Japan’s first all-star game was played Wednesday, and despite that, there was actual news, involving the Rakuten Eagles and their coaches, and the extraordinary players union meeting that takes place every year at this time.

Japan has two all-star games now, instead of the three NPB used to impose on us, and each is preceded by a home run derby between eight players. The current format is a vast improvement over what we used to have which was two different kinds of derby in each park with two winners each year, and few people understanding what was going on.

The advantage of people not really following it allowed pitcher Kazuhisa Ishii one year to swap uniforms with Yoshinobu Takahashi and take some of his cuts in the home run derby. But other than that, it was pretty lame.