Annual All-Star Voting Rant #1

Call me old school. To me, this game has always mattered. The hell with Bud and his home field advantage "this time it matters" crap. It matters because as a lifelong Mets fan, I'm an NL kind of girl. I root for the National League every year. So why is it National League fans, Mets fans included, insist on voting stupidly? Knowing the AL side of the field is going to be lousy with Yankees should be reason enough to vote smart.

Here's the state of the vote as of May 31:

Current AL Leaders:
Tino Martinez, Brian Roberts, Miguel Tejada, Alex Rodriguez, Jason Varitek, David Ortiz, Manny Ramirez/Vlad Guerrero/Ichiro Suzuki

Current NL Leaders:
Albert Pujols, Jeff Kent, Nomar Garciaparra, Scott Rolen, Mike Piazza, Carlos Beltran/Jim Edmonds/Ken Griffey Jr.

This is why All-Star voting drives me crazy. Look at the lineup of top vote getters in the AL. Every one of those players is having a darn good season, and deserves to go. Ok, maybe Johnny Damon and Gary Sheffield deserve the nod more than Manny Ramirez and Vlad Guerrero. That's arguable, and you never know, Damon could catch up.

But look at the top NL vote getters. Nomar Garciaparra? The man is injured for crying out loud! And before he got hurt, he was hitting .157! What the hell is wrong with you people? And, hello, what about Mike Cameron, Bobby Abreu, and Miguel Cabrera? Edmonds and Griffey aren't have bad seasons, but this is the All-Star Game we're talking about here. You put your best players on the field if you want to win. Which brings me to Mike Piazza. Not having such a great year, in case any of you voters were paying attention. Yeah, I know he's a Met. But just because I'm a Met fan doesn't mean I'm going to vote for him. This isn't about the Mets - it's about the National League winning the damned game.

I could make an argument for just about every position that NL voters are just not voting smart. Except for Albert Pujols. It's one of the few picks that makes any sense on the NL side of the voting. Kent, Rolen, Garciaparra, Piazza - How about Castillo (either one) or Grudzielanek, Wright, ANY OTHER SHORTSTOP, or Hernandez?

The bottom line is, I want to win this game. Yes, home field advantage would be great, but it's more than that. It should be more than that to the players, and to the fans. I don't know why or how or when the game turned into an exhibition - popularity contest - everybody-gets-to-play-an-inning-little-league-style thing. That's just crap. The game should matter because one league oughta want to beat the pants off the other, period.