Fan Vote: Yay or Nay?

By: Jake

They do it in every sport and we all vote, but is it best for the game?

Every year, the "experts" come out with their "snub list" after the all-star game, which is usually a list of deserving players who were left out of the all-star game because of the biased fans who wanted their team's players in the game. This kind of fan involvement is particularly detrimental to players of small market teams who have a smaller fanbase and cannot compete with markets like New York, Los Angeles, or Dallas. 

This year we got a good taste of this when the Philadelphia fans voted OF Shane Victorino into the game over San Francisco's Pablo Sandoval. Sandoval is hitting .331 and carrying the Giants this year offensively, while Victorino is hitting only .314 and serving as number two batter for the Phillies. Not only does Sandoval have a better batting average, but he also has 8 more HRs and 11 more RBIs.This is definitely not the first time something like this has happened. Last year's NFL Pro Bowl had Brett Favre make the Pro Bowl over Phillip Rivers who had 4 more TDs and 6 less INTs than Favre. Once again showing that a major market like New York can "out-vote" one like San Diego.  

Because of this flawed system, many deserving players that play in smaller markets don't get the recognition they deserve. The only way to fix this is to either have the fan vote count significantly less or just let writers vote for everything.