Baseball Justice
The general point of an All-Star Game is to feature the game's best and most popular players. Different sports have different methods of choosing their All-Stars. In all of them, there is some part of the selection which involves fan voting. This helps the fans show who their favorite players are; although they may not be the best, they're the exciting players that fans like to watch. In the NHL, NBA, and MLB, fans have complete control over who starts in the All-Star Game.
After the starters are chosen, each league has its own method of choosing the reserves for the game. In the NBA, players are selected by the league's coaches. In the MLB, the players vote on most of the reserves, while some are left to the manager for each All-Star team.
This year, Ozzie Guillen will manage the American League All-Stars, because his White Sox won the American League last year (and eventually the World Series). I personally like Guillen's coaching style. He's not afraid to say what he thinks (see his comments about Chicago sports reporter Jay Mariotti) and he can light a fire under his players' asses when they need it. He's old-school.
However, this year, it became painfully obvious that Ozzie might be the worst-ever manager of an All-Star team. After zero of his White Sox were voted as starters by the fans, three were voted in by the players. Then, Ozzie named three more of his players to the team. Look, Ozzie, if neither the fans nor the players want to see your guys in the game, why are you putting them in there? If anything, the World Series champs should have more players voted in than deserved. Three guys on an All-Star team is above average. Since there are 30 players on an All-Star roster, that averages to about 2 players per team. Obviously not every team is going to have 2 players on the team, but the White Sox had 3! That's plenty!
But now, thanks to Ozzie, there are SIX White Sox on the team when there should only be three. That's a problem. Yet another problem is that Ozzie left off one very important player: Francisco Liriano, a pitcher for the Twins who thus far this season has posted a 9-1 win-loss record and a 1.99 ERA in the American League. He also has 94 strikeouts in 81 1/3 innings. Those are unbelievable numbers. In fact, they're the best of any pitcher in the major leagues. By most statistical accounts, Liriano should be the starting pitcher for the American League. However, he's not even on the roster.
In an effort to get the fans more interested in the ASG, Bud Selig instituted a rule a few years back where the fans get to vote on the last player to make the team. I personally think it's a great system because there is often a big argument over some players who got snubbed from the game. This system gives the fans a chance to speak up over who they want in the game, often including pitchers, for whom fans don't normally get to vote. This absolves the managers from some criticism every year.
This was going to be Francisco Liriano's saving grace. Baseball fans worldwide would realize what an outrage it was that the best, most electric pitcher in the game right now, the guy who defeated Roger Clemens in his first game back in the majors this year, had not made the All-Star squad.
Then, the nominees for the Final Vote were announced. Liriano joined the stellar Cleveland Indians designated hitter Travis Hafner, Baltimore Orioles catcher Ramon Hernandez, and upstart Detroit Tigers pitcher Justin Verlander as a candidate for the Final Vote. But there was one more candidate eligible for the All-Star Game: Chicago White Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski.
Now, Pierzynski is having a good season. His numbers are certainly of an All-Star caliber. But there are a number of glaring fucking issues with his inclusion on the ballot:
So now, thanks to Ozzie Guillen and Bud Selig, the best pitcher in the major leagues has been left out of the All-Star Game. How preposterous is that? Would this happen in any other sport? No fucking way!
To be fair to the All-Star system, the fans have gotten smarter with voting. Thanks to the power of the internet and the glory that emanates from 24/7 sports networks, the average American knows much more about baseball than he or she did, say, 15 years ago. Even as recently as 1997, when two of the National League starters were injured at the time of the All-Star break, the fans were responsible. But now, fan voting is finally paying dividends. Even an up-and-coming player in a small market like Jason Bay of the Pittsburgh Pirates got voted in as a starter.
The main problem with the All-Star game is that ONE PERSON has the right to name whomever he wants to the team, no questions asked. One person cannot speak for an entire country. Even the president has checks and balances. But Ozzie Guillen doesn't.
He also gets to name the starting pitcher. I'm going to just pray that he doesn't pick Mark Buehrle over another deserving Minnesota Twin, Johan Santana. Santana's the second-best pitcher in the majors right now, but judging from Guillen's selection process, any White Sox player takes precedent over the best player available.
A big part of me hopes the White Sox make it to the World Series this year. I hope they sweep through the division series and ALCS. I hope their spirits are riding high going into the World Series, when they finally run into a challenge. And I hope the series goes down to Game 7, a Game 7 played outside of Chicago because the National League won the All-Star game on a walk-off home run off White Sox closer Bobby Jenks, one of the three players Guillen named to the team with his ultimate power.
And I hope the final out is made when A.J. Pierzynski comes to the plate, down one run in the top of the 9th with one runner on base, and he sends a long fly ball to deep outfield...and the outfielder catches a ball that would have been out of the park in Chicago.
And we'll look at Bud Selig and smile, because for the first, last, and only time in the hopefully short history of the "This One Counts" policy, this one actually counted. And this time, a nice big plate of baseball justice was served.
After the starters are chosen, each league has its own method of choosing the reserves for the game. In the NBA, players are selected by the league's coaches. In the MLB, the players vote on most of the reserves, while some are left to the manager for each All-Star team.
This year, Ozzie Guillen will manage the American League All-Stars, because his White Sox won the American League last year (and eventually the World Series). I personally like Guillen's coaching style. He's not afraid to say what he thinks (see his comments about Chicago sports reporter Jay Mariotti) and he can light a fire under his players' asses when they need it. He's old-school.
However, this year, it became painfully obvious that Ozzie might be the worst-ever manager of an All-Star team. After zero of his White Sox were voted as starters by the fans, three were voted in by the players. Then, Ozzie named three more of his players to the team. Look, Ozzie, if neither the fans nor the players want to see your guys in the game, why are you putting them in there? If anything, the World Series champs should have more players voted in than deserved. Three guys on an All-Star team is above average. Since there are 30 players on an All-Star roster, that averages to about 2 players per team. Obviously not every team is going to have 2 players on the team, but the White Sox had 3! That's plenty!
But now, thanks to Ozzie, there are SIX White Sox on the team when there should only be three. That's a problem. Yet another problem is that Ozzie left off one very important player: Francisco Liriano, a pitcher for the Twins who thus far this season has posted a 9-1 win-loss record and a 1.99 ERA in the American League. He also has 94 strikeouts in 81 1/3 innings. Those are unbelievable numbers. In fact, they're the best of any pitcher in the major leagues. By most statistical accounts, Liriano should be the starting pitcher for the American League. However, he's not even on the roster.
In an effort to get the fans more interested in the ASG, Bud Selig instituted a rule a few years back where the fans get to vote on the last player to make the team. I personally think it's a great system because there is often a big argument over some players who got snubbed from the game. This system gives the fans a chance to speak up over who they want in the game, often including pitchers, for whom fans don't normally get to vote. This absolves the managers from some criticism every year.
This was going to be Francisco Liriano's saving grace. Baseball fans worldwide would realize what an outrage it was that the best, most electric pitcher in the game right now, the guy who defeated Roger Clemens in his first game back in the majors this year, had not made the All-Star squad.
Then, the nominees for the Final Vote were announced. Liriano joined the stellar Cleveland Indians designated hitter Travis Hafner, Baltimore Orioles catcher Ramon Hernandez, and upstart Detroit Tigers pitcher Justin Verlander as a candidate for the Final Vote. But there was one more candidate eligible for the All-Star Game: Chicago White Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski.
Now, Pierzynski is having a good season. His numbers are certainly of an All-Star caliber. But there are a number of glaring fucking issues with his inclusion on the ballot:
- He's a total asshole. Everybody in the major leagues hates him pretty much, including a lot of his own teammates.
- Ramon Hernandez, the other catcher on the ballot, is having a better season both offensively and defensively. It's not fair to Hernandez to include another catcher on the ballot, especially an inferior one. Even if the other catcher doesn't get voted in, he's taking away votes that could potentially go to Hernandez just because they're both catchers.
- If you wanted to argue for Pierzynski's offensive numbers, then just look at Travis Hafner's alongside them. Hafner is a better offensive player in every single aspect of the game. Again, it's unfair to include Pierzynski on the ballot with both Hernandez and Hafner.
- While Pierzynski is the least popular character-wise and most inferior talent-wise of the five candidates, he plays in the largest metropolitan area of any of the five candidates. You're giving the worst player the best chance to win.
- THERE ARE ALREADY SIX FUCKING WHITE SOX ON THE ALL-STAR TEAM.
So now, thanks to Ozzie Guillen and Bud Selig, the best pitcher in the major leagues has been left out of the All-Star Game. How preposterous is that? Would this happen in any other sport? No fucking way!
To be fair to the All-Star system, the fans have gotten smarter with voting. Thanks to the power of the internet and the glory that emanates from 24/7 sports networks, the average American knows much more about baseball than he or she did, say, 15 years ago. Even as recently as 1997, when two of the National League starters were injured at the time of the All-Star break, the fans were responsible. But now, fan voting is finally paying dividends. Even an up-and-coming player in a small market like Jason Bay of the Pittsburgh Pirates got voted in as a starter.
The main problem with the All-Star game is that ONE PERSON has the right to name whomever he wants to the team, no questions asked. One person cannot speak for an entire country. Even the president has checks and balances. But Ozzie Guillen doesn't.
He also gets to name the starting pitcher. I'm going to just pray that he doesn't pick Mark Buehrle over another deserving Minnesota Twin, Johan Santana. Santana's the second-best pitcher in the majors right now, but judging from Guillen's selection process, any White Sox player takes precedent over the best player available.
A big part of me hopes the White Sox make it to the World Series this year. I hope they sweep through the division series and ALCS. I hope their spirits are riding high going into the World Series, when they finally run into a challenge. And I hope the series goes down to Game 7, a Game 7 played outside of Chicago because the National League won the All-Star game on a walk-off home run off White Sox closer Bobby Jenks, one of the three players Guillen named to the team with his ultimate power.
And I hope the final out is made when A.J. Pierzynski comes to the plate, down one run in the top of the 9th with one runner on base, and he sends a long fly ball to deep outfield...and the outfielder catches a ball that would have been out of the park in Chicago.
And we'll look at Bud Selig and smile, because for the first, last, and only time in the hopefully short history of the "This One Counts" policy, this one actually counted. And this time, a nice big plate of baseball justice was served.
posted by Kevin A. Doran at 8:00 PM
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