I was just looking at the Seattle Mariners Web site, and I discovered that voting has already started for the All-Star Game. What the hell?
The season is three freakin’ weeks old! Player stats are meaningless at this point in the season! What fuckwit (there, I finally remembered) decided that the third week of April is the time to start All-Star Game voting? Has Major League Baseball finally thrown up its hands and decided that the game is nothing more than a popularity contest and so they may as well start the voting now?
Is this old news and I just noticed it this season?
Yeah, but there’s always been at least a pretense that it was for the guys who were playing well. But of course, tell that to all the good shortstops who never had a chance in hell until Ripken switched to third base.
Major League Baseball is a joke. They hardly even pretend to care about the game anymore. Each “game” wastes a minute on commercials for every 30 seconds of actual play. I used to be a huge baseball fan–memorizing the minutiae of the game’s history, keeping abreast of every development on the leaderboards, the trade blocks, and the minor league prospects–but watching the game on TV just puts me to sleep now. And I’m only 20. So I’m writing the whole thing off: I will not follow the game and I will not watch it except for occasionally going to games as a social event. I used to hate San Diegans who went to ballgames as a stop on the pub crawl, but I’m rather disillusioned by the modern sport and I think that’s the kind of fan I’ll be from now on.
The All-Star Game is the icing on the cake, a ridiculous spectacle that exists only as a microcosm of one of the world’s most ridiculous spectacles that takes itself seriously.
Dude, you’re 20. Were you were ranking minor league prospects in kindergarten? I don’t dispute that you may not find the game as appealing these days, but it hasn’t really changed all that much in the last few years.
FTR, I think internet voting is totally and completely wrong for All Star games, regardless of the sport. If you want to vote, go to the games. If you vote, you get one and only one vote, no ballot box stuffing, the total tally in each game may not exceed the total attendance for that game.
Baseball fantasy leagues and computer baseball came along at the right time. Participants sweat games out and watch closer than would have been believed in the past. They learn every reliever and have invented new stats.
All star games are popularity contests that reward long time players with a chance to be seen by a new audience. I don’t pay much attention to them.
I didn’t say it’s changed. FTR, I don’t think it has changed much since I started following the game–I think my perspective has changed and it takes more than hype to entertain me these days.
Bill James made that point 25 years ago (I think he actually said it wasn’t the “All Mediocrities Who Had a Good First Half Game”) but when choosing amongst the established stars at a position, it would still be useful to be able to base one’s decision, in part, on how they’re doing this season.
…and people wonder why players who’ve been hurt for most of the first half of the season end up getting enough votes to be in the All-Star game. Like another posted said, it’s for last year’s numbers. Either that, or favorites are voted in.
Of course, since Selig actually made the game mean something (worst. idea. ever.), the whole dynamic behind who gets selected has changed.
That’s a good point, but I personally only apply that point to the second tier of stars, or the up-and-comers. I’ve rarely (if ever) based my vote for Reggie Jackson, Cal Ripken, or Barry Bonds on how well they’re doing in the season, because - dadgummit! - if they’re not All-Stars, who is?
It seems as if you’ve defined “huge baseball fan” to include all the peripheral stuff and exclude what happens between the two lines of chalk.
I was plenty into the game itself, of course. I watched every Padres game and most national baseball broadcasts, within reason. I don’t have the time for that anymore, but it’s hard for the game to hold my attention these days, anyway.
I never bother with the All-Star game, for two reasons: First, I always expect it to be some time in late August, so I always miss it anyway. And second, I found out* that in order to vote for the players, I need to send in a ballot that I get in a package of Gilette brand razor blades, and I don’t get that brand.
kaylasdad99, I don’t know about you, but I’ve been up to my ears in free Gilette razors ever since I turned 18. I mean, I got a couple Mach 3s on my birthday in 2004 just like every other '86 baby, but for about a year after that it seemed like everywhere I turned I was getting more free Gilette razors. I must have at least 7 Mach 3s and a couple other Gilette products at well, all free.
Anyway, I’ve never heard of the All-Star ballot coming with Gilette razor blades; but you can go online or pick up a handful of ballots at any game.
I thought it seemed a bit early, but figured it was possibly because I’m in this year’s host city.
Fucking All-Star game. One of the main reason I detest Selig. If you’re going to Make It Count, do away with all the stupid rules. No rep from every team, no fan voting, no limit on pitches pitched. Either that or leave it as a fucking exhibition, which is what it is.
…buh?
The All Star game is roughly the same time every year, and the All Star ballots canvas every ballpark for months before the game (hence the subject of this thread), and is also available online.
Well, yeah - but if “second tier” is anyone less celebrated than those three, that covers a lot of all-star ground.
It’s not like you never have two big-name players at the same position in the same league. Or no first-tier player.
Or a situation where a fan’s saying, “do I vote for A-Rod, or for a player for my team?” A fan’s liable to measure the star for another team and the player on his own team by different yardsticks in terms of relative performance. But performance has to factor into it, otherwise such a fan either always picks the stars, or always picks his home team’s starting lineup.
