Charlie Manuel will have to think long and hard about his situation at first base for the All Star Game. Albert Pujols is a local favorite and a strong player. Obviously, the hometown crowd would love to see him play the whole game. But the All Star Game never works that way. It’s very rare that anyone ever plays the entire game. This is done partly to minimize the risk of injury, but also to make sure that the crowd gets to see everyone play, and so that everyone gets the chance to play. But at the NL first base position, we see that there will be 4 possible players. None of them are better than Pujols, but one of them is a St. Louis native, and the other ones have very good playing ability too. Manuel will be thinking about this situation to try to arrive at an equitable solution while also giving his team the best chance to win the game.