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Originally Posted by vrbryant
Ortiz was not voted in by the players. He wasn't placed on the roster by Guillen. He was voted in by the one and only group of participants involved in this process that is utterly unqualified to do so. The [censored]ing fans. The unwashed throng of mindless assheads who don't really 'watch baseball' so much as 'follow their team'. Hey, I follow the Indians. Love 'em. But I can also read numbers. And not only can I read them, I can compare them, analyze them, and decipher - in baseball terms - which ones are better to have.
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The issue with the All Star voting process runs a lot deeper than the simple fact that the fans get to vote. Ballots are available in early April, which is a problem. Ballots are distributed at the ballparks for three months, which is a huge problem. Ballots are distributed by the handful by team employed ushers who urge the home fans to vote for all their favorite teams' players.
The rich get richer.
Every single time a dominant team sprouts up, their entire roster gets rewarded with All Star selections. Before the current trend of Yankees and Red Sox it was the Orioles and the Indians. Its pretty simple -- fans go to games when the team is winning. Lead your division, you'll sell out every game. Sell out every game, then more of your teams' fans will stuff the ballot box with votes for your teams' players.
If this were 1998, Hafner would have outgained Ortiz 4-to-1 in the voting.
I believe the fans
could actually get it right, it's just that MLB has it all wrong. Shorten the window of opportunity for the fans to vote overall, and limit the access to ballots at the ballpark. Maybe MLB could require the parks to set up a booth or two in June only, and require the fans at the ballparks to actively seek out the ballots, rather than hand them out at the gate or aisles when ushers direct people to their seats. Serious fans would take the voting seriously, so make the process one that requires the fans to do a little work to cast their ballots.