Baseball needs to embrace its strengths, above all else

Baseball has CLEVELAND — no All-Star problem. The best players in the world hit and pitched their way through a night of glitzy celebration at Progressive Field on Tuesday a show that

— rivaled anything the NFL, NBA, NHL or any other sport puts on. Well done playing host, Believeland.

Baseball might have a starfor-all problem. It lacks a LeBron James or Neymar — athletes who are internationally famous — or even a Tom Brady, whose championship success attracts worldwide attention.

Mike Trout, MLB’s best player, resists being marketed as the face of the game, which might not be a bad thing, considering that he seems to lack the personality to pull it off. Maybe Trout has been misjudged, and behind the scenes, the Los Angeles Angels outfielder is the Will Ferrell of the diamond. If so, few outside the clubhouse see it, which makes branding him difficult.

But baseball’s lack of household-name star power is not the game’s biggest issue. The problem lies more with MLB trying to be something it is not, in hopes of trending younger. Bah. Baseball needs to embrace its strengths instead of apologize for its weaknesses — a challenge, for sure, considering that it is natural to compare itself to other sports.

Our affection increasingly is for the instant and often, but baseball will lose if it tries to keep up with the NBA, which wisely courts younger fans by tapping into a hip-hop culture heavy on celebrity and social media. It’s one thing to keep up with the Joneses, another to keep step with the Kardashians.

Instead, baseball needs to advertise itself as the antiNBA by selling substance over style and promoting its slower pace as an antidote to the rush and bustle of our 24/7 information age. Appeal to our need for peace.

Renewed interest won’t come easily. Fans still attend games — although baseball needs to keep promoting its relaxed in-game experience to draw millennials into stadiums — but MLB supposedly moves too slowly and takes too long to work on TV.

Fair enough. I’m not here to argue culture shift or badmouth younger generations. Instead, baseball should use modern culture to its advantage, beginning with its colorful tradition. Trendologists say young people have little use for history. So sell the game as retro, which is a hipster way of appreciating history.

Baseball needs to better embrace its past, which is why I loved the sleeveless jerseys that Cincinnati wore against Cleveland on Sunday — a tribute to the Reds’ 1956 vest-style tops.

Digging deeper, it’s time for baseball to play hardball with other sports by getting at the essence of what makes it different. (In today’s culture, different is good). What makes it authentic and special?

I asked Boston All-Star outfielder Mookie Betts why he loves baseball.

“It teaches me about life,” he said. “You learn how to fail and how to turn the page.”

Baseball teaches that life isn’t fair.

“When you do something good, it doesn’t always work out well,” Betts said. “If I have a good swing, I can get out. If I have a bad swing, I can be successful.”

Baseball as an object lesson to live by? Works for me.

Indians All-Star reliever Brad Hand has loved the game since he was a boy setting up a sprinkler and playing pickle in his friend’s backyard in Minnesota, sliding between bases.

Baseball as childhood nostalgia? Works for me.

Kansas City All-Star outfielder Whit Merrifield framed his passion for baseball as a mix of poetry and pain.

“It’s a beautiful game, but very tough. There is both a lot of skill but also a lot of mental warfare,” Merrifield said.

Baseball as “Game of Thrones”? Works for me.

It’s time for America’s former national pastime to reassert itself and stop trying to imitate the cool kids.

Be yourself. America loves that.