The "Some-Star" Game

There’s a fundamental flaw with fan voting for All-Star games, especially in Major League Baseball. Deserving players get overlooked in favor of more well-known names from more well-known teams. It’s about popularity in lieu of performance, which more or less renders the name “All Star Game” obsolete.

Maybe we should call it the “Some Star Game.”

Case in point, here are the American League leaders as of this morning:

C – Jason Varitek (BOS)
1B – Kevin Youkilis (BOS)
2B – Dustin Pedroia (BOS)
3B – Alex Rodriguez (NYY)
SS – Derek Jeter (NYY)
OF – Manny Ramirez (BOS)
OF – Ichiro Suzuki (SEA)
OF – Vladimir Guerrero (LAA)
DH – David Ortiz (BOS)

Notice a pattern here? I’m not saying there aren’t good players on the Red Sox and Yankees, but there are certainly more deserving players elsewhere.

Kansas City Royals catcher Miguel Olivo has a higher batting average (.307), the same number of home runs (6), and more RBI (20) than Varitek (.268/6/19), and he’s had about 40 fewer at bats. My guess is Olivo won’t even crack the top five in voting.

The Texas Rangers have two players that belong at Yankee Stadium in July. Second baseman Ian Kinsler (.294/7/32/15 SB) is having a better season that Pedroia (.289/3/27), while Josh Hamilton (.329/13/58/.974 OPS) is having a potential Triple Crown season, yet he’s looking up at Ramirez (.292/9/34) and Guerrero (.258/7/28).

So who’s to blame? Major League Baseball? Bud Selig? Red Sox Nation? ESPN? George W. Bush?

How abut all of the above?

Fan voting has been a part of the All-Star game for as long as I can remember, and there’s always at least one representative from each team so that fans in every market have a vested interest in the Midsummer Classic, implying the game is merely an exhibition. Then Selig granted home field advantage in the World Series to the winner of the All-Star game, trying to make it more meaningful to the players.

So in a way, the league and its commissioner contradicted each other.

It seems as though every Red Sox-Yankees game finds its way onto ESPN or FOX. David Ortiz, Derek Jeter, and Alex Rodriguez are in commercials. Any time Manny Ramirez makes a noteworthy play, it gets top billing on SportsCenter. Ichiro and Vladimir Guerrero have appeared in a collective 17 All-Star games.

Fringe voters don’t look at statistics, only team and player names. That’s why guys like Carlos Quentin (.297/14/44) and Magglio Ordonez (.323/9/35) are further down on the ballot.

In my opinion, All-Stars should be determined via a three-part process:

1. The top five vote-getters in each league, regardless of position - understanding that the game would be nothing without the fans, they still get a say, but it becomes less of a Red Sox vs. the National League situation.

2. At least one representative from each team selected by the All-Star manager – no change from the current system.

3. Remaining spots determined by vote of players, managers, and media – In other words, those closest to the game that actually value statistics and would vote objectively put together a truly deserving team.

The fans still get to vote for their favorite player regardless of their numbers. The league gets a legitimate competition, and the most deserving players will decide their league’s October fate.

Everybody wins. Well, except Red Sox Nation.