The All Star Game Conundrum

There appears to be an interesting debate with sport fans. Many fans love the idea of an "all star team" for each conference and are pitted against one another for conference supremacy in addition to the championship. Fans always fantasize about having that perfect team with all superstars.  

However, everyone's teams differ and that soon causes intense debate about who is better than who and the whole process. Currently MLB, NBA, and NHL have fan voting for starters with the coaches of each team filling out the roster. The NFL picks their pro bowlers out of a hat it seems like.

In MLB, each fan can vote up to 25 times per e-mail address on an all-star roster of their choosing and there is no limit to voting when in a stadium. So of course, fans are going to load up on their own team. In addition, it's simple math the larger the fan-base the more all stars from that team will be selected. This year A-Rod lead all voting with 3.9 million votes.

 Then fans always complain that there are too many players of the more popular teams in baseball (Yankees, Red Sox, and Cubs). A combined nine Red Sox, Cubs, and Yankees were voted to start the all-star game.  
This of course leads to people complaining about players who are having better years than say Jason Varitek and Miguel Tejada but did not selected. In the NBA, the starters are chosen by the fan, which leads it to be basically being a popularity contest.

It pays to be well known and does not matter about your stats during the year as long as you did well in the past. What else can explain Jason Kidd's selection as a starter over Chauncey Billups who was statistically better than Kidd? Alternatively, in the case of the NHL the famous Rory Fitzpatrick Campaign this past winter?  

Rory garnered allegedly 550,177 votes from fans, which was good for third place (that is number is disputed by some as being too low and due to unlikely numerical coincidences in the final week of voting). Rory in 77 games finished the season with eight points and 57 penalty minutes. He does not sound much like an all-star to me.

The NFL has become the pinnacle of players being "snubbed.” Two Notables this year include Fred Taylor who is nearing 10,000 yards for his career and has never been to a pro bowl, David Garrard who finished with 18 TDs to just three INTs.

Everyone talks about how prestigious it is to be voted an all-star and how much it improves their Hall of Fame credentials. Mike Sweeney due to the MLB rule of every team being represented was a five time all-star. However, honestly is Sweeney really worth being in the Hall of Fame or Rory Fitzpatrick?  

They take away spots as well from more deserving people. The all-star game while it is fun to watch the process of selecting players have become a major debate among fans and analysts. It gives me a headache having to listen to the "experts" on ESPN about snubs and undeserving players.