I Promise Not to Whine
When I was a boy, I spent many years dealing with frustration over what most of the kids in my age group foud appealling. The folks that were popular always seemed shallow, cruel, uninteresting or worse. Everything turns into a popularity contest when you're 12, and for those of us (myself included) who were never winnners at that game as kids, the sting is with us always. That's why I've spent so many hours arguing with Yankee fans about Jeter's defense. As one prominent sabermetrician (as Dr. D likes to call us, saber-dweebs aren't generally the popular kids in school...LOL) put it, Jeter gets way more girls than his merit as a ballplayer should allow, and that is quite frustrating. :)
I will get embroiled for days on end in debates over who belongs in the hall of fame and almost always, it comes down to merit vs. popularity when I disagree with the baseball writers, the fans and the media in general. The same thing happens to me every year around this time when the All-star rosters are announced and I see a half dozen guys who have absolutely no business being there based on merit but who are popular players for whatever reason. I came here earlier tonight intending to write a long piece decrying the all-star selection process for several reasons:
Manager Selection - The winner of last year's league pennant gets to pick 8 players without any oversight...inevitably, a few of his current team members end up on the roster whether they really belong there or not. Cronyism...I can't stand it.
Media Market Bias - Every year there are 5 or 6 Red Sox, 5 or 6 Yankees, etc...guys on big market teams get more representation than they should and it drives me bananas.
Multiple fan ballots - Who came up with the idea that everyone gets to vote 22 times? What this does is create unstoppable two-team battles, usually between the Yankees and Red Sox in the quest to see who can stuff the ballot boxes the most and get their players in the starting line-up, whether they belong or not
Poor Selection Criteria - Don't get me wrong...I think there is more truth in conventional wisdom than a lot of saber-dweebs might be willing to concede, but particularly when it comes to the selection of pitchers, it seems the players and managers are picking their pitchers based primarily on wins, saves and ERA and this is a constant source of frustration to someone who knows the problems with those stats.
OK...so I ranted a little bit, you'll have to bear with me...I can't help myself! But I promise...that's the end of my whining. After thinking about it today, I have decided that the sanguin mind is the happy one. The all-star game is for the fans. We want to see the players we love on display, argue about the guys we feel got snubbed, see some quality baseball between the game's best and brightest, and there is no getting aroud the fact that it HAS to be a popularity contest for the largest number of fans to be satisfied with it.
I could grumble about what the heck guys like Tim Wakefield and Brian Fuentes are doing on this team. I could complain about Mark Buehrle or Michael Young or Josh Hamilton (hurt for most of the year!) or Mark Teixeira getting in ahead of Russell Branyan despite Branyan having a clearly superior season thus far, etc. But the bottom line is...the fans want to see Teixeira and Youkilis and Wakefield and Beckett...Young and Hamilton and Jeter...that's what the game is about.
I have personally lost interest in the all-star game...I don't think the players take it as seriously as they used to...I don't think the media coverage of the event is particularly well done anymore etc. And yes, perhaps the fact that it's a popularity contest still leaves a bad taste in my mouth sometimes. But let the fans have their fun...I'll have mine the way I always do...by picking the all-star roster myself using a merit-based system. The game itself is just a game these days...the intellectual puzzle is a lot more appealing. And yes...I know that makes me a geek. I'm alright with that. :)
BTW, just for my own fun...this is the roster I would have picked, even constraining myself to the fan vote as a given and to the roster construction rules of this game (each team must have one player, there must be at least 18 position players and 12 pitchers and the total player pool must be 32 guys with a 33rd man getting in by fan vote)
STARTERS as voted:
- C) Joe Mauer (MIN)
- 1B) Mark Teixeira (NYA)
- 2B) Dustin Pedroia (BOS)
- 3B) Evan Longoria (TBA)
- SS) Derek Jeter (NYA)
- LF) Jason Bay (BOS)
- CF) Josh Hamilton (TEX)
- RF) Ichiro (SEA)
RESERVE POSITION PLAYERS:
- C) Vic Martinez (CLE)
- 1B) Kevin Youkilis (BOS)
- 1B) Justin Morneau (MIN)
- 2B) Ben Zobrist (TBA)
- 3B) Alex Rodriguez (NYA)
- 3B) Miguel Cabrera (DET)
- SS) Jason Bartlett (TBA)
- OF) Torii Hunter (LAA)
- OF) Jermaine Dye (CHA)
- OF) Adam Jones (BAL)
- OF) Adam Lind (TOR)
STARTING PITCHERS:
- SP) Zach Greinke (KCA)
- SP) Felix Hernandez (SEA)
- SP) Roy Halladay (TOR)
- SP) Justin Verlander (DET)
- SP) Edwin Jackson (DET)
- SP) C.C. Sabathia (NYA)
- SP) Kevin Millwood (TEX)
- SP) Josh Beckett (BOS) - 33rd man
RELIEVERS:
- CL) Mariano Rivera (NYA)
- CL) David Aardsma (SEA)
- CL) Andrew Bailey (OAK)
- CL) Jonathan Papelbon (BOS)
- CL) Joe Nathan (MIN)
- CL) Bobby Jenks (CHA)