For the first time since Joey Votto was 12 years old–6th grade (or whatever they call it in Canada)–the National League has won the All-Star game.

Scott Rolen went 1-for-2 with a run scored. Brandon Phillips got a key out. Votto saved some for the sequel. Arthur Rhodes rested. All-in-all, I give Reds almost all of the credit for this win. Hopefully they’ll get all the benefit from it.

Go NL, and Go Reds!

The irony is that just as my summer classes wrapped up, and I can watch baseball without the guilt of not reading my homework, the All-Star Break comes around, preceded briefly by four of the crappiest games the Reds have played all season.

I mean, sure, I have one whole late-game Joey Votto AB to look forward to, but this isn’t exactly a standard week of baseball. That’s probably a good thing, given those four crappy games I just mentioned. Clearly I’m not there, and I can’t say for sure that the team could use a few days off, but I know that, personally, I pretty much always could use a few days off.

In other news, MLB sent me an email with a “reward” for voting in the Last Man competition. Just think: 10 whole days of a free trial of MLB.tv! How did I ever get so lucky?

MLB almost tricked me into entering the Win a Free All Star Batting Practice Jersey contest, by sending the message through Reds.com. “Giving away 30 jerseys?” I thought, “among a hundred thousand people who will enter? I like those odds!” When I read closer and realized it was one jersey per team, so 30 jerseys among 20 million fans, suddenly I found myself not so willing to hand over access to my browser activity after all.

Home Run Derby is tomorrow, and it’s not exactly a magnet for the heavy hitters this year. I like how they’re spinning it on MLB.com

The cast in Monday’s State Farm Home Run Derby may not be as star-studded as in years past, but the intrigue has hardly taken a hit.

It’s “hardly” taken a hit. Just barely. Just entirely. Personally, I may take a nap. I can’t speak for the Reds, but I’m tired.

And it’s about time!

Congratulations to everyone out there who did their part to get Joey Votto elected to the All-Star Game. From Reds.com:

Votto was a machine throughout the Final Vote. The Reds’ first baseman won wire-to-wire, powered by a fury of snub response and leading all vote-getters with 13.7 million en route to becoming the first Cincinnati player to win the All-Star Final Vote.

I think I’ll celebrate my finishing my Business Law final and drinking a Canadian beer. Go Reds!

I love waking up in the morning to find an alert on my phone that the Cardinals bullpen struck again and the team’s early lead evaporated at the last possible moment. St. Louis has had the worst luck this season–enough, I think, to call them snake-bit. It’s about time. This puts the Reds three games into the lead of the division and 12 games over .500. Those are some nice numbers.

The last-man voting for the All-Star Game ends today at 4 p.m. ET, which is a little more than five hours away. If the Twitter feeds are to be believed, there are some people who are really throwing their heart and soul into this vote. A surprising number of people have claimed to have voted “the maximum,” which apparently means they didn’t even go to the site before claiming to have thrown in their lot with Votto, since there is not limit on how many times you can vote in this contest.

That’s right, five hours of voting and no limit on what you, too, can contribute. Even with as slow as the site loads the verification codes, you can squeeze in about 400 votes per hour. You still have time to tack on a couple thousand votes! No lead is safe!

A couple hours after we get the news about whether our voting efforts have been fruitful, the Reds will take on the Phillies. Tonight game will be to take a shot for every line-drive that almost takes Ryan Howard’s head off.

Voting ends at 4 p.m. ET on Thursday. Real fans have voted hundreds, if not thousands, of times, and Votto’s lead remains slim. It’s not too late to do your part and join this elite group of Votto supporters: start now!