There is hardly anything more polarizing in the middle of every season than the arguments on which players should make the various all-star teams. 

Baseball has a rule of one player per team minimum, with a fan vote for starters, a player vote for reserves and the coaches can pick their bullpens. 

Not that the game matters very much, and a lot of the buzz surrounding MLB’s all-star weekend is based on the home run derby, which has seen its tweaks and changes over the last couple of decades.

But the arguments arise — is Player A more deserving than Player B? Well maybe Player C robs both as an inferior player from a major market, like say New York, Boston or Chicago.

The NBA knows who the top players are and the only real controversy is how players are fined for playing defense, which is why a final score of 200-190 might happen this year. The slam dunk contest used to be must-see TV, but now many of the players who are in the game are not ones a casual fan may know.

Derrick Jones Jr.? Dennis Smith Jr.? Who are these guys? Donovan Mitchell won last year, and I’d heard his name on SportsCenter in the background a couple of times before, but this is not the days of Jordan, Kobe, Vince Carter or ’ Nique, the “Human Highlight Reel.” Can we just get LeBron to participate? Please?

Does anyone remember when Fred Jones won in 2004? Wait, is that the same Fred Jones from the Ben Folds Five song? How about Jeremy Evans in 2012? (A collective “Who?” fills the crowd)

Football’s all-star game, known as the Pro Bowl, went from a fun weekend in Hawaii where there were skills, challenges and a light exhibition to Orlando where over half of the starters bailed in fear of getting hurt — or even just resting their bodies for the first time in six months.

“How can we save the Pro Bowl?” has been a question asked for about a dozen years in a row. Ratings are down, and the league for a while couldn’t decide if it should be played the week before or the week after the Super Bowl. 

Now it is held the week before, but players who will be playing in the Super Bowl cannot attend. Which means more replacement players. Usually I am not a fan of a replacement player entering the roster, unless there were a well-known and universally declared snub. That, or they played for my favorite team. Or in the case of hometown hero Alex Erickson, a local kid I know. If Alex made the Pro Bowl, I would be ecstatic.

The NFL has also messed with the game in other ways, like taking away the American vs. National Conference stigma. Dating back to before the two leagues merged, this was a rivalry that has since been lost, and now Hall of Fame players select their teams in a fantasy football-style draft. Yawn.

Perhaps the best all-star game/weekend then is hockey. Between the skills challenge and the series of games themselves, there is a true sense of pleasure watching.

That doesn’t mean that I wasn’t a bit upset that some of my favorite Penguins were left off the roster, however.

But the game(s) itself these days are awesome. Instead of just one game, there is a mini single-elimination tournament where there are teams based off of the four divisions. 

It gets better. Instead of three 20-minute periods, the game is 3-on-3 for two 10-minute halves, with a shootout instead of overtime. Each game follows back-to-back, much like a doubleheader, but actually closer in total time to a normal hockey game.

Pretty much the only thing the NHL has to clean up now is the name of its divisions — something it has never truly gotten correct, which is a shame considering how close they are to making it work. The current outlier is the “Metropolitan Division,” with teams from DC, NYC and Pittsburgh, but also Carolina and Ohio. The other is the Atlantic, where Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa and Buffalo — all inland teams — reside instead of both sea-harboring New York City and their Jersey neighbor.

The brain freeze is real.

­— Adam Krebs is a reporter for the Times and wanted to let you know that the NHL All-Star game is Jan. 26, and that pitchers and catchers begin reporting to Spring Training in 38 days. He can be reached at akrebs@themonroetimes.net.