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- TONY BLOGS.NET discusses FX’s new project, “The League,” which is a comedy about fantasy football.

- DEADSPIN takes a crack at trying to fix President Obama’s throwing motion after he threw like a girl out the first pitch of the All-Star Game Tuesday night.

With their 4-3 win over the National League in Tuesday night’s All-Star Game, the American League has now beaten their counterpart 13-straight times in the Midsummer Classic.

While some are quick to suggest that the AL might have more overall talent than the NL and that’s why it has had so much success in the ASG over the years, apparently the real reason for the AL’s dominance can be linked to the Mariners’ Ichiro Suzuki and his profanity-laced pregame speeches.

The tradition began in 2001, Ichiro’s first All-Star appearance, and the AL hasn’t lost a game since. Coincidence?

Um. No.

“I know how important it is to the game,” Ichiro said. “I’m more concentrated at that moment than I am in the game.”

A wide grin spread across his face. Ichiro’s secret had been exposed, so, hey, why not have fun with it?

The exact words are not available. Players are too busy laughing to remember them. Ichiro wouldn’t dare repeat them in public. So here’s the best facsimile possible.

“Bleep … bleep bleep bleep … National League … bleep … bleep … bleeeeeeeeep … National – bleep bleep bleepbleepbleep!”

“If you’ve never seen it, it’s definitely something pretty funny,” Morneau said. “It’s hard to explain, the effect it has on everyone. It’s such a tense environment. Everyone’s a little nervous for the game, and then he comes out. He doesn’t say a whole lot the whole time he’s in there, and all of a sudden, the manager gets done with his speech, and he pops off.”

And onto the field they go, enemies during the regular season, friends because together they just saw a 5-foot-9, 160-pound man from Japan, a national icon who surely could win office there, create beef where there wasn’t any.

I’ve obviously never seen Ichiro’s pregame speech, but if it’s anything like Isuro “Kamikaze” Tanka’s inspirational pregame speech to the Tribe in “Major League II,” I can see why the AL has dominated the NL for over a decade.