Sunday marked the final game of the first half of the season, with All-Star Week festivities beginning on Monday with the ever-popular Home Run Derby. On Tuesday, the game itself will take place and guys who are supposed to be America’s top players will take the field to play a game between the NL and AL. But, after this year’s voting process, it has become abundantly clear that the system for getting players into these coveted All-Star roster spots must change so that the best players can be named as starters at their respective position. To do that, a tradition of almost 85 years must be changed.

The All-Star game, the brainchild of sports editor Arch Ward of the Chicago Tribune, was born as a mere concept where the best players from the American League and the National League would square off in a onetime battle of the greats. According to Ward, he thought of the idea to provide the country with an escape from the hardships of the Great Depression. People would be able to take a break from everyday life and watch a game in which their favorite players would all take the field at the same time. The idea caught on and, in 1933, the All-Star game was born. Ward decided that he would allow fans to do the voting and send in ballots with whom they wanted to see on the field. The fans voted and both leagues ended up with 18-man rosters. Of the 36 total players voted into the game, 20 of them are now Hall-of-Famers including Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and Lefty Grove. So, the fans voted well. With what I’m sure is one or two exceptions, it appears that the players in the 1933 All-Star game were deserving of the spot.

Now fast forward to 2017, the digital age of baseball where you can watch an entire game in two and half minutes of highlights and read a quick recap online. Now, voting for All-Stars can be done on social media and online and fans can vote thousands of times if they wanted to. But, this system has gone from what was voting for the deserving players to voting for the guys on the team you root for regardless of how good or bad they are. Players are voted into All-Star game starting roles, a position that is meant to be represented by the game’s best, and are hardly good enough to be starters on their own teams. This new system is filled with bribes by teams to,” vote for a certain player and you can win an autographed ball” or a giveaway at a game for anyone that votes. This way of voting takes away the value and prestige of an All-Star game starting spot and quite frankly the system that is currently in place doesn’t make sense. Why does the league allow fans to vote if they aren’t voting for the guy that has been the best? Roster voting has gone from a recognition of excellence to a popularity contest and unfortunately it comes at the cost of the deserving player not getting recognized for his accomplishments.

This year, the “All-Star snub” became a concept that is now very familiar with Dodger fans as starting third-baseman Justin Turner did not get a spot on the team. For Turner, it came down to the Final Vote to get his spot on a team he should have been on all along. Turner is hitting in the .380’s this year and has been arguably the best third baseman in the league besides NL All-Star starter, Nolan Arenado. Let me be clear, I am not at all saying that Arenado should not start. He is incredible and I have no way to take to that away from him. But, to think that Justin Turner who is batting at record pace made the team by the skin of his teeth is truly atrocious. That is why there must be a change.

You know the All-Star voting system is flawed when the best hitter in all of baseball, Dodgers third baseman Justin Turner, would have been snubbed were it not for the 36-hour / round-the-clock online voting by the Pantone 294 Dodgers fan group. (Photo credit – Jon SooHoo)

All Stars must be the best of the best. They must be the guys that have been at the top of their position both offensively and defensively and I think that there is no better way to determine this then by doing a player vote. Why not have the guys who actually take the field vote for their peers? There is nobody in the world who knows the players better than managers and other players and that is why they should be voting for who the best guys on the field are. Now, that’s not to say that there aren’t any flaws with player voting because there certainly are. There may not be enough exposure to the entire league to accurately vote for other players but there is certainly a better and more widespread appreciation for fellow players that are playing well. Snubs will still happen with a player and coaching staff vote but I think it would certainly be a lesser issue than it is now.

The final issue with all of this is the question of what happens to the fans and how do they stay engaged? My solution would be to have fans continue voting but not for the actual roster spots. I think fans should be able to vote for 50 candidates per league which would establish the pool from which the players and coaches could choose from.

While it will likely stay the way it has been since 1933 and fans will continue to vote, I think that the system needs to be checked and reformed because there are some massive snubs that should never happen. If it was a player that was on the cusp of a roster spot but did not make it then that is one thing. But, for people like Justin Turner who is joining elite and historic company every day, there is no case in which he shouldn’t have automatically had a roster spot. So, there is indeed a flaw and it is time for the MLB to find a solution.