Could it be that Major League Baseball, which gets rightfully ripped for getting so much wrong, actually does get something right?
We’re talking about the All-Star Game, and more specifically, how the players are chosen for the Midsummer Classic, which this year will be played in Miami next Tuesday.
It used to be really simple. The fans voted for the non-pitcher starters, and the managers (the previous year’s World Series opponents) picked the pitchers and reserves.
In the pre-internet days that meant you either went to a game and were handed a big stack of paper ballots by an usher to punch out little boxes next to the home-team players’ names, or you grabbed as many as you could at the Gillette display at the store, punched them out and mailed them in.
What we have now is easier in execution for fans, but infinitely more complicated in concept. Most importantly, the current system does definitely make it more likely that the most deserving players at least get chosen for the game, if not the starting lineups.
The fans still pick the starters, but other rules have been tinkered with a lot over the years and this past offseason they were slightly adjusted per the collective bargaining agreement — for the better. Now, the managers of the league champions don’t have carte blanche in picking pitchers and position reserves. That’s a good change because the way it was nearly always resulted in favoritism.
Since 2003, the players, all managers and the league offices have had a big part in choosing the reserves. And who knows better than the players? That’s also the year the fans got to start picking the player to fill the final roster spot on both teams, by voting for one of five left off.
Shane Victorino of Maui got on the All-Star Game roster through the Final Vote … both times he made it, in 2009 and 2011. He’s the only two-time Final Vote winner in its 15-year history. If this were high school hoss elections, Victorino would be Most Popular. (The closest Hawaii tie in this year’s game is Mets outfielder and first-time All-Star Michael Conforto, a part-Hawaiian who is a nephew of soccer great Brian Ching.)
There always will be complaints about certain players getting left out, and no one is completely objective. What we’ve got now, though, is a pretty good system that allows for the most fan favorites and deserving players underrated by the fans to get in.
But what if the fans are complacent about voting? Well, in that case you could say it’s their fault if their team is underrepresented in the starting lineup.
That’s what Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen said a couple of days ago, calling out his team’s notoriously casual fans for not voting. The Dodgers have the best record in the National League, but no All-Star position starters.
The fans can fire back by blaming the lack of TV access. Just as MLB fans in Hawaii are righteous in their anger over territorial blackouts of their favorite teams, millions of homes in Southern California haven’t had TV coverage of Dodgers games available the past four seasons due to a rights stalemate between corporations.
Well, at least they don’t have to get on a plane to actually attend a game.
Ace starter Clayton Kershaw, shortstop Corey Seager and rookie phenom Cody Bellinger, like Jansen, were picked in the players vote as NL reserves. But what about third baseman Justin Turner? All he’s done this season is bat .384 with an OPS over 1.000.
Well, Turner is among the Final Vote guys, and at last count was ahead of the other four NL candidates. And rightfully so — Giants fans might even agree.
No system would be perfect. But, even as convoluted as it may seem, the way Major League Baseball chooses its players for the All-Star Game is about as fair as it can be.