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| If Jason Varitek can be an All-Star, why not me?
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Apparently the public shaming isn't going exactly as planned, because Manny Ramirez is getting a lot of All-Star votes:
Manny Ramirez might be serving a 50-game suspension for violating baseball's drug policy, but fans could vote him into the All-Star game anyway. Ramirez was fourth among the outfielders in the first round of balloting for the National League, which was released Tuesday. He received 442,763 votes, only 34,080 votes fewer than third-place Carlos Beltran of the New York Mets, who is in line to for the final starting outfield spot.
A couple of years ago, football instituted what's come to be known as the Shawne Merriman rule, which players who run afoul of the league's substance abuse policy are banned from the Pro Bowl and are disqualified from postseason awards eligibility. Not so in baseball which almost invariably makes up rules on the fly. Sure, you can bet that Charlie Manuel is under strict instructions not name him as a reserve outfielder, but if Manny somehow cracks the top three, Selig and his gang will probably freak out. When they're done freaking out, they will have to announce the creation of a retoractive rule followed by Ramirez's very public removal from the team.
One blogger -- Jason, from the most excellent "It is About the Money, Stupid" -- is none too happy with baseball's head in the sand approach towards PED offenders and has taken it upon himself to see the powers that be placed in the awkward position of having to remove Ramirez from the All-Star Game. To that end, he has set up the "Vote for Manny" blog, and encourages everyone to do what they can to force the Manny issue on Commissioner Selig.
The All-Star Game is already rather ridiculous, and a little chaos can be fun,so I encourage that you use at least one of the 25 votes baseball gives you to see to it that Manny is an All-Star.
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Thanks, Craig
Except no one cares about the Pro Bowl or football players using steroids.
The baseball all-star game is so dumb; especially with the home-field advantage nonsense.
Good on you, Jason @ IIAMTS - I voted for Manny.
Manny in the ASG will light up sports-talk phones but do little to excite the general public either for or against MLB. It's most likely they're voting for Manny not even knowing he's suspended.
Now, canning McCarver and Buck and replacing them with Vince McMahon, John Madden (I hear he's available, and you've gotta believe he would love to say the word "bloop") and a monkey - pure ratings.
Canning McCarver and Buck, now you're talking! Unfortunately, Vince McMahon is far too rich for MLB's blood, unless you let him plug WWE pay-per-views every ten seconds. I'd still love to see it, though.
"Berkman just brutalized that ball, John! He swung at it with a reckless disregard for human life, and it paid off!"
That would be worth hearing him shill for Survivor Series every ten minutes, no question.
Manny has got to take the negative repercussionsfor being caught using steriods the same way the other juicers have. He should be excluded from this years Allstar game because the crowd will boo him too loudly if he is in the HR contest or when he comes to bat . He would be too much of a distraction and wouldn't be fair to the other players and fans. Too bad that these guys are willing to take a chance and continue to cheat after all that has happened. It just ruins everything.
Beltran, Manny, Lastings Milledge. Those have been my NL OF votes on numerous ballots. I love Beltran and think he's really underappreciated. I love Lastings and think it would be hilarious for a Nationals AAA guy to crack the top 10 somewhere. I love Manny and agree that we should all do our part to make Bud Selig extremely uncomfortable.
The All-Star game is just annoying at this point, so I might as well have some fun voting on it.
Sounds good to me. Has a demoted-to-the-minors guy ever made the All-Star team before?
I think Manny has the good sense (whether internal or from his handlers) to say "thanks but no thanks" for the All-Star Team. I think it would be a face saving measure for all parties involved and would give him a little PR boost right around the time of his scheduled return. That said, when do we stop letting "the fans" vote for the All-Star teams? Don't we realize that it's usually children, or people with a lot of time on their hands that are voting hundreds of times? I mean, I guess it's fun for kids, but I think it's time we move on. Time to develop an All-Star electoral college...
i miss baseball on steroids ...i was better
HEY, YOU STOLE my line,,,,, I watch 2 and a 1/2 men also...............
but i added a line "it was better when these muscle heads were hitting 700 foot homers"........
dtro- What is it you love about Manny exactly? The fact that he is a cheater or the disgusting way he quit on his team in Boston so they would have to trade him? Did you love the way in a game he was upset that he didn't start when he walked into the batter's box when called off the bench to pinch hit that he just stood there, bat on his shoulder, and watched three strikes go by? I guess you just love cheaters because the rest of that bull is inexcusable!!!!!!!!!
no , i love the way theo and those other suits treated a hall of famer by disrespecting him too, stop being a holier than thou dum dum....where is damom, nixon, martinez, lowe... co co crip, how about the treatment veritek got........... by the way the white guy beckette got a big contract, manny did good by spitting on the redsox, they have no integrity,loyalty.............. oh and big papi sure is breaking down, just like veritek just like roid users do when they stop, i wonder if that is in the mitchell report
Yeah Dan...Ramirez is such a punk. I mean, jeez, did you see the way he quit on the Sox las year? I think his July line was something like 347/473/587...what a bum.
Him and every other player who ever did steroids, greenies, hgh, coke, or had lasic surgery should be banned from baseball. Those stupid cheaters ruined the purity of the game.
Greenies & coke don't do anything except if you like to talk and party for a long time. Lasik can help you read the scoreboard a little better . You can't hit 550' HR's with your eyes and a rapid heartbeat. Steroids & HGH are the culprits here and have proven to be the top of the line, way over the top superman makers in baseball. A little less juice and allot more purity would go a long way. Man, I wish this darned steroid thing never happened.
Except they haven't been proven to do anything.
Jason, he was probably doing the roids in July 2008 or before which may have contributed to his roid rage incident in Houston on June 27, 2008 when he assaulted a Red Sox employee. So you can throw out those July 2008 numbers, they were meaningless.
LOL! Funniest thing I've seen in a long time. (Um, you ARE being sarcastic, right?)
I disagree with the notion of voting for Manny as a way to embarrass Selig. If his performance warrents selection then fine if not then he shouldn't be selected. Missing 50 of the first 80 some games there is no way his performance would have him as one of the top three OF's.
Is it really that surprising that the vapid, baseless fandom of SoCal would willingly choose to be represented by Manny? Shawn Merriman Rule? Hey, who does Shawn Merriman play for again? Oh wait.....that makes sense, doesn't it.
I fail to see what the big deal is. He took PED's, he got caught and is now serving a 50 game suspension. A suspension that will be completed over a week before the all-star game. There's nothing in the rule-book that states that because he was suspended he can't play in the all-star game and to enact a rule and apply it retro-actively, well that should cause more of an uproar than having him 'make the team'/'play the game' in the first place. I think the best way to handle this is to just let it go rather than start twisting rules to make the upper-level baseball execs look good.
They need to change the voting from the general public to letting the players pick the all stars. So many times its a popularity contest. Guys that deserve to go dont even get invited.
I thought the All Star Game was suppossed to be based on what the player had done for the most part in the first half of the season. What has Manny done? Sit at home and eat cheese doodles so let him do the same thing for the All Star Game!!! He doesn't want to be part of the game anyway. He will need the 3 days off by then so he can "be Manny". This guy is a joke which is unfortunate because in reality he's actually a good ballplayer but he's all "me". Grow up, they you can play the game with the big boys!
The voting just goes to show that people in LA like having a juicer on their team and can't wait for him to return so they can worship the ground he walks on. They don't really beleve that he was ever guilty. Can't you just hear them saying it? "Man-nure would never put anything into his body that wasn't pure and wholesome like that thug Bonds did up in San Francisco". Yeah right!!!
Manny IS the best player out there today!!!Go Manny!!!!
Manny IS the best out there today!!! Go Manny!!!!
Manny IS the best out there today!!! GO MANNY!!!!
GO MANNY!!!
Selig needs to either:
a) Take away world series home field advantage or
b) Take away fan voting.
Having both means people with no time on their hands can vote countless times and actually have an impact on who plays in the game. Think about it. If I am a diehard Red Sox fan, I'm going to be voting countless no name NL players in order to boost my team's chances of winning home field advantage. Better yet, latch onto the votes of some of the dumb NL fan voters who just don't get it:
I looked at the voting so far this year, and there are a lot of idiot Brewers fans (see Bill Hall, JJ Hardy, Jason Kendall??) who will vote blindly for all their team's players regardless of actual performance. That is the worst thing you can do. Who cares about "team representation" unless you are the Pirates who have little chance of making it to the World Series. Think about it Brewers fans, you are only hurting your chances if you make it to the World Series, and you have a pretty decent team this year! Stop making it a popularity contest and vote for who deserves it!
You are exactly right. Being an All-Star is supposed to be about excellence, not popularity. Fans' voting makes a joke of the process.
If Manny got elected it would prove once and for all that having fans vote for the All Stars is a joke. How would the 4th place player feel? Furthermore, starting the voting on April 22, after just 2 weeks into the season, is more proof that fan's votes for the most deserving players is meaningless.
Selig ought to compromise the voting process and have the fans vote every other year and the players vote in between. that method would give everybody a fair chance and make the games more realistic and exciting.
If all of you (most of you anyway) feel that the All-Star games is a joke or no big deal, then why do you care who plays in it?
The All-Star game is for fans, not players, not execs and it's the one game per year where the fans get to choose who they want to see play, just because you don't like it doesn't mean there aren't millions of people out there who do and look forward to it every year.
It doesn't matter if we choose players who have had great seasons or terrible ones or just players we like or love to hate. If you don't like it, don't watch, there are thousands of other baseball games to watch in the course of the season.
The All-Star game, featuring "All-Stars" is meant to HONOR those players who are the BEST players, having the most productive season. How can you tell that on April 22? Some players even get bonuses in their contracts for being an All-Star. Should a player get a bonus because he's merely popular? There's a big difference between excellent performance and enjoyability of watching. On the other hand, maybe giving fans the vote has CHANGED THE MEANING of the All-Star game without telling us.
I agree 100% that the All-Star game should be for the fans, but Selig has turned it into something it shouldn't be by allowing the winner world series home field advantage. The All-Star game shouldn't be about the players, it should be about the best players giving the fans a show. If you want to give players motivation to play, then give them a standard MLB issued bonus that comes with every major league contract if you make the All-star game.
The reason I am forced to care now is because if my favorite team, the Cubs, is having a good year (they aren't...yet) and has a shot at the World Series, then I want the best performing players in the NL to play in the All-Star game to give the Cubs a more favorable situation if they were to make it to the World Series. That means that my team's situation can be a direct result of a game played by players not on my own team! That seems flawed to me.
Another problem I have is that when fans can vote for their "favorite" player (or whole team of players), the term "All-Star" instantly loses credibility with me. Who gets to play should be based on the best numbers up to the All-Star game, with the fans getting to maybe vote for the best one or two other guys that didn't make it, but still had good numbers.
The last problem I have ties into the issue about it counting for home field advantage. Good players on not so great teams lose the "motivation factor" to play their guts out if their team has little chance of making it to the World Series. If stretching that double into a triple or going your hardest around third on a close play at the plate comes down to a guy on the Orioles or a guy on the Phillies if they both have equal speed, I'm taking the guy on the Phillies.
Please let this fiasco be the death knell of fan voting for the All Star game.
It really should be decided by a peer vote, i.e. players voting for other players.
Baseball should feel so proud.
I BLAME THE OWNERS, they knew EXACTLY what was happening but if I was Geroge Bush and I was selling the Rangers would I bring up STEROIDS ?? If I was Bud Selig and was selling the Brewers for hundreds of millions would I bring up STEROIDS ??? THE palyers did just what the owners wanted them todo PERFORM............
I am a huge dodger fan. Call me biased, but I am still a Manny Ramirez fan. Having said that, I definitely believe he should not be in the All Star Game. I don't know the detailes of his ped use, but he broke the rules nonetheless. Therefore, he should not be able to participate in the mid-summer classic, nor he should be eligible for any postseason awards, other than specific playoff series awards. That is my opinion and I think a lot of people would agree with me.
All I know is that this issue...Manny in the all-star game...has caused World War III in my house! Good grief!
And quite frankly, I think all the people saying "he shouldn't be in it" just make other people vote for him for the hell of it.