Popularity Contest Winners: Formerly Known as All-Stars

Sometime ago I must have checked a box on the Kansas City Royals' website that gave my permission to send me Royals-related emails. I've never bothered to unsubscribe because sometimes they'll send good ticket deals and other "insider information." Lately my inbox has been overwhelmed with emails asking for my vote for Jose Guillen as the part of MLB's Final Vote campaign.

The premise of the Final Vote is basically this: There's a list of five guys who are pretty good, but not quite good enough (or not quite popular enough, or not quite in the right clubhouse) to make the All-Star team. The league gives the fans the "final vote" to determine which of the five will be given the opportunity to play in the Mid-Summer Classic. This, along with most of the All-Star selection process is a joke.

Just like determining the next American Idol, the All-Star selection is becoming less and less about talent and more and more about popularity. Honestly, I thought I was done with popularity elections when I graduated high school. I'm all for democracy and everything, but sometimes, like when it comes to choosing All-Stars, the masses shouldn't have much of a say, especially in this world-wide-web world we live in.

Needless to say, the players on the East coast, particularly in Boston and New York, have a decided advantage because those teams have much larger fan bases. Hopefully, most fans are moral enough to understand that their shortstop that is hitting below the Mendoza Line doesn't deserve an All-Star vote, even if he is on their team. That said, however, the old, popular stand-byes are seemingly grandfathered in, even though there may be a better, younger, lesser-known player out there.

And, just when you thought it couldn't get any worse, MLB is also giving us, the fans, the opportunity to vote on who the MVP of the All-Star game should be. A popularity contest within a popularity contest. Now that sounds like a reality television show our Nation can really sink its teeth into.