1. That was an enjoyable All-Star Game. Not all of them are. Some of them are slogs that you just want to end so that people can stop complaining about it and where it’s obvious at least some of the players who have left the game have also left the stadium to get a flight back to their hometown or their usual team. But this year, it seemed like everybody was actually enjoying themselves.

2. Okay, there were a few blots. The whole controversy over Adam Wainwright grooving a ball for Derek Jeter, for example, which could all be avoided if the whole home-field advantage thing was dropped (it’s believed Chan-Ho Park did something similar for Ripken in 2001, but there wasn’t home-field at stake then, so nobody cared). And, of course, there was the fact that they went the entire broadcast and not once mentioned Tony Gwynn, apparently having kept all the tributes to him in the pre-game on Fox Sports 1, which nobody was watching. I feel like MLB should have some sort of “In Memoriam” montage in the 4th or 5th inning of every All-Star Game, personally. But that doesn’t happen, so it falls to the announcers to pay tribute, and it’s sad that the passing of a man who was a fixture of the All-Star Game for years didn’t get even a mention.

3. As for the game’s theme? Well, it seems like La Opinion in Los Angeles summed it up:

Derek Jeter is leaving. It’s going to be Mike Trout’s league. He deserved the MVP last night, much like he deserved the last two AL MVPs that he didn’t get and will probably deserve the AL MVP he’ll get this year barring injury or some other unforeseen circumstance. He’s going to be the Face of Baseball, the most common ballplayer in commercials (such as the ones for Subway and Major League Baseball itself that he is in now), the ballplayer even people who never watch baseball will be able to name. It was going to happen anyway (especially if Bryce Harper doesn’t pick up the slack) but last night confirmed it.

4. It was nice that Glen Perkins and Kurt Suzuki, the two Minnesota Twins in the game, got to have a spotlight in the 9th as Perkins came in to close in front of his home (and hometown) fans. Sort of surprised that they didn’t bring in Suzuki as a pinch-hitter in the 8th to give the home fans an at-bat by a Twin, though.

5. All five runs by the AL came off Cardinals pitching, so if the Cardinals make it to the World Series and lose in 7, they have nobody to blame but themselves.