For the second straight year, David Wright is in line to be snubbed from the starting NL lineup in the All-Star game. And for the second straight year, the public outrage ensues. But who’s to blame for this fiasco and what can be done to fix it?
When this first happened last year, fans took to Twitter and Facebook to file their grievances with anyone who would listen. “How could David Wright be snubbed from the starting lineup?”
Now, a year later, arguably the best third baseman in the National League is about to be left off the starting roster of the All-Star game—one that’s taking place in his own building.
For Mets, this should be a sign of trouble. The fan base should be disappointed that they can’t even put their own All-Star 3B in the game as a starter. But what will they do? Hit the internet and complain that it’s all Bud Selig’s fault for creating this system that allows the fans to vote.
A fair gripe to have with the commissioner, but the finger shouldn’t stop there. It should turn around and point at the person doing the complaining.
The reason we see Pablo Sandoval in the All-Star Game as the starter is because his team and his fan base gets out and votes for him. Wright’s problem: not a strong enough fan base to compete with the likes of the Giants.
And this has so much more to do than an All-Star Game. If a team can’t get a fan base to do a simple thing like vote a player into a game, how can they expect this fan base to pay their hard earned money to watch a team that hasn’t been playing well as of late? A fan base is supposed to support and rally around a team and their players no matter what. That’s not the case here. There is a distance between the fans and the players. Fans should want to vote their players into the game, as it is sense of pride for being a fan of that team. Added is the fact that game is here in New York, in our building.
Being the negative person in the room has never been the goal of mine. But someone needs to ask the questions that are part of the reason the Mets are in the mess they are in. They don’t have much talent now a days as it is, shouldn’t be our job as fans to give the respect to the players on this team that have the talent, like David Wright and Matt Harvey?
By not voting in a player into an All Star Game, it sends a strong message to the rest of baseball. Most of baseball would state that David Wright deserves to start the All-Star Game, but his own fans can’t even rally around him.
This is only part of the problem, but it shows that as fans we aren’t connected with are team. There are those fans out there that will vote Wright in as many times as they can. And they should get their credit, but there aren’t that many of them.
It’s a sad state of affairs here in the Big Apple. The least we can do is vote our captain and our leader into the All-Star Game as the starting third-baseman at Citi Field. Take note Mets fans, the entire baseball world is watching. Do the right thing, unite as one and show the rest of baseball that Mets fans are loud and proud of whom they are.
At Nationals Park they have promotions. For people who scramble 1000 votes is a free ticket, 10,000 votes its a diamond club ticket. (or something like that). It was shown on the jumbotron
what the rewards were for ramping up the votes.
i put in my 25 for DW
And that’s part of the problem as well. The Mets need to interact with the fans that they have. It feels as if they are alienating them.
In my opinion, fans can’t snub because
1) fans are biased- you are supposed to vote for your favorite players rather than the “right” choice
2) most fans are uneducated- the majority of fans are casual fans and chances are they don’t know the secondary players on each team.
I am a die hard Mets fan, yet I choose not to vote. I don’t care about the All-star game and i really don’t care who starts/doesn’t start. I don’t even put a priority to watch the game because i find it boring and meaningless. You could say i “boycott” it. So i don’t think you can characterize the fans simply because they aren’t voting the players, i’m sure i am not the only one with this thinking.
Fair, but the only way these players become the starter is by voting. Shouldn’t we as Mets fans expect all Mets fans to vote for Wright?
Didn’t i just list the reasons for me not voting above? I’m a Met fan but i don’t care if he makes starter or not because i don’t care for the All-star event itself.
And that’s fine. But people will be outraged if David doesn’t make the team. But we have to look at ourselves as the reason for him not getting in. If you want him in, vote. That’s all I’m saying.
If there was such a public outrage, wouldn’t more people be voting? After all there should be more Met fans than Giant fans, and even if there weren’t, the rational voters from the other 28 ballclubs should easily push David over the top.
My guess is that most people don’t care, and the outrage is mostly coming from the media who undoubtedly are correct that Wright is better than Sandoval but isn’t representative of the majority fan’s thinking.
I only care for 2 reasons (and really only the first):
1. David Wright would like to be in the ASG. Thats all I needed.
2. I generally want the NL to win (but my patience with the Giants is thin).
And to add to that. Wright deserves to be in the ASG, especially as the starter.
I’ve read quite a bit about San Francisco and the all-start vote since last year, namely because their players always end up in the top of the back. SF has computer voting booths and free WiFi (for fans to vote on their phones) in AT&T Park. I’ve never seen those booths in Citi and I’ve heard rumblings the cell coverage (there is no WiFi) is weak at best.
It is.
I’d like to see Wright start, but I hardly think it’s an outrage if Sandoval wins the vote. He’s got charisma and a catchy nickname, and the Giants are winners. His traditional stats are close enough to Wright’s numbers for the average voter…
I’d suggest that the biggest NL “snub” brewing now is whichever worthy player might lose his spot to Harper…
Rather, I’m more proud that we didn’t have to LOWER ourselves to the sf giants level. David Wright will make the Interleague Exhibition Game on the vote of his peers, not of ballot stuffers, who denigrate whatever dignity the game has.
(—from a manual ballot-stuffer at Shea, 1970(?), the first year back for fan voting via a razor-blade company, who actually wrote-in Swoboda and Kranepool and Agee…)
I’ll vote for Wright because he deserves it.
I hate the Giants.
Ballot stuffing makes those starters a joke.
The game itself is a joke.
But at least we got a nice joke on Sandy’s twitter last year.
If Wright had been traded, his new fans would have voted him in. That applies for any of the other 29 teams in baseball. This will be a sign to David that his team just doesn’t have any fans.
The Mets have historically not have too many fan selected starters. Unless the player transcended being a local star ala Strawberry, Piazza, Carter and Beltran.
Personally I care more about David Wright starting his first postseason game since Game 7 of the 2006 NLCS!