Dear Mr. Baseball,
As we both know, the idea of eight Royals starting the All Star Game is a bad look for everyone, including some of the Royals.
I offer you two solutions, one more serious than the other.
My first solution is that you hand out cardboard ballots at games and invite fans to punch out the chads to indicate a vote for the players they like. That way the voting is mainly decided by those who are most invested in your product. Ushers could pass out these ballots and then collect them a few innings later.
My second solution is to realize that the All Star Game is and should be a showcase for your best players. Marketing. Why would you let some idiot like me decide who should be on your showcase television show? Why would a television network want you to hand in a show without the biggest stars available?
Create some sort of executive committee – let’s call it Hall of Famers Bobby Cox, Joe Torre and Tony LaRussa to hand in the teams with a mandate to remember this is show-biz. If there is buzz on a player, include the player. If you can juice the game by having an All Star pitcher start the game in his home park (like Matt Harvey did) then do it. Put the stars on the television show. Seems simple.
metspolice If voting must be electronic, allow it only when checked in at an MLB game using the At the Ballpark App.
jmp_nyc metspolice not everyone can afford a smart phone and the At Bat app doesn’t work on everyone’s phone. just use paper ballots.
DarthChipper metspolice Current system excludes people who cannot afford the time to create hundreds of fake e-mail addresses.
DarthChipper metspolice There are plenty of things at ballparks that exclude people w/out smartphones. It’s a smaller number of fans.
jmp_nyc metspolice I don’t see that as a good thing. Personally. If it’s for the fans, it should be a process that’s inclusive to all.
DarthChipper metspolice So should they stop putting pics posted to social media on Citivision, or hand out cameras to fans w/out phones?
DarthChipper metspolice Should they not allow fans to vote on a song selection via Twitter, just because not all fans can participate?
jmp_nyc metspolice that’s not what I’m saying. The All-Star voting should be for ALL the fans. Online and phone only doesn’t work for all
jmp_nyc metspolice you’re completely missing the point.
DarthChipper metspolice You’re never going to have a system that is completely fair and excludes no one. Pick your poison.
DarthChipper metspolice Maybe have touchscreen kiosks at ballparks that allow one vote per ticket barcode.
The suggestion about letting a committee pick the All-Stars would be a violation of the collective bargaining agreement. See Article 25, section O, paragraph 4.