With the midsummer classic fast approaching, a quick look at the all-star roster would be enough to make any follower of baseball sick to their stomach. Like every year, there is no shortage of snubs or people to complain about them. Fans turn sports into a brilliant and elaborate spectacle, but are they given too much power in ultimately deciding a player's legacy?
Here is a quick breakdown of how each league chooses it's all-stars.
MLB - Fans choose starters. Players select 16 (8 pitchers and one backup player at each position). Managers select 9 players to fill the roster to 33. Fan Internet vote for the 34th spot on each team.
NBA - Fans vote for starters. Coaches vote for the reserves with the caveat that they cannot choose players on their team. Commissioner chooses replacements.
NHL - Starting lineup and goaltender chosen by fans. Reserves chosen by Hockey Operations Department in coordination with GMs.
NFL - Fans, players and coaches each have 1/3 say of who gets voted in.
At first, I planned to do a lot of research to see how many times a player was "snubbed" from being selected to an all-star roster, however, my own individual bias would make that process highly subjective. What I've realized is that there is no way to make this process objective. By taking fans out of the equation, could we make it less subjective?
The problem with being snubbed from an all-star roster spot has much to do with an athlete's legacy at the end of his career. When the pundits look at their Hall of Fame ballots across all sports, all-star appearances can weigh heavily on their minds.
When China votes Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady onto the all-star team every year (deserving or not), those appearances stack up. In 50 years, will we remember Yao Ming as a semi-bust who could never stay healthy or live up to his full potential or will we just see 7-time all-star (not all deserving) and forget to dig deeper? Stats don't lie and when there isn't a single person alive anymore that can remember when Yao played, that's what they'll turn to.
So here is my question to you: Should fans continue to have a heavy influence on all-star game rosters (and potentially influence whether they become hall-of-famers) or should we leave it up to the people that are closer to the game and follow it for a living (players, coaches, owners and media)?
I'm opting toward the latter.
As someone who only has a passing interest in sports that doesn't extend past stumbling into a fantasy football superbowl, I disagree. I guess it comes down to how you define a star. Is a star the most successful player statistically, or is a star the player the fans want to watch? You seem to be making the argument that they're not always the same players.
ReplyDelete