The Orioles want you to stuff the ballot box

When I was a kid, I’d range all over Tiger Stadium after a game collecting discarded All-Star ballots and make my family wait for me as I punched out Tiger names in dozens of the things before handing them to a kindly usher or dropping them into the big box at the top of the stairway to the main concourse. But for all my efforts, I never accomplished my ultimate goal: having Tom Brookens start an All-Star Game over George Brett. I’m still kind of bitter about that, but I no longer feel guilty for my failure. I just realize that I wasn’t properly incentivized:

Voting is now open at orioles.com for the 2009 MLB All-Star Game in St. Louis — and the Orioles have some All-Star rewards just for you!

Vote at orioles.com and list the O’s as your “favorite team” or “other favorite team,” and you’ll receive an exclusive promo code good for $5 off any ticket to an Orioles non-prime home game after the All-Star break. But, if you vote the maximum 25 times, you’ll receive a promo code good for a FREE UPPER RESERVE ticket to any O’s non-prime home game after the break! So vote early … and vote often!

Yeah, bribes are unseemly, but no one will care when Greg Zaun is the AL’s starting catcher come July and the Upper Reserve section of Camden Yards is filled with happy fans come August.

And remember: This time it counts!

(thanks to Wooden U. Lykteneau for the heads up)


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Grant
14 years ago

“Other Favorite Team” is code for “Yankees or Red Sox fans, please take these free tickets.”

The Orioles disgust me. Though having ZAUN start the all-star game would be awesome. Or Matt Wieters even if he hasn’t been called up yet. I’m sure there’s some rule against that.

theone
14 years ago

Nick Markakis may start anyway.  isn’t that enough for a last place team?

DXMachina
14 years ago

As a National League fan, I approve of having an all Oriole line up for the All-Star game.

Jeff V
14 years ago

Keep in mind they are not asking you to vote for the players just list the O’s as a favorite team.  I still think its tacky but they arn’t advocating Felix Pie starting the all star game.

Honestly I think they are more worried about empty seats.

Ted C
14 years ago

You guys are acting as if the Orioles are the only team doing something like this. 

Guess what?  They aren’t.

Chris
14 years ago

Give me a break. Orioles fans are so uneducated that they’d vote Gregg Zaun 25 times. This boils down to one Nick Markakis, and possibly Brian Roberts and Adam Jones…guys who might deserve to be starting but instead get snubbed because of Johnny Damon.

Mike
14 years ago

Chris, you have to realize that you yourself have just become far more ignorant than most Orioles fans if you lump every single O’s fan as being uneducated.  Markakis, BRob and Jones are definitely worthy of starting in the All-Star game, and Huff may make the team as an alternate.

Chris
14 years ago

Ha. I made a bit of a [Freudian??!] grammar slip…

“Orioles fans AREN’T so uneducated that they’d vote Gregg Zaun 25 times.”

My main point is that there’s a whole country of ballot stuffers for Robinson Cano, so the O’s gotta do all they can do to level the playing field.

Melody
14 years ago

@Ted C: do you have examples?  I know lots of teams exhort fans to vote for their players, I particularly remember hearing the Mets do this over their loudspeaker during games.  But I haven’t heard of other teams offering free tickets to fans as a bribe—if this is common practice I’d love to hear about it.  Any chance I could get free Red Sox tickets if I vote for David Ortiz?

Chipmaker
14 years ago

The Rangers are offering ticket bribes as well.

Vote and state the Rangers are your favorite and get a 50% discount code for tickets (up to $33 face) for a Sunday-Thursday game.

Vote the full 25 times on-line and claim the Rangers are your favorite and get two free tickets (up to $25 face).

shrug.

http://texas.rangers.mlb.com/tex/fan_forum/allstar_offers.jsp?partnerId=ed-2459477-79702748&source=ed-2459477-79702748

Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Griffin
14 years ago

Oh, dear. Now the Orioles have gone and spoiled the integrity of All-Star Game voting.

IIRC, in the 90s, before AS Game voting went to the interwebs, the Cleveland Indians were notorious for encouraging ballot box shenanigans at the Jake.

Horomnizon
14 years ago

“Oh, dear. Now the Orioles have gone and spoiled the integrity of All-Star Game voting.”

LOL!  Exactly, because beginning the vote when you’re only 15 games into the season really gives you a chance to see who is having a good year and deserves to be at the ASG.  Why do we even have the opportunity to vote before May 15th? or maybe even June 1st?

Ryan
14 years ago

The All star game is a joke, period. No promotion like this is going to change the outcome of the voting. At most it gets Nick Markakis the 3rd OF spot. But odds are its going to be your standard Red Sox, Yankees, Angels, Ichiro team. Its a joke you can vote so early, its a joke you can vote more than once, the whole game is a joke.

The only cool part is seeing them all on the same field.