It does not seem that long ago that I’d spend summer afternoons sitting at my kitchen table scouring an actual paper copy of Newsday for baseball box scores and tracking this statistic and that. But it was. In fact, it was really long ago.  This unhappy grim truth dawned on me tonight when I turned on the #ASG.  Don’t get me wrong: seeing the best players on one field is still #surreal – it’s just that #Idon’tactuallyrecognizemostofthem, especially the ones who aren’t #NewYorkYankees.   #Sandoval? #Gonzalez? There’s a #Fielder named “Prince”? #What?

All of them look like they’re in junior high school. To make matters worse, @GeorgeBrett looks like he could star in a #Cailis commercial, Derek Jeter is a DiMaggio-like elder, Rickey Henderson was hitting weak pop-ups last night in the #lame celebrity softball game against Jenny Finch, and my boyhood hero Don Mattingly – get this – is managing…the freaking Los Angeles Dodgers. (Come to think of it, to my kids, @DonMattingly will be older and more distant than @MickeyMantle was to me.)

 As my teenage nieces might tweet: #Sigh.

@PabloPicasso once said that “Youth has no age.” I have no idea what this means, but I’ll contemplate that while I watch these kids, some of whom were my daughter’s age (under 3) #whenIwasincollege, play the #ASG. #Awesome.