,272,243 votes last season, while St. Louis Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina paced the National League with 6,883,248 votes.

In the hierarchy of professional and collegiate sports in the United States, Major League Baseball ranks fifth in terms of popularity. Football is king in America and basketball takes the silver medal. Baseball has gradually lost its appeal and consequently, part of its fan base.

Manny Machado did it again.

The Baltimore Orioles' talented young third baseman showed off his cannon of an arm during the 2013 MLB All-Star Game.

Machado robbed what looked to be a clear hit for Arizona Diamondbacks first baseman Paul Goldschmidt, who hit a rocket down the third base line. Goldschmidt looked like he could cruise into first, but Machado took away the hit.

There is this ever-prevailing sentiment that MLB's All-Star Game is the only such one among the United States' four major sports that actually "means something."

And, piety of that statement aside, it's mostly based in truth.