Mannywood Is a Box Office Bust

“Mannywood”, everyone has heard the saying since Manny Ramirez’s move from Boston to Beverly Hills last summer. Also, as everyone has heard, Manny tested positive for performance enhancing drugs, just a few short weeks into his 2009 "Mannywood", campaign. Now, as Manny has missed more than half of the season to date, he is in the running for one of the outfield spots in the all-star game. This is something that is extremely disturbing to me about major league baseball.

To be completely honest, the all-star game has just caused Major League Baseball numerous problems since its conception, but it will go on, I assume. The voting for this, unlike the hall of fame has been put in the hands of the fans, which to me, ultimately, isn’t right. I love voting on the all-star game as much as the next guy, but let's get real, it’s a damn popularity contest. The game is supposed to be played by the games current best players, which unfortunately is not what happens.

Most of the players in the game are in because of their name and not their performance. Don’t get me wrong, Manny among many other players, has deserved to be an all star many a time in his career, but definitely not this year. This might not be the right PR move, which means it wont happen, but Major League Baseball’s annual all-star game needs to be voted on by the same people that vote on the Hall of Fame every year. It will never happen though, because the fans bring in the money, so they want the power, something that’s disappointing, because the fans are completely ill equipped to make a decision like that.

The all-star game needs to be a time to celebrate the best players in the game, not just the best names. Also the rule about there being a player from every team in the game needs to go. This rule makes me feel like its middle school and everyone has to play fair and the games are always tied so no one's feelings get hurt. It’s terrible.

Again, I’m going to say it, the best players in the game should play, if the Yankees have eight guys good enough to be all stars then all eight Yankees should be playing in that game. Let's turn the all-star game into a respectable competition again and stray away from the joke it has become.