All-Star Blunder

I've never liked, but have learned to accept, fan voting for the baseball All-Star team. Ultimately, what does it matter if Jason Bay, who has carried the Pirates to nearly 30 wins this season, gets a starting nod because of a shameless promotional campaign orchestrated by a front office that you would think might have something better to do?

But if you are going to have fan voting, the least The Hapless Bud Selig can do is not continue to screw up the rest of the decisions. It is bad enough that, in an effort to make an inherently meaningless game meaningful, he has allowed the World Series home field advantage to go to the team from the league that wins the All-Star game. And he continues the ridiculous practice of having no DH when the game is played in a National League city, which leads to David Ortiz being selected to play first base for the American League, something he has done for his own team only seven times so far this year.

But how in the world did he allow Ozzie Guillen to pick an All-Star pitching staff that did not include Francisco Liriano, the single most interesting and exciting new player in the game? After yesterday's win over the Brewers, Liriano is 9-1, with an ERA under two runs per game. You don't think people would love to see him throw an inning or two against the NL stars? Not our man Bud, I guess.