No, I'm not talking about merchandise (for once) here, I'm talking about MLB.com's opinion writer Bauman. At the risk of sounding extremely cynical, I cannot possibly take his Monday entry on the All Star Vote seriously. Bauman makes his arguement that fans voting is the best thing possible for the game. Mainly, that it makes it democratic and helps teams that are not in big markets. Before I rip into while I believe his main arguement is deeply flawed, I want to address where my cynacism comes in. I feel that this is like reading an article from an Oil Company that 100% gasoline powered cars are the best possible thing for the world. There's an inheriant conflict of interest when an arguement about fan voting being the way to go comes on the source that provides the service. It just seems wrong. Thats the type of situation that you try to teach people recognize the motives of the writers or the financial supporters. Bauman has a right his opinion, and this really may be his opinion, but it is his connection to the MLB that makes his stance weak.
Anyway back to his actual opinion. It's really funny that he believes that voting helps smaller market teams. I have to respectfully disagree. He says that his proof of this is having Carl Crawford and Evan Longoria making the team coming from a small market team. In my opinion, their making the team is a combination of their level of play but also the media hype machine. There is a very good chance that these players would have been selected to the team before the season actually started because these are players the media loves to talk about. Crawford trade rumors were all over the place over the winter. Longoria has been the darling of the sport since he made his debut. Their election to the team, beyond their skills, shows the success of large market areas and the evolution of a national market that hypes the same players over and over again.
Bauman would have been correct in his argument if players like Gonzalez got superior recogniton in fan voting or if someone like Olivo made the team as a starter. However this was not the case. It is my opinion that voting perputates the larger market and media dominance over the game, rather than the skills of the game itself. This is of course fine. The All-Star game is the game of where fans pick the players, so its more like a popularity game which is alright, we just have to change our definition of All-Star (which is something I wouldn't want to do).
