Ah yes folks. Another great quote from the one, the only Gordon Gecko. The MLB All Star balloting has been the topic of conversation among baseball fans for the past few days and I wanted so badly to write about Giants fan. Not the fan that actually understands the game of baseball, focuses tons of energy on being a good fan and does the right thing. The corporate manufactured Giants fan who bought their first hat, jersey and Panda mask around November 4, 2010. You know the guy. He is face deep in that shiny Ipad to catch up on nothing whatsoever during the games at AT&T Park and refuses to actually watch the game in front of him. I wanted to rip into those fans with both hands, string up up in the courtyard for all to see and hang em with their orange and black shoelaces. However, after further review, I've come to terms with the idea that each and every one of us has just been made a fool of.
You see, when I was a kid way back in the 1980's All Star ballots were punched at the ballpark and only at the ballpark. You actually had to show up to a game in order to cast a vote and it was done by hand, well before automation became the way of the world. In recent years the game has changed dramatically and the votes are cast electronically. Each email address is allowed 25 votes and for the record, the majority of sports fans have numerous email accounts. One for fantasy football, one for personal use and of course, one for porn. At least that's the structure you should have in place. When you cast your vote online, your email address is captured by MLB.com and when you enter your two favorite teams in the ballot box, you start to get email spam almost immediately. Considering that everything in this era centers around cash, I have a difficult time believing that MLB.com has not sold our addresses to a third party who's sole purpose in business is to capture as many email addresses as possible, sell them off and "market" products directly to us, the consumer.
If you want to point the finger at the bad guy, point it not at Giants fan or baseball fans in general, but at MLB and Uncle Selig. Without his discretion and that of major league baseball, we'd be allowed to vote for our favorite players in a unique and modern way without the prospect of being suckered into the biggest scam on the internet. Ok, maybe that's extreme because I can't even open my porn dedicated email address any longer for fear of clicking on the ad that informs me that "Daisy in San Francisco would like to hang out with you" and seeing thousands of emails directed to my sick brain. The reality of the situation is simple and clearly that's the biggest problem. We, as Americans, are suckers. Young and old, man and woman, educated and uneducated. Anyone who has ever entered their email address on a sketchy website, then thought "is this a good idea" prior to clicking submit has been victim of the scam on consumers. That's what happened here. The votes we cast may in fact have selected an all star starting roster. No doubt Giants fan should be sick inside after voting for Freddy Sanchez 2.75 million times, simply because he's one of your guys and ignoring the idea that he hasn't laced up in almost a year without injuring himself. But the bigger problem we face is the false advertisement provided by MLB and it's "business" partners. That my friends is just another negative component of being an American and sadly, we all suffer as corporate titans get rich while we starve.
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