paul wartenberg

Lance Carter?

I am getting to think that the requirement to include at least one player
from each team is ridiculous. Choice conflicts between players at certain
positions make it difficult to include those deserving to go. The reason
why neither Huff nor Baldelli were chosen was because there were too many
outfielders to choose from among the "lousy" teams and not enough pitchers
(Detroit's pitching staff doesn't have anyone with a winning record or
reasonable stats, while Tampa's Carter at least had a winning record and a
good save count).

There's one suggestion bouncing around that at least one slot be
automatically reserved for the top rookie (which would have benefitted
Baldelli) since a good number of players have openly discriminated against
rookies from being All-Stars (another suggestion is that an all-rookie
roster be created so that up-and-comers would get national recognition, but
that would clutter up the All-Star event schedule I would think).

However, most other sports don't have a mandatory team representation for
their All-Stars (only baseball and hockey). I don't think it'd kill
baseball to relinquish this rule. The only thing I would like to see is to
end a lot of the ballot-stuffing somehow, or some way to make sure the
voting is done fairly.