All-Star Idiocy

[fusion_text]I voted 32 times for Brian Dozier to be added to the All-Star roster. Needless to say, he was outpolled by the Kansas City Royal he was up against (forget the other three). Why Major League Baseball would nominate a Royal as one of five nominees for the final fan-selected spot boggles the mind, when six Royals have already been chosen by the fans and made a mockery of the fan-selection process. But more fundamentally, I am left to wonder who decided that every fan – or more accurately, every computer account – should be able to vote 35 times! What happened to one man, one vote? Do we think this encourages fan involvement with the game when someone has to sit at his computer and press the vote button 35 times? Or does MLB think we will be impressed when the number of votes is in the hundreds of thousands?

Clearly, this whole process is ripe for reconsideration. I would let the fans vote – once each – but have their selection count as one-third the total. Let the players vote and have their vote count a third. As for the tie-breaker, an SI writer suggested giving a vote to the GMs, as the most knowledgeable authorities. I would rather give the vote to baseball beat writers – that would, at least, add some journalistic interest. If no one receives a majority – i.e., if each constituency votes for a different player – then let the fans reign supreme.[/fusion_text]