You have to feel sorry for outfielder Alex Rios and second baseman Omar Infante of the Kansas City Royals.
They are the only two regulars on the team who haven’t been voted into the lead as projected starters for the American League All-Star team by ballot-stuffing Royals fans.
What did Rios and Infante do – besides, possibly, stink at their jobs – to so infuriate their hometown loyalists that they are each running one spot out of the lead for starting status?
We kid, of course.
Instead of mocking the process, as people often do, when all-star teams are perverted with undeserving slugs by overzealous, know-nothing voters, perhaps we should be more realistic about it.
We should praise Royals fans for elevating seven of their own players into possible “stardom”. Voting by the public has always distorted all-star teams. The process never identifies the best performing players. What the process identifies is the best fans, the ones rabid enough to fill out extra ballots at the ballpark. The ones who log on at home to madly “click” until smoke rises from their screens.
We may not like the results. But baseball and other sports that rely on fans to pick teams for their showcase, all-star events get what they ask for. If it isn’t important for baseball to get it right, then let’s just call it what it is. An exercise in enthusiasm, and a triumph, this year, for Royals fans who may get to see their dregs disguised in all-star uniforms.
Congratulations. Have fun watching your “stars” while the rest of us yawn.
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