Leading up the the recent MLB All Star Game a lot of sports commentators and enthusiasts questioned whether it is the right decision to have fans pick the All Stars. Usually the debate stems from fans voting based on popularity and not on worthiness. Players stuck in small markets easily get overlooked as fanatics from big market teams only vote for players from their favorite team. However, this year leading up the the MLB All Star Game the conversation was about the amount of players who got voted into the game that decided to skip it.
ESPN's Michael Smith suggest on Around the Horn to eliminate fan voting because of the problem of ballplayers skipping the mid summer classic. Instead, MLB, the All Star Game coaches, or a team captain would pick the All Stars. I think it would be a great idea to have a team captain pick the team. We saw the success that team captains had for the Home Run Derby. The participants seemed excited and motivated to be there. Also, a lot of people applauded the NHL All Star game for having team captains pick players from the elected All Stars.
However, MLB and every other league can not get rid of fan voting. Simply because its very cheap and effective publicity. The voting process generates millions of impressions on fans about not only the All Star Game but the league and its sponsors. It drives fans to the league website which helps advertising dollars and raises price of sponsorship deals. To get rid of fan voting would be riding the league of lots of publicity and advertising/sponsorship dollars.
The problem still can not be fully ignored. Too many players skip the All Star Game. There are a few ways to fix this problem. Players that have All Star appearance clauses in their contracts should not receive the benefits the All Star appearance triggers if they skip the game. Simply it will hurt the players in the wallet without fining them. Injured players who can't play but were voted to the team and want their All Star appearance bonus will only receive it if they come to the game for pregame ceremonies. I would also institute team captain like the NHL did and have these captains pick players out of the pool of players that were voted to the game. For this to work in MLB, the league will have to get rid of its rule that states the winning league gets home field advantage. Hopefully this will generate enough excitement to keep players from wanting to skip the game.
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