Here's how it works: It was merely one of many early game highlights that eventually got lost in the gorgeous lunacy that followed, but what Ichiro Suzuki did in the fourth inning of Tuesday night's All-Star game was Good For Ball.

Albert Pujols ripped a rocket into the tricky right-field corner at Yankee Stadium, and Ichiro, back where he belongs defensively, dug the ball out like he'd been playing there all his life and delivered an absolute dart to nail Pujols at second base.

Never mind that Albert looked safe on replays. The throw called to mind vintage cannons such as those of Roberto Clemente and Dave Parker, whose "Cobra" nickname remains one of the coolest and most fitting of all-time.

Incessant replays of plays on which calls are questionable, however, are Bad For Ball. Doesn't matter whether it's an All-Star Game, a regular-season game or a playoff game. If the ump clearly blew it, show it once, make your point, note that the bang-bang nature of the call made it a tough one, and move on.

It works off the field, too: Souvenir T-shirts, caps and the like are Good For Ball. If you were lucky enough to be at Yankee Stadium this week, you owed it to baseball-loving friends and family to bring home a little slice of history, and you certainly didn't lack for options.

Understatement is your thing? Here's an all-black lid that says, "MLB All-Star Game, N.Y.C. 2008." Like some flavor? Here's a commemorative T-shirt that looks like it came from Woodstock.

That lid and shirt set you back $60, though. And that made you think twice about grabbing something for Uncle Phil, who isn't really a big part of your life anymore but loves the game like nobody you know.

America is all about profit, of course, but if Stephon Marbury can come up with $15 sneakers, surely someone can come up with more affordable All-Star swag. Bad For Ball.

It's simple, really. Everything in life can be labeled in one of two ways: Good For Ball or Bad For Ball. With that in mind, let's take a look around our grand -- and sometimes not-so-grand -- old game and see which label fits where.

Believe the hype: All too frequently, sports fans are led to believe that what they're about to see will be something truly spectacular, only to be disappointed. There was none of that in Gotham this week. If anything, we got more than we bargained for.

Take Josh Hamilton, for instance. Everyone who follows the game saw the eye-popping stats he was putting up in the first half, but because he plays for the Rangers, you rarely saw the man in action. You might have heard what a stud he is, but until you see it with your own eyes, it's all talk.

Thanks to the Home Run Derby, you got to see that Hamilton is, indeed, everything he's been said to be. Maybe more. Forget about the back-story for a moment if you can. Just focus on Josh Hamilton the ballplayer, and consider that he'd played in just 183 big league games going into the All-Star break; he's just scratching the surface right now.

A month or so ago, Rangers bench coach and baseball lifer Art Howe, never one prone to hyperbole, was asked what he thought of Hamilton, who turned 27 in May.

"You mean Mickey Mantle?" Howe responded.

Now you know what he meant. Good For Ball.

Out of focus: Like Hamilton, the final All-Star Game at Yankee Stadium gave us more than we had a right to expect. In addition to the stirring pre-game ceremony featuring 49 Hall of Famers, we were treated to perhaps the most exciting Midsummer Classic of all-time.

Yet in the immediate aftermath, much of the media chose to focus on a negative angle. The game went so long that both teams were down to their last pitcher, and if Michael Young hadn't won it in with that sac fly the bottom of the 15th, we might have seen position players on the mound.

So off went much of the media, railing about the need for further roster expansion, wailing for insurance against a repeat of the 11-inning tie in Milwaukee a few years back.

Ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous.

First of all, what would have been so bad about seeing J.D. Drew on the bump in the top of the 16th? It would have been classic theater. But the most important thing to remember is this: The game was longer than any All-Star Game before it, which truly made it a once-in-a-lifetime circumstance, and it still ended with a winner and a loser. And the winning and losing pitchers were pitchers!

The worst-case scenario never happened. In fact, the best-case scenario came to bear: It was a phenomenal game, and everyone played.

This is why the media has such a bad rap. As the game grew longer, it was obvious that a great many in the business actually wanted the worst-case scenario to play out. And if they'd gotten what they wanted, they'd have complained about it.

It didn't, but they complained anyway. Bad For Ball.

Getting it right: Big ups to American League manager Terry Francona, who seems to have an otherworldly ability to handle every situation with the casual confidence of a man picking wheat toast over light rye with his omelet.

He played the Mariano Rivera/Jonathan Papelbon debate like a genius, playfully refusing to name Mo his closer. It gently fanned the flames of the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry, and that's always a good thing, but he ultimately did what we all knew he'd do: the right thing. Rivera got the ninth inning.

Francona also did the right thing in lifting Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter in the middle of an inning to maximize the love they'd get from their home crowd. It's called class, and Francona has it in abundance. Good For Ball.

Uggly: If you weren't pulling for Florida's Dan Uggla to go deep in his last couple of at-bats, it's a safe bet you never played the game. Watching Uggla's night unfold was to watch a piano prodigy butcher Beethoven's Fifth at Carnegie Hall.

Anyone who grew up playing this game, whether your "career" ended in Little League, high school, college or the Minors, dreamed not just of playing in the big leagues, but of playing in an All-Star Game.

Uggla, whose father, John, is a native New Yorker, probably dreamed of playing in an All-Star Game at Yankee Stadium. But his dream was nothing short of a nightmare. Dan made three errors on routine plays, struck out three times and a hit into a double play, stranding a total of six baserunners.

"It was kind of tough walking out of there last night with an Uggla jersey," John told the Palm Beach Post on Wednesday. "We had a lot of condolences as we were leaving."

Word is he also endured more than a few boos. Bad For Ball.

Speed round: The curveballs that Ben Sheets threw to strike out Hamilton in the first inning were all you needed to see if you didn't like National League manager Clint Hurdle's decision to start Sheets. Hamilton is one of the best hitters on the planet right now, and he didn't come close. Good For Ball. ... A-Rod's white shoes looked awfully sporty and all, and his shoe company had to be thrilled, but they didn't quite match the throw-back vibe of the night. Yankees belong in black spikes. Bad For Ball. ... Carlos Zambrano's mini-eephus pitch to Manny Ramirez was a snapshot of everything the All-Star Game is meant to be. It was two of the game's greats, having a little fun that didn't in any way take away from the intensity of playing for home-field advantage in the World Series. Good For Ball. ... Manny blowing off media day? Whatever. If you aren't from New England, you really don't care what he has to say, anyway, so the no-show was neither Good For Ball nor Bad For Ball. ... One more thought on proposed roster expansion: This isn't Little League, where every 9-year-old makes one of the seven All-Star teams -- Jimmy made the C-3 All-Stars! -- so his or her parents don't tear into the poor volunteer league president. Sixty-four Major League All-Stars is quite enough, thanks. Any more would cheapen the honor. Bad For Ball. ... And finally, can someone please come up with some sort of trophy for Aaron Cook? On three days' rest, he threw 40 pitches over three high-stress innings on Tuesday, and the Houdini job that he pulled with the bags juiced and nobody out in the 10th was -- sorry, J.D. -- the real MVP performance of the night. Good For Ball.