Cary Edmondson-USA TODAY Sports
Baseball, America’s National Pastime. America was raised with pickup trucks, apple pie and baseball, and apparently baseball is sitting in the bed of the pickup truck with mom’s apple pie and refusing to evolve.
In a Harris Poll posted back in January, they found baseball is the second most popular sport among American adults, but college football is quickly closing in on baseball, while the NFL is the runaway winner.
So, when players come along that capture the attention of Americans in the middle of the summer, and have a chance to show off their shiny new possession on a July evening when there is not a single other sporting event happening, baseball would jump at the opportunity, right?
Apparently not. The push from baseball fans to get Los Angeles Dodgers sudden superstar into the All-Star game has come with much criticism from players, managers and broadcasters alike. Philadelphia Phillies outspoken closer, Jonathan Papelbon, called the idea of Yasiel Puig making the All-Star game an “absolute joke.” Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim manager Mike Scioscia thinks Puig hasn’t played enough games and Cincinnati Reds announcer Marty Brennaman says if Puig makes the All-Star game it would be a “travesty.”
So, let me get this straight, in a game that is the best showcase of MLB stars, these guys think the player that would get the most television sets tuned into the game, shouldn’t be there?
Last I checked, a sport needs fans, because without fans, there would be no paycheck for those in baseball. But these guys making a living from a game feel Puig hasn’t paid his dues. It is an embarrassment that this has become such a major story. You have a list of guys being implicated in a bio-genesis clinic on the All-Star roster, you have guys with multiple DUI’s on the roster, you have guys who have spent nearly enough time on the DL as in the line-up, Bryce Harper, starting in the game, but a guy that has had the single greatest first month ever in the Major Leagues shouldn’t be there?
The real “travesty” would be robbing the fans of the opportunity to see Puig in the Mid-Summer Classic. The real joke would be allowing a stubborn, outdated way of thinking prevent the game of baseball from capitalizing on a guy that could inject life back into the casual fan, and maybe get some more kids to choose baseball as their favorite sport and someday become the next Yasiel Puig.
So come on fans, let’s come together and show these backward-thinking guys how wrong they are and Vote Puig for the final roster spot.
You can follow Shaun Kernahan on twitter @shaunkernahan, Google+, and on like Shaun on Facebook.
