All-Star Ballot Update: You’re Mad

The latest All-Star voting numbers are in, and you’re mad. Of course, there’s still time for your favorite player on your favorite team to catch a favorable wind and sail up the ranks, but it’s not looking good. Voting ends on Thursday and it’s doubtful the gap will be made up. You’re mad. Why doesn’t the electorate value the player you like the best the same way you do? He’s so obviously better than those other players. He has more home runs, or more RBIs, or he’s better at defense. His WAR is totally higher. Don’t they see that?

The player you find to be most deserving needs to be on this All-Star team. He’s worked hard, and he deserves it. It might not be so annoying, you might not be so mad, if this silly exhibition game didn’t MATTER. MATTER like, in as much as it determines the home field team for the World Series. The World Series of baseball. The last games played. The games that decide who the champion of the season is. You know, those games. Games that are so important, so essential and historical, that the distinct responsibility of assigning home field advantage to these very important games, is to be decided by a bunch of half-trying sportsman on vacation with their families while wearing neon green cleats and being used in ways and situations that differ greatly from their normal patterns and routines. And tweeting. Some of the best players won’t be eligible to play because they played too recently in regular season games. Some might just not show up and instead go lie on the beach. The Beach: Because this time it MATTERS. Your favorite player matters, and he needs to be there. Your favorite team has World Series aspirations and so your favorite player from your favorite team needs to be there in order to secure victory for your favorite league. He’s currently not in that position and so you are mad.

There’s still hope, you suppose. The managers get to pick a few guys. Of course, your favorite player isn’t a left-handed reliever or a scrappy utility infielder who isn’t, in fact, all that good at baseball, so maybe that particular light isn’t quite as bright as it could be. Your favorite player might have a better chance at representing his position at the All-Star game, but every team needs to be accounted for and a really bad team’s best player just happens to play the same position as your favorite player. The Twins really need a representative at the All-Star game because otherwise not one single Twins fan would watch the game on television or attend the game live and they’d probably all rally together in protest and swear off professional baseball in complete unison. The Twins would play half of their remaining games to an empty stadium. The ushers and concession workers would be all like what. The PA announcer would just talk to himself, he wouldn’t even bother hitting the button on the microphone to project his voice over the speakers.

And so you’re mad. You’re mad about the All-Star game and how the voting has turned out thus far. This is all Rangers fans fault for stuffing the ballot. Or Red Sox fans, or Yankees fans, or Cardinals fans. It’s all the fans everywhere’s fault. You’re mad. This is stupid. This matters.

Kyle writes baseball nonsense at The Trance of Waiting. You can follow him on Twitter @AgainstKyle.