MLB: Day Seventy-Four

Posted on | June 17, 2007 | No Comments

Before we get to the actual games that were played on Wednesday, I want to take a few minutes to rant a little bit about the All Star Game voting that’s going on right now. If Major League Baseball wants to continue to let the fans vote then they should probably change the name of the game to the “Most Popular Game” or something.

If you look at the voting, you’ll quickly see that nearly half the players who are leading in votes at their positions don’t deserve to be there. I could probably make three or four blogs on this topic but I won’t bore you or get myself upset. So, I’ll give you the most blatant injustice.

Magglio Ordonez.

Yes, Magglio Ordonez of the Detroit Tigers leads the Majors in batting average, doubles, and he’s at or near the top of several other categories too. Yet, he is hovering right around seventh in the voting for American League outfielders. He shouldn’t even be seventh in voting for the entire Major Leagues. He certainly shouldn’t be as low as seventh in the voting for American League players. And the fact that he’s seventh in the voting for only the American League All Stars is a downright disgrace.

Ordonez has a decent chance of winning the AL MVP and perhaps the Triple Crown. Yet he’s behind the more popular players, like Boston’s Manny Ramirez, who may have been great other seasons but are barely average this season.

But one Tigers’ misfortune is another Tigers’ luck. Tigers catcher Ivan Rodriguez leads the AL voting for catchers even though he’s behind others in every major batting category. It’s ironic that it’s the Yankees catcher, Jorge Posada,who probably deserves to be the catcher. Yet other Yankees’ players – like Bobby Abreu and Robinson Cano – are getting more votes than they deserve.

Well, now that I got that off my chest, I can hope that fans come to their senses and look forward to the game. Regardless of the players, this is still the best all-star game out of all the major sports. It’s not even close.

Meanwhile, on the field Wednesday night, the Yankees continued their winning streak by beating the Arizona Diamondbacks 7-2. The Boston Red Sox were crushed by the Colorado Rockies. So the Yankees have picked up yet another game on the Sox. The Yanks have won 8 straight games and they’re now only 8.5 games behind Boston. I don’t think that too many people were already counting the Yankees out of the race for the AL East, but I don’t think anyone really expected them to gain this much ground this quickly.

Related posts:

1. MLB: “All-Star Voting”
2. MLB: Day One Hundred and Seventy-Nine
3. MLB: Day Seventy
4. MLB: Day Seventy-Five
5. MLB: Day One Hundred and Seventy-Seven

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