Baseball fans prove they know their game
Posted: Sunday, July 05, 2009 5:07 PM
There’s enough to quibble about in the all-star rosters announced Sunday to give the baseball wonks plenty to whine about on the blogs. This is no surprise. Anytime you choose anything by a subjective vote rather than objective accomplishments, you’re going to have arguments.
But on the whole, the fans did a darned good job of picking the starting lineups for both leagues. This, too, should not be a surprise. Despite the tendency to vote for home-town heroes and long-time stars no longer on top of the game, baseball fans are incredibly knowledgeable about their sport. And with rosters expanded to 33 players per team, most of the deserving players skipped over by the fans make the team anyway.
This is quite a change from the supposed good old days, when teams did everything they could to stuff the ballot boxes. The Cincinnati Reds in 1957 handed out pre-punched ballots to fans, who dutifully turned them in. The result was seven Reds starting in the Midsummer Classic.
For a while after that, baseball took the vote away from the fans, which is never a good idea. Baseball recognized that and gave the vote back to the people who buy the tickets.
That’s the important thing to remember every time you want to scream about Derek Jeter being named the starting shortstop for the American League. Okay, so he’s not the best shortstop in baseball – not by a long shot. But he’s the guy the fans want to see. And when he’s had his three innings, Jason Bartlett is there to step in.
It’s the same with the other “questionable” starters. Josh Hamilton is not an all-star this year. But fans remember his tremendous first half last year, his inspiring personal battle with drug abuse and the magnificent show he put on in last year’s home run derby in Yankee Stadium.
Again, this is a guy the fans want to see because of what he did last year. You can argue that the picks are supposed to be on what people do this year, but the truth is that when the NFL used player votes as the sole means of picking Pro Bowl teams, the players often voted just like the fans. They went for the biggest stars, not the best players.
The other tough calls in the AL are Mark Teixeira at first base over Justin Mourneau and Dustin Pedroia over Aaron Hill at second.
As good as Teixeira is, Mourneau is better, but this is the Yankees against the Twins, and we know who's going to win that one every time. Besides, the guy Teixeira beat out is Boston’s Kevin Youkilis, who isn’t remotely in the same ballpark with either Teixeira or Mourneau.
At second, the Rangers’ Ian Kinsler could argue he should be there ahead of both picks, but it’s a close call. And in all-star games, as in every other part of life, deserving people get left out.
National League fans gave Albert Pujols the second-highest vote total in the history of the game. And that was despite the fact that the league has three other outstanding first basemen – Prince Fielder, Ryan Howard and Adrian Gonzalez. This means that a lot of Philly, Milwaukee and San Diego fans voted for Pujols instead of their home-town heroes. That’s a pretty good system.
NL voters were spot-on with the infield. Joining Pujols are Chase Utley, Hanley Ramirez and David Wright. Utley and Wright are from Philly and New York, so they were going to get their votes. But voters also picked the Marlins’ Ramirez, and you know that wasn’t Florida fans, of which there are approximately six, stuffing the old ballot box. That was knowledgeable fans doing the right thing.
It’s never going to be perfect, but on the whole, baseball and its fans get it right.
For the record, here’s one compilation of players who can argue they should be going to St. Louis for the game: Trevor Hoffman, Milwaukee; Yovani Gallardo, Milwaukee; Kevin Millwood, Rangers; Jered Weaver, L.A. Angels; Johnny Cueto, Reds; Adam Lind, Toronto; Ian Kinsler, Texas; Chone Figgins, L.A. Angels; Carlos Pena, Tampa Bay; Brandon Inge, Detroit; Mark Reynolds, Arizona; Matt Kemp, L.A. Dodgers; Shane Victorino, Philadelphia; Pablo Sandoval, San Francisco; Cristian Guzman, Washington.
The fans can put two of the hitters on that list in the game with the final online vote. The rest can do what Cubs fans have been doing for 101 years: wait ‘til next year.
