America, I don’t get you.
Barry Bonds is an all-star. He got voted into the NL’s starting lineup, beating out Alfonso Soriano in the sketchiest election since Bush beat Gore.
Frankly, I don’t understand it. I don’t understand how millions of Americans could vote for a guy who is the poster child for all that is wrong with baseball. And I’m not the only one scratching his head. SI’s John Donovan sums up the bizarreness of the situation today:
What’s strange, though, is that a lot of different polls — ESPN/ABC, CBS News, USA Today, the Associated Press, CNN and many others — have indicated that most fans don’t believe Bonds when he claims he’s never used performance-enhancers. A good chunk of fans, the polls say, don’t want him to break Hank Aaron’s career home run record. (He’s now only five away from tying it.) When he finally pushes past Aaron’s mark, many fans told the pollsters that they won’t consider it a genuine record. Many polls show that fans, simply put, just don’t like the guy.
So either those polls are way off, or the ballot boxes were stuffed, or fans changed their minds, or they simply don’t care about any of that stuff anymore, or they don’t think any of that should apply to an All-Star Game, or they don’t think any of it should apply to this particular All-Star Game, or … something.
Amen, John. Men are from Mars. Women are from Venus. And Barry Bonds fans are from a whole ‘nother galaxy. It’s enough to make you think the whole thing was fixed. And, frankly, I do.
Except, I can’t figure out why MLB would rig this election. It won’t solve anything. Bonds will be the biggest story at the all-star game — wether he plays or not. He’ll either be on the verge of breaking Aaron’s record, or he’ll have recently broken it. He’ll be playing in his hometown. Or not playing. Regardless, he’ll dominate the news.
So taking the decision to put Bonds in the game or keep him on the sidelines out of Tony LaRussa’s hands won’t solve any of baseball’s problems. But it makes me feel better to think that MLB rigged this election. Because I’d rather believe that Bud Selig is corrupt and clueless — not a giant stretch — than think that America actually wants to honor Barry Bonds.
UPDATE: I’m not the only one who thinks this voting was fixed. The FANHOUSE thinks so, too.
July 3rd, 2007 at 10:20 am
I don’t think it’s a conspiracy at all. I think that he was genuinely voted in for several reasons.
1. His numbers merited it.
2. People want to see the guy.
3. He is still the face of baseball.
4. The fans were not told by the media en masse NOT to vote for the guy (and yes, I do believe that most people claim they don’t want Bonds to break the record because that’s what they were told to feel).
And I don’t think it’s much of a contradiction. Most fans don’t want him to break the record. That doesn’t necessarily mean that they hate him. Even if he is booed by a large crowd, it doesn’t mean that they all despise the guy. When fans in the crowd do the wave, not all of them want to. They do it because they think that’s what they’re supposed to do. There’s a difference.
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July 3rd, 2007 at 11:51 am
You’re bringing me down, Paul.
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July 3rd, 2007 at 12:43 pm
It wasn’t rigged, it’s just that every single person can, with a little effort, vote something like 90,000,000 times.
So if enough people care to vote one of “their guys” in, they will. Remember AJ Pierszysnskdisdsida last year? With the whole White Sox “Punch AJ” nonsense? He got something like 300,000 votes in a week, pretty much all from White Sox fans, and voila, he got to go to the All-Star game, despite the fact he had no business being there, and there’s about six catchers in the AL better than he is.
SF fans just kept voting for him, and now he goes. *shrug*
At least once he breaks the record he’ll quit - hopefully - and we’ll be rid of the cheating windbag.
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July 5th, 2007 at 4:08 pm
Paul, I think your first comment hits the nail on the head. To add a bit, I would go so far as to say that many fans love to hate Bonds - hence the All-Star inclusion (all press is good press - even if they hate the guy, they see his name on the all-star ballot and are intrigued to punch it).
Also, fans love to hate Selig. And to have Bonds participating in front of his hometown crowd in the All-Star game during the year in which he will break the all-time home run record is a slap in the face for Selig. Seriously.
JUST IMAGINE IF BONDS WINS THE ALL-STAR M-V-P! What will Bud’s face look like during the trophy presentation??
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July 6th, 2007 at 12:09 pm
The reason Bonds was voted in?
San Francisco is hosting the All Star game and he is the only one with a prayer of playing.
Who else are you going to vote for? Zito? Molina? Durham? Aurilia?
Hometown fans want somebody to cheer.
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