As a baseball fan, this time of year makes me excited.

Not only do we get to cheer on our young teams that are vying for a state title, we get to do it without having to leave our town.

What makes me most excited, however, is next week’s MLB all-star break.

There is just something about sitting in your living room and watching people just a bit older than me (22) take a baseball and hit it 400-plus feet.

I love seeing the spectacle and the joy of the newest all-stars with their cameras, recording every single event; which is a good thing, because this year will be full of those players.

There is a joy in seeing other players gasp in awe over their peers’ accomplishments.

If you question my thoughts on the Home run Derby, just watch a replay of what Texas Rangers star slugger Josh Hamilton did last year in Yankee Stadium or Ryan Howard a year before that.

These players take the hardest thing to do in sports and just make it look like child’s play.

The beauty of the All-Star game is that it is truly the fans’ game. The players aren’t selected by their peers or coaches like the Pro Bowl and there is actually defense to go along with offense unlike the NBA’s live version of NBA Jam.

This year, the fans of the game have gone away from the old stand-by players.

Young talent will be on display as many of the players will be first time all-stars.

The other beauty for me is the memories that these games pass on.

Year after year, my father and I would sit, watching the best players in the game and he would use it as a teaching tool for me.

During the breaks, he would tell stories of the classic games he had seen in the past and I would listen and wonder which ones were true (Those of you who know my dad can appreciate that.)

I want to take my time in the rest of this column to urge fathers of young and old ballplayers to sit down and watch this game with your children as your parents did with you.

Baseball has long been proven to be a generational sport. What is more American than bonding with your son over a baseball game with hot-dogs and hamburgers in hand?

So this July 13 and 14, take your little players, sit them down next to you and make some memories of your own with the background of the best in baseball playing America’s Pastime.