MLB All-Star Game

Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game can’t be dismissed as some charade that means nothing (think NFL Pro Bowl).

In baseball, the league that wins the All-Star Game earns the eventual home-field advantage for the World Series. It is never a bad thing to have a decisive seventh game in one’s own ballpark, with one’s own fans whooping it up.

But that may be where the fans’ job starts and stops – cheering. Instead, fan voting chooses the starting lineup for the American League and National League teams.

That’s one reason the Chicago Cubs’ infield will all be NL starters. That’s a popular team with a huge fan base. And it isn’t like they aren’t all worthy of an appearance in the game July 12 in San Diego. Except … at second base. Where the Washington Nationals’ Daniel Murphy, who is hitting .347 with 14 home runs and 56 RBIs should have gotten the nod over Ben Zobrist (.296, 11 home runs, 43 RBI).

Maybe Washington is already sick of voting (this is, you may have heard, an election year). Catcher Wilson Ramos is the best in the NL, but Buster Posey of the San Francisco Giants will start. Ramos is hitting .340, Posey .291.

We’ll pick on the NL and the Cubs once more. Addison Russell (.242) will start at shortstop while the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Corey Seager (.305 and 17 homers) will wait his turn to play. Wrong.

Fan voting and electronic ballot-box stuffing potential aside, fans often pick their favorite players from their favorite teams in popularity contests. But not when it really counts for something, especially home field in the World Series.
 
 
Post By: Larry Weisman, a longtime sportswriter for USA TODAY, blogs for Twistity.com. Follow him on Twitter @MrLarryWeisman