----------------------------------------
For a time, there was a chance the 2015 AL All-Star team would have had 7 or 8 Kansas City Royals as starters due to fan voter manipulation. Obviously there was some pretty serious ballot stuffing by Royals' fans. There was also rumors that MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred would step in and rule that a couple of Royals would be removed as starters.
The 1957 All-Star Game would have offered some precedent for Manfred.
Controversy surrounded the 1957 outing as the fanatical Cincinnati voters stuffed the ballot boxes and elected nearly their entire team (minus first baseman George Crowe & the batboy) onto the National League's starting roster. This upset Commissioner Ford Frick greatly and he responded by removing Gus Bell and Wally Post from the starting nine. He also transferred the responsibility for All-Star voting to the players, managers and coaches the next year.
My thing is if the ASG is going to mean something (i.e. determining which league will have home field advantage in the World Series), then we should take the player selection process more seriously. I believe Commissioner Frick had the right idea.
---------------------------------------------------------
No comments:
Post a Comment