Who Is The All-Star Game For?

by wgarrett on Jun 18, 2006 3:18 PM EDT

In one of his "Baseball Abstracts", Bill James writes about Robin Yount and his answer to a question posed by a beat-writer, "Who do you think should vote for the All-Star teams?". Robin's answer was: "I don't know-- I'm not sure who the game is for." Whenever I see anything involving the All-Star game, pertaining to who should be voted for and who should do the voting, I always ask the question "Who is the game for?" Who, exactly, is the game honoring? Is the game for the best players of the current year? Is it to honor the players from the previous year? Is it to honor the great players that are still around? Is it to honor your favorite players? Is it all of these and more??

When you cast your All-Star votes, what criteria do you use? After reading the diary "Your Mets Need Your Vote!", I decided to change my comment for that into a separate diary. Thanks for any and all comments.

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It's a "what if" game

"What if" you assembled teams of the best players in both leagues and played them against each other...imagine the lineups...who would be waiting in the pen...etc.

Plus it's a celebration of the best and most favorite players...an annual hall of fame for active rather than retired stars.

by peeder on Jun 18, 2006 4:53 PM EDT reply actions

It's for the players

They get contract incentives and showcase themselves to each other, rub elbows, trade testing secrets, etc. The fans being able to vote is just icing on the cake.

Joshua P. Rosenstock is the Managing Editor of TheSportReport.com

by The Sport Report on Jun 19, 2006 4:32 PM EDT reply actions

Two things:

It's for the fans, and it's a celebration of the best players in the game, and those two go hand in hand.

Even though it is for the fans, I think they shouldn't be able to vote. This game should be played as a showcase, to let casual or local fans see all the exciting and great players that are playing all over the country. When fans vote, they seem to most vote for their favorite players whom they probably get to watch on a regular basis. Thus, I think you stick with the format that every team gets an All-Star but fans don't vote, so that the players selected are truly the best players in the game.

This method would be most satisfying to purists and mega-fans who follow the whole league and want the best players, not the most popular. And it would work to expand the fanbase amongst casual and local fans, by opening their eyes to players they may not know, but who are really outstanding. I'm the former, but that is my argument on "it's for the fans terms" against fan voting.

by Nick T @ Amazin' Avenue on Jun 21, 2006 10:23 AM EDT reply actions