Apparently Andre Ethier will have to stop the gulf oil leak, win ‘American Idol’ and bat .534 to get any All-Star attention
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Andre Ethier, where’s the love?
What’s a guy have to do to get a little All-Star attention, I mean beyond being the best player in baseball for the first six weeks of the season?
Major League Baseball released its first batch of results for the All-Star game scheduled at Angel Stadium July 13, and it was led by five Phillies and zero Dodgers.
It didn’t even include Ethier, who was only in triple-crown position when he went down with a fractured pinky May 15.
If Ethier can’t generate any fan support when leading the league in batting average, RBI and tied for home runs before getting hurt, what’s going to happen to his All-Star numbers while the finger heals for three to six weeks?
It is an absolute joke. Ethier should have been the first name punched by every single person with a ballot in his hands, or at a computer keyboard, let alone the first outfielder.
Instead he trails a pair of Phillies, ex-Dodger Jason Werth and Shane Victorino. Milwaukee’s Ryan Braun leads all N.L. outfielders.
Is anyone watching out there?
I’m not going to tear down the three outfielders ahead of Ethier; they’re all excellent players. But they, and every other N.L. outfielder, still trail Ethier in average, home runs and RBI. And Ethier’s been out almost two weeks.
Ethier should be more automatic than bipartisanship politics on Capitol Hill.
No Dodger showed up higher than fourth in the first round of voting tabulations (James Loney, Rafael Furcal, Ethier). Catcher Russell Martin is fifth, while in the outfield Matt Kemp (league leader with 38 runs) is seventh and Manny Ramirez is ninth.
It is, of course, extremely early and all this is subject to dramatic change. Anyway, you would hope.
The Dodgers, however, are actually second in the National League (to the Phillies) in paid attendance, so it’s not like they’re suffering from a lack of fans to vote.
Much of the voting comes from the MLB website, where each fan is restricted to voting only 25 times.
How does that work? What about restricting each one to, I don’t know, one vote?
Fan voting is a bad idea that is never going to go away, but at least MLB could make an effort to make the All-Star team representative of those most deserving, instead of almost encouraging ballot stuffing.
Yet, even if you live and breath Phillies or Giants baseball, you have to recognize a superior season by an opposing player.
Andre Ethier, give him a little love.
-- Steve Dilbeck