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AL All-Stars: Get the vote out

Bookmark and Share by Mark Rothstein

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It’s time for American League baseball fans to finally unite against a common enemy - the supporters of both the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox. Otherwise, AL fans are going to be stuck cheering for an All-Star squad whose starters are made up almost entirely of members of those two media-hogging clubs from the East division.

At the most recent American League ballot update either a New York or a Boston player was leading at every single position but outfield, where the Angels’ Vladimir Guerrero is ahead of the Red Sox’s Manny Ramirez and the Yankees’ Johnny Damon. But since those two would be named starters as well, it means that it’s a distinct possibility that seven of the eight players elected to the AL’s squad would come from just two teams.

And that, of course, is ridiculous. Not because those players aren’t deserving of the honor (although some are questionable picks), but because fans of two teams have complete control of the results. Yes, New York and Boston are large markets with full stadiums of loyal supporters that likely fill out their ballots completely with their own players. This, though, is well known; and the other teams’ fans need to do something.

What can they do? Simple, don’t act like Yankees or Red Sox fans. That is, don’t just vote for your own team’s players on the All-Star ballot; vote for the most deserving player (the most-deserving non-Yankee, non-BoSox player), or at least vote for the player that has the best chance of knocking a Yankee or Red Sox player out of top spot.

For example, instead of voting for the likes of Juan Uribe, Yuniesky Betancourt, and Orlando Cabrera, fans of the White Sox, Mariners, and Angels should throw aside their bias and vote instead for Orioles shortstop Miguel Tejada. That would help the league’s premier shortstop make up ground on leader Derek Jeter, the Yankees’ pop-gun hitter who has received almost 350,000 more votes than Tejada to this point in the process.

Same deal at catcher, where the Red Sox’s Jason Varitek is the leading vote-getter despite hitting around .250 on the season. The Tigers’ Ivan Rodriguez isn’t that far behind Varitek in the voting, which would make him the best candidate to take over the lead. And yes, Twins fans, it’ll be difficult to not cast your vote for Joe Mauer and his spectacular .376 batting average, but remember it’s all for the greater good of baseball.

There are lost causes of course. Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez is in first place at his position by about 600,000 votes - despite the fact that his statistics this season are comparable to noted star player Ty Wigginton of the (hold on, gotta look this up) Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Better luck next year on knocking off ARod we suppose. David Ortiz is also pretty comfortable atop first base, with a Yankee (Jason Giambi) in second.

Here are the Top-3 vote getters at each position in the AL as of the June 13 update ...

First Base

1. David Ortiz, Red Sox --- 915,362
2. Jason Giambi, Yankees --- 626,289
3. Paul Konerko, White Sox --- 429,572

Second Base

1. Robinson Cano, Yankees --- 602,637
2. Mark Loretta, Red Sox --- 535,043
3. Tadahito Iguchi, White Sox --- 499,643

Third Base

1. Alex Rodriguez, Yankees --- 1,067,369
2. Mike Lowell, Red Sox --- 468,031
3. Joe Crede, White Sox --- 341,224


Shortstop

1. Derek Jeter, Yankees --- 1,121,712
2. Miguel Tejada, Orioles --- 776,442
3. Michael Young, Rangers --- 293,249

Catcher

1. Jason Varitek, Red Sox --- 630,657
2. Ivan Rodriguez, Tigers --- 595,132
3. Jorge Posada, Yankees --- 489,480  

Outfield

1. Vladimir Guerrero, Angels --- 1,115,476
2. Manny Ramirez, Red Sox --- 1,080,426
3. Johnny Damon, Yankees --- 754,396
4. Ichiro Suzuki, Mariners --- 677,392
5. Vernon Wells, Blue Jays --- 554,409
6. Gary Sheffield, Yankees --- 466,520
7. Jermaine Dye, White Sox --- 407,162
8. Scott Podsednik, White Sox --- 384,119
9. Hideki Matsui, Yankees --- 362,289 

Online voting ends at MLB.com on June 29, leaving less than two weeks for fans to get to a computer and take some action on this issue. And remember you can vote more than once, so coordinated campaigns could knock the likes of Jeter, Varitek, Damon, and Robinson Cano out of the picture. Otherwise, you’ll only have yourself to blame when players from the teams you hate are being introduced as All-Star Game starters.