Are we saying that Milwaukee constitutes the wrong hands?

Wow, that’s fantastic. Go Jason!

There’s nothing wrong with democracy or the hands of the people.  What’s wrong is a system that rewards ballot stuffing… and two hot months…

I think the guy’s a jackass.

Just as Jack Marshall said. The PED issue isn’t a big enough black eye for baseball. Let’s have one of the “caught” superstars play in the All-Star game too. “Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk.”

The whole situation disgusts me. It’s arbitrary too, Manny refuses to play in the ASG anyway, and has for some time. Way to go Jason.

Jack and Kill,

Go read Jason’s latest post at IIATMS (link in the blogroll to the lower left on this page if you can’t find it). His reason for doing this is as a protest—albeit an unconventional one—of Bud Selig and baseball’s failure to institute a Shawne Merriman rule that would have prevented Manny from even being eligible for the All-Star Game in the first place, which he believes should be the case.  It is his hope that Manny winning the vote would place baseball in an awkward position that would highlight and shame it for its failure to have a rule which I can only assume both of you would be in favor of.

On a more general level, Jason is a friend, and my “Yay Jason” is directed at him getting some national media exposure.  He has worked very hard to make what is an excellent blog over the past year, and whether or not you agree with what he’s doing there, I am happy that he is realizing some success.  So yes, “Yay Jason.”

Certainly I wish everybody rewards for hard work and recognition for good ideas, including this fellow.

However, I do want to quickly nit-pick when he commended Selig for creating the wild-card. 

Bud Selig deserves ZERO credit for creating the wild card.  All three other major sports had it by the time that MLB instituted it in 1995.  Crediting Selig with creating the wild card would be like crediting me for creating plumbing if I install a kitchen sink at my house.  I didn’t create a damn thing, I just saw that other people had done something that worked, and I rode on their coattails.

“Who is Jason Rosenberg to decide that all these people should be disappointed, annoyed or harmed so he can make a statement, flex his on-line muscles, feel important, attract more people to his blog, and get media gigs?”

Jack, I’d suggest that that exact statement could be turned around on a person who has made it his business to tell us that we should all be dissappointed, annoyed, and outraged about the morals and ethics of the steroid era.  Put differently, he’s one man with an opinon and he has every right to voice it. People can listen to him or not, just as they choose to listen or not to what you or I have had to say about anything else on which we opine.

If you disagree with what he’s doing, fine, say so.  But to question his right to say it and to call him a self-serving jerk for doing so crosses a line.

Jack,

I am no one. Just like you.  I had a point of view, an opinion, a thought to share.  I used the power of the internet plus a bit of initiative to share those things.  Everyone has a right to agree or disagree with those things and I welcome all of it.  I’ve been complimented and bashed. 

Self-serving?  No, it’s just fun.  Fun as hell.  Suddenly I, an absolute no one, am being asked for interviews on national radio broadcasts, newpapers, the freakin’ Associated Press?  Who am I?  No one.  No one but someone with an idea, a thought, an opinion with an internet connection and a half-ounce of initiative.

So please halt the personal attacks.  Criticize the plan, the message all you want.  Just cool it on the personal attacks.  It defeats all arguments and makes you look the fool, not me.

Again, thanks for the support Craig (and others).

I’m not buying that distinction, Jack.  If anyone should understand that words matter, it’s a lawyer, and I find it dubious at best that you expect no action to be taken as a result of your words.  You want people to shun certain players and certain writers based on their views of PEDs in baseball. You want them to vote their ethics (or your ethics) with their pocketbooks.  If you don’t, you’ve wasted an obviously large amount of effort in what can only be described as persuasive writing and advocacy.

  But even if I did buy your words/conduct distinction, to suggest that what Jason is doing is something far worse than offering an opinion is to discount as sheep anyone who votes the way he suggests they do.  He’s not making anyone do anything. If people vote for Manny because of his site, it’s because they are convinced by his statement of purpose.  All he has done is create a platform for that statement with a link to MLB’s voting page.

And I think you’re obligated to do more than to simply state that voting for Manny is “obnoxious and chaotic conduct.”  Why is it so?  He’s on the ballot. He’s eligible.  Maybe he’s not worthy on the baseball merits, but baseball has never been too concerned with that when it comes to the All-Star game (see, Varitek, Jason in 2008).

If the response is that we should not honor a guy who broke the rules, one must ask why baseball hasn’t seen fit to make him ineligible for the game.  Which, as he says, is Jason’s whole point to begin with.

Ralph,

The blog is, by design “screwing up” the All-Star game.  That’s it’s sole purpose.  So I don’t know why you had to put that in sneering quotes.

Really, though, I don’t think that there’s anything at all wrong with Manny being in the game (although there’s a LOT wrong with the media surrounding it).  Manny’s obviously one of the greatest hitters of all time, and a very popular player.  Yes, he’s out for 50 games this year, but I’m sure there’ve been lots of times when injured players got in, and there’ve definitely been times when players got in based upon popularity alone rather than their competitive merits. 

So really, the only thing provocative about Manny being in the All-Star game is the media’s self-referential focus on their own hysterics.  Because there’s no cause for outrage over his inclusion - certainly not when contrasted with some other dubious All-Star selections (Craig pointed out Varitek last year, and every year it seems there are four or give guys playing entirely because of their fame.)