7th Inning Stretch

I understand the Boston Red Sox are the hottest team in sports right now.  But, this years All-Star game starting line-up is just ridiculous.  When are we going to get a system that puts the players that deserve to go in the line-up?  Band-wagon nation has voted in 4 starters.  Yes, Kevin Youkilis deserves to start.  But Manny Ramirez, Dustin Pedroia, and David Ortiz simply do not.  And here is why?

Lets start with Dustin Pedroia.  Now, I want you to chose between player A and player B.  Player A has more hits, runs, doubles, triples, home runs, rbi’s, walks, stolen bases, a higher average, and a better on-base percentage than player B.  Yeah, me too.  Player A is Ian Kinsler of the Texas Rangers, Player B is Dustin Pedroia.

Now onto Manny Ramirez.  I understand Manny is a fan favorite and makes the All-Star game every year simply because he is Manny Ramirez.  However, this season an outfielder named Grady Sizemore of the Cleveland Indians is on pace for a 40-40 season.  Manny Ramirez doesn’t have 40 stolen bases in his 15 years big league experience.  I mean come on, its been almost 5 years now Red Sox fans.  We understand you aren’t the punch-line to every baseball joke anymore.  Stop dooming us all to watch your team take over the All-Star game, just as they have ESPN.

Now, “Big Papi” David Ortiz.  Ortiz is the starting DH for the American League team.  One problem though.  He won’t be playing because he has been on the disabled list since May 31st.  Ortiz was even quoted saying that he’d rather be on the beach in the Dominican Republic.  The second reason this bothers me is because Ortiz wasn’t having a good season before he got injured.  He was batting a lowly .252.  So, why is Ortiz starting over Milton Bradley who is having a tremendous year for the Texas Rangers?  Because he is on the  Boston Red Sox.

My hope is that the MLB will realize this is getting out of hand and simply ignore the votes of everyone listing the Boston Red Sox as their favorite team.  Why?  Because these people aren’t voting for the most deserving players, they are voting for anyone with the initials BOS next to their name.

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