jhr2@houem.UUCP (J.ROSENBLUTH) (06/25/85)
> > Having the fans vote for the All-Star team is absurd!!! The result > > is that the All-Star team consists of players > > A. who are heading for the Hall of Fame - in 5 years (i.e. - Rod Carew), > > or > > B. play for teams in cities where ballot-stuffing for the locals is the > > tradition. "Vote early and often for the players on our team"... > > As opposed to the players who are playing like All-Stars this year. Also, > > with the ballots printed up so early, rookies and players who haven't done > > well in the past don't show up on the ballots and thus don't stand a chance > > of winning the vote. > > The All-Star teams should be elected by the players, so we have All-Star > > teams consisting of the best baseball players rather than the most > > popular. > > > > Mike Ryan > > ARPA: ryan%fremen.DEC@DECWRL.ARPA > > UUCP: {decvax,allegra,ihnp4,ucbvax,...}!decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-fremen!ryan > This whole argument seems academic. Ueberroth wants to make the whole > game of baseball more of a fans' game (which in general appeals greatly), > but won't return the voting for the All-Star game to the players & > coaches, where it belongs. They alone really KNOW who is good. My two cents worth: First of all, it is the fans' game (or ought to be). I do not mind a great deal when the fans make mistakes (especially when they keep voting for Reggie and Rod, because I'm an NL fan). Let them see who they want to see. Second, I do not think the players and coaches are the only ones who KNOW. In fact, some of them would elect poor choices as well. Third, I agree that the All-Star Teams should consist of the best players. But let's not make it the All-Mediocre-But-Having-A-Great-First-Half Game. Josh Rosenbluth (houxm!houem!jhr2)
mupmalis@watarts.UUCP (M. A. Upmalis) (06/26/85)
If the game belongs to the fans where is my share of the gate... Actually I think that having the fans vote isn't bad, I think that they shouldn't be the only ones, I think the vote should be split up among the fans, the writers and the players, equal or weighted I don't know but I lean to the equal thirds. The game is entertainment so somebody like a Jackson, as much as I dislike him that catches Joe Fans attention deserves a vote, but somebody like a Fernandez or Moseby who gets more recognition from the players or the writers deserves the attention that comes form the process Also, a change like this would be the easiest to implement, and the resulting team would have to be better to watch... And by the way, the NBC bit last saturday on snow in October in Montreal was really absurd, and despite some climatic differences, Toronto is on the same latitude as Northern California... Remember the dollar difference in October, the Wrold series in Canada will be a bargain! -- Mike Upmalis (mupmalis@watarts)<University of Waterloo> ihnp4!watmath!watarts!mupmalis
stevev@tekchips.UUCP (Steve Vegdahl) (07/03/85)
> And by the way, the NBC bit last saturday on snow in October in Montreal > was really absurd, and despite some climatic differences, Toronto > is on the same latitude as Northern California... Remember the dollar > difference in October, the Wrold series in Canada will be a bargain! Stating that Toronto is on the same latitude as Northern California is stretching the truth more than a little. California's northern border is the 42nd parallel. Toronto is between the 43rd and 44th. Stating things as the author of the above message did is particularly deceiving because "Northern California" traditionaly refers to the San Francisco Bay Area, which straddles the 38th parallel. The casual reader might come away with the impression that "Montreal is close to Toronto, which is on the same parallel as San Francisco", and thereby conclude that Montreal (north of the 45th) and San Francisco (38th) are at approximately the same latitude. With respect to snow in October, my grandmother (who has lived all here life near Minneapolis) tells me that it is not unheard of to get snow there in September or May. The same thing could be said about Denver, no? On to another subject. I always thought that the best way to negate all-star ballot-box stuffing would be to normalize the votes based on the total number of votes cast at each team's stadium. That is to say, to weight the votes so that the fans each team count for 1/26 of the total. This would require a ballot-box stuffing plot to be organized across several major league cities to have a significant effect. Incidentally, it seems to me that a group of people dedicated to having fan-ballotting eliminated could stuff ballot-boxes with votes for no-stars. Steve Vegdahl Computer Research Lab. Tektronix, Inc. Beaverton, Oregon