When it comes to the MLB All Star game, it’s always something.

Once the game was one of only two opportunities, the World Series being the other, for the American and National Leagues to square off. There was a real rivalry. League presidents (such positions no longer exist) would give pre-game pep talks. The teams played to win.

Today there is interleague play and players come and go among teams in both leagues so frequently there is little player or fan attachment to a league. Winning the game matters little to players, and I suspect little to most fans.

The game is now an extravaganza, a gathering of stars. It’s Oscar night without the Oscars, just the parading of baseball’s most famous. The introductions have become more important than the game.

MLB, however, is stuck in an understandable time warp. It wants the game to matter and therein lies the overriding problem. So, MLB changed the selection process to a system nobody understands.

They want the fans involved, so fans select the starters, complete with ballot-box stuffing and organized team efforts supporting their players. They want players and managers involved so the best are not overlooked, so they vote for nonstarters and pitchers.

They want MLB.com advertised, so the last two selections for each team are Internet votes from a list, generated by MLB, of five per league. They want each team represented, so a couple of players who would never be selected by anyone end up on the teams to fulfill this requirement.

There are big credibility problems right away with this system. It is a hodge-podge, tinker toy assemblage of players based not on who’s having the best season so far, but on how do we please everybody and still make the game meaningful.

Actually, there has never been a clear definition of who should be an All Star. Is it the best in the first half of each year? Is it the best of the game, even if they are having a bad start? Is it whom the fans most want to see, regardless of how the season’s going?

Additionally, the game now decides home field advantage for the World Series. Does this raise the importance of the All-Star game or shrink the meaning of the World Series? How can the World Series team with the best regular season record not get home field? That hasn’t been the criteria, the advantage being rotated, and won’t be the deciding factor this year.

Then add the age-old problem of which comes first, the All-Star game or a player’s team. Carlos Tosca, manager of the Blue Jays, does not want his All Star starter, Roy Halladay, to pitch. Halladay is to start games immediately before and after the All Star event.

If this game is going to decide home field for the World Series, and the game is supposed to mean something, can team managers call the All-Star manager and sit their players, as they have in the past?

Finally, players mouth all the right words about the honor of a being selected. In a way they mean it because of the recognition and the bonuses many have in their contracts for making the team. However, most stars would rather have the days off.

Take the World Series out of this. Let players and managers select the starters and pitchers based on the best first half of the year. Let the fans select nine players by position based on this season and overall career performance. Let the MLB commissioner add two if he deems it necessary to recognize a legend of the game.

Then play, knowing the game is just for fun – what a concept.

Old Town native Gary Thorne is an ESPN and NBC sportscaster.