Last Night's Winner: Kansas City

In sports, everyone is a winner—some people just win better than others. Like the good people of Kansas City, Mo., who received the 2012 MLB All-Star Game, for some reason. No clear reason, actually.

Though it's been rumored for a year, Bud Selig took to the Royals' broadcast booth during last night's rain delay to officially announce Kauffman Stadium as the host for the All-Star festivities.

Here is where we remind you of all the new ballparks around the league that have never hosted an All-Star Game: the Great American Ballpark, Nationals Park, Citi Field, CItizens Bank Park, PETCO Park, Target Field, New Yankee Stadium.

All-Star Games should be about either showcasing shiny new stadiums, or beautiful old ones. And while Kauffman may be old (it already hosted an All-Star Game in 1973), it's far from beautiful, or historic. Take a look at the Wikipedia section on Kauffman Stadium's history. It jumps directly from "Royals win the World Series in 1985" to "Bud Selig announces it will host the 2012 All-Star Game."

But, then, this feature is titled "Last Night's Winner," so what do the fine folks of KCMO win? Well, not a heck of a lot. I always thought it would be super neat for an ASG to be in my town, until it actually happened a couple years ago. I couldn't get tickets to the game, nor the home run derby. All I got was the ability to say, when they showed a part of the stadium on TV, that I kind of know what that looks like in real life.

Sure, Bud Selig promises a $70 million economic impact for Kansas City. But those estimates have repeatedly been debunked as, well, bunk. Much of that money would have been spent on something else, and much of it goes outside the region.

And as for claims that it will revitalize baseball in Kansas City, well, tell that to Pirates fans, whose beautiful new ballpark received the ASG in 2006, and the team has been even worse since, if that's possible.

We probably shouldn't have expected otherwise from baseball, which often shows little rhyme or reason on decisions like these. In fact, just take this column and replace every mention of Kauffman Stadium with never-beloved Angel Stadium, which is hosting the game next month — for the third time.