The summertime is kind of a slow time around the Journal-Courier sports department. Once the spring sports seasons conclude, our primary tasks before the start of fall sports are selecting our all-area teams and writing our Player-of-the-Year stories.

This summer, our Player-of-the-Year choices in the aforementioned sports were more clear-cut than usual. Virginia’s Eric Jokisch was easily the best baseball player, and Carrollton’s Kimber Meyer was definitely the best softball player. ISD senior Lacedrix Brown was the best boys’ track athlete, and Pittsfield’s Ashlyn Ruebush ran the anchor leg on three state-qualifying relay teams — a great ending to a great career for the relay specialist.

Filling in the rest of the positions wasn’t as easy. Picking one athlete at each position in baseball and softball is more difficult than it sounds. Questions like: ‘Is batting average more important than RBIs?’ and ‘Are strikeouts more important than a low ERA?’ are constantly asked when we pick these teams.

Let me give you an example of how tough it was to pick this year’s team. In baseball, at the catcher position, there were several qualified candidates to be our first-team catcher. You had Triopia’s Cody Nergenah (.474, 6 HR, 48 RBI), Beardstown’s Kylor Bell (.383, 5 HR, 41 RBI) and Jacksonville’s Levi Graham (.380, 9 2B, 20 RBI) at the top of the list.

Nergenah clearly had the best numbers, but Bell led his team to the state tournament, and reached base in 7-of-11 plate appearances there. Bell drove in four runs in three games at the state tournament, and hit a moon shot home run to get Beardstown into the semifinals. Graham, on the other hand, was one of Jacksonville’s best players. You could argue that he was the best catcher because he produced those statistics against tougher, Class AA competition.

In the end, we picked Nergenah. His 48 RBIs were the most in the area, and he only had 78 at bats — in part because he worked a team-high 23 walks. I’m sure others will disagree with our picks, and that’s understandable. I’m sure the debates we held the night we picked the team will be repeated on baseball and softball diamonds all over the area in the coming weeks.

The point I make is this: Picking these teams isn’t easy. In my experience, there’s almost never a clear-cut pick.

I’ve never written a blog. Before this summer, I’d never read one, either.

But now I have to start writing them. And to spare you from a long, introductory blog, I’ll actually give you my honest opinion about a local sporting event: the West-Central Illinois All-Star Football Game held at Carlinville High School.

Now I know this game was held three weeks ago, and it’s old news by now, but man, was it awful. The field needed to be mowed, the press box was too small, and the P.A. system was far too loud — when it worked. The names and numbers in the program were wrong, and on top of that, none of our local players got to play all that much. Carrollton quarterback Jordan Brannan was relegated to defense for most of the game, and never took a snap. I’d tell you who played quarterback for Brannan’s team, but I honestly don’t know. That player wasn’t listed in the program.

To make things worse, the organizers were silly enough to place all the players from the big Springfield schools on the same team. Real fair, right? The North, led by its stable of Class AA talent, pounded the South, 45-12. Parents in the stands complained loudly that their kids weren’t getting to play. Others shouted to put the starters back in.

Now I know not everybody can walk away happy from an all-star game, but as an unbiased fan — I hope I fall under that category — I don’t think anybody left this game feeling all too cheery. It was a thousand degrees out and the game stunk in every way possible.

If I’m off-base here, let me know. You should be able to comment on the bottom of this blog, or you can e-mail me. If no one can change my mind about this game, we won’t cover it next year. If they can, maybe we will.