Hey now…you’re an All-Star…or are they?

So we are a little less than a month out till the 80^th Midsummer’s Classic—who’s excited?  Baseball season as a whole pretty much gets me off, but there is nothing like seeing the best players from every team in respective leagues coming together on one field, in a game that now actually means something.

But here is the question, what really makes a MLB All-Star?  Are fans simply voting like they would for High School superlatives? How else are you supposed to argue the reason that Jimmy Rollins is first in NL SS voting with an astounding .221 batting average, with 5 HRs and 25 RBIs. NEWSFLASH baseball fans: Just because J-R was the MVP two years ago and World Series Champion last year does not give him bragging rights to be this year’s starting shortstop.

This is not just me trashing a guy who beat my Dodgers last year in the NLCS.  This is me ragging on fans who vote based on players who have grown into walking brands at their position.  A-Rod, your not an All-Star this year. Give it up bro.  Manny, you’re my boy and I rep your jersey (more like shirt) to Chavez Ravine and shit (even when you are sitting out 30% of the season), but frankly, you are not an All-Star…at least not this year. Sure it’d be sick to see you go yard and win the Derby (which I will probably vote for you in), but to be one of my starting outfielders…well I just can’t do it.  Why? Well, Manuel, you don’t deserve it this year, even if you did leave us on May 7^th batting .348, with 6 jacks and 20 runs batted in, not to mention 22 runs scored—HAAP.  So let me attempt to make a point and try to stick by it.

Argument: MLB All-Star voting and subsequently the game itself have turned into fans voting for the most popular players and not the best at their position during the season.  So the question remains: What the hell makes an All-Star? Is it only the league leaders? Any why on earth do I have to vote for all outfielders as a whole and not each position in the outfield on its own?

I know this is sports entertainment and people are entitled to vote however they damn-well please, be it for their HOME team or for all-time greats, like Chipper Jones and Ken Griffey.  But, just because players like these are future Hall of Famers, it does not validate or justify that they are All-Stars every season.  And I know that the game “means something” now, with the outcome of the game determining home field advantage in the World Series, so fans feel they need to vote for guys who are not just the best for one season but have consistently proved to be the best. But shouldn’t it mean that the voting be about a fan’s own self-interest in their own club, whereby I vote for the best players TODAY, this season, so that my team (in this case the Dodgers) should be all set in October.  Red Sox Fans: stop voting for Pedroia—he is not playing All-Star caliber baseball. Guys like Aaron Hill and Ian Kinsler will give the American League the best shot at winning and therefore, come Fall Classic, if Red Sox can get far, they will be thanking the likes of those second basemen and not their balding 25-year old.

I’d love to vote for Manny this year, especially with the Dodgers off to their best start since 1974. But, steroid allegations absolutely aside, he hasn’t played!  He could have been out 50 games with a some injury and I still would not vote for him.  Me not voting for these guys first is not a slap in the face—it’s me being real with how it actually is.

For years there has been back and forth between players, coaches and managers getting the ultimate vote and the fans. Quick history lesson brought to you by baseball historians Ken Burns and Bill James:

In 1957, fans of the Cincinnati Reds stuffed the ballot box and elected 7 Reds players to start in the All-Star Game. They were:

Johnny Temple, 2B

Roy McMillan, SS

Don Hoak, 3B

Ed Bailey, C

Frank Robinson, LF

Gus Bell, CF

Wally Post, RF

The only non-Red elected to start for the National League was St. Louis Cardinals’ first baseman Stan Musial. While the Reds were known to be a great offensive team with many outstanding position players, most baseball observers agreed that they did not deserve seven starters in the All-Star Game. An investigation showed that over half of the ballots cast came from Cincinnati. The Cincinnati Enquirer had printed up pre-marked ballots and distributed them with the Sunday newspaper to make it easy for Reds fans to vote often. There were even stories of bars in Cincinnati not serving alcohol to customers until they filled out a ballot. Commissioner Ford Frick decided to appoint Willie Mays of the New York Giants and Hank Aaron of the Milwaukee Braves to substitute for Reds players Gus Bell and Wally Post (Oh no, not Mays and Aaron). In addition, Frick decided to strip the fans of their voting rights. Managers, players, and coaches picked the entire team until 1969, when the vote again returned to the fans.

To guard against further ballot stuffing, since 1969, each team has been given the same number of ballots to hand out. In 1998, that number was roughly 400,000 ballots. Obviously now, online voting has again raised that past fear of ballot stuffing.

Bottom line:  Let’s not be silly when we vote.  Try to not to just vote for the “well-known” guys.  For example, I think David Wright is a great third baseman and is having a pretty good year batting .351, with about 40 runs batted in and 4 jacks.  But why is Casey Blake not even in the top 5 for 3B in the NL? Can someone tell me why his .305, 10 and 41 is not considered “all-star” distinction? Or why even dare I say…Pablo Sandoval is not considered with a .330 average? He also has more home runs and almost the same amount of RBI’s as Wright—so why is there not even the, at least consideration and talk of him being an all-star?  Well it goes back to the fact that we are afraid of who and what we do not know. Who is Adrian Gonzalez? Will Miguel Tejada even make the All-Star team in the best season he’s had since his MVP days for A’s?  And Victor Martinez—the guy is listed as a catcher, but plays first base—sure he may make the AS team as the lone representative from the Indians, but which more or less the best average in the AL. Baseball is an evolutionary game—we can’t be hoping and wishing Ken Griffey Jr. is a going to be an All-Star because frankly Ken-those days are long gone.  The game develops incrementally and we have new players every few years.   We have to know how to recognize guys under the radar who put up great numbers and are important to their team’s success. And fine is it always is A-Rod and Jeter and every other Yankee and Red Sox—so be it.  But don’t simply settle for perennial guys, when there is great talent not right in front of you. Sorry but Josh Hamilton is not an All-Star.  Maybe in the HR Derby.

 

With that said, I am going to be bold and daring and show you the “2009 Should-Be Midsummer Classic.” (Starters first; reserves second)

 

National League:

C: Brian McCann and Bengie Molina

1B: Albert Pujols and Adrian Gonzalez

2B: Chase Utley and Orlando Hudson

SS: Miguel Tejada and Hanley Ramirez

3B: Ryan Zimmerman and David Wright

OF: Ryan Braun, Carlos Beltran and Raul Ibanez; Brad Hawpe and Justin Upton

American League:

C: Joe Mauer and Jorge Posada

1B: Justin Morneau and Victor Martinez

2B: Aaron Hill and Ian Kinsler

SS: Jason Bartlett and Derek Jeter

3B: Evan Longoria and Mark DeRosa

OF: Ichiro Suzuki, Torii Hunter and Adam Jones; Carl Crawford and Ben Zobrist

Matt Cain versus Roy Halladay in the pitching matchup. Even though it could be Lincecum or Billingsley versus Greinke. Wow.

Take it or leave it. Call me crazy. That’s how I see it.

The one question I pose to all of you LA folk is this: If Manny Ramirez does make the All-Star game, then Juan Pierre should be his honorary guest.  Pierre has saved the Dodgers. Fine-he has no homeruns and only 22 RBIs, but that guy has been an all-around flare and burst the Dodgers needed when their world collapsed on May 7^th. 

 

See you all July 14.

~ by sportsyente on June 21, 2009.