Fans shouldn't vote for All Stars--too emotional--Bill Rhoden, NY Times

"Reyes and Wright definitely belong. But the process by which they and other starting All-Stars were selected needs to be overhauled. And we can start by taking the vote away from the fans.

Fans are fickle, driven by emotion, not reason.

Baseball needs to be Frick-ified.

In 1957, Ford Frick, the baseball commissioner, stepped in after Cincinnati fans stuffed the ballot boxes and voted eight Reds to the N.L. starting lineup. Frick removed the Cincinnati players Gus Bell, George Crowe and Wally Post from the lineup, replacing them with Stan Musial, Willie Mays and Hank Aaron.

There is general disagreement about the best way to select the All-Star starters. I think the vote should be left to players and managers.

But Derek Jeter, voted to his seventh All-Star Game, said he didn't think fellow players would be any fairer than fans. "Even if the players did it, there would be favoritism, there would be people who maybe didn't like a certain player so they wouldn't vote for him," Jeter said.

Enough stuffing the ballot box.

Yes, the game is largely for the fans, so let the fans cheer and boo, let them fill hours upon hours of radio call-in shows. By all means, give the game back to the fans.

Just let managers and players do the heavy lifting. Let them vote. " (July 3, 2006)

• Bill didn't mention pitchers aren't chosen by fans, but by managers.
• Everyone is emotional--check the ballots of the BBWAA--taking their vote away should be priority #1.
• For the record, employees of the NY Times are not allowed to vote on baseball awards.

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