Quote:
Originally Posted by WhawhaWhat
Some dude wrote from the StL paper wrote about the Royals all star votes today. I used his email to vote for the Royals 35 times.
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http://www.stltoday.com/sports/colum...84f464070.html
'New money' Royals fans take on BFIB
Joe Strauss
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
In case you haven’t heard, the neighbors are stopping by Busch Stadium for three this weekend. They’ll be driving a fresh baby blue Porsche — top down, natch — and rocking some bling. Somebody just received a big promotion from perennial Afterthought to immediate Factor and, brother, he’s not about to let you forget it.
The Kansas City Royals’ fan base is new money and it’s not going away.
Look out the window and these folks may be parked on your lawn while letting their pit bull mix “stretch” himself all over the landscaping.
After living on baseball’s version of corned beef hash for more than a generation, Royals Nation is getting used to filet mignon in a barbecue market.
Barring change, the Royals will send seven starters to next month’s All-Star Game in Cincinnati as a result of cyber ballot-stuffing by their newly frenetic following. “This time it counts” apparently has taken on new meaning among camp followers who awoke last fall to discover they’ve got a pretty damn good team.
But a little moderation, please.
As we speak, catcher Salvador Perez, first baseman Eric Hosmer, third baseman Mike Moustakas, shortstop Alcides Escobar, outfielders Lorenzo Cain and Alex Gordon, and designated hitter Kendrys Morales lead their positions in the — take a deep breath — “2015 Esurance Major League Baseball All-Star Ballot.” Two other Royals are also within hailing distance of “earning” a start. Could the Cardinals actually be playing the ’27 Yankees Friday night?
Miguel Cabrera? Take July 10 off.
Jason Kipnis? Getouttahere.
Josh Donaldson? Canadian teams need not apply.
No one’s disputing the Royals are a fun story and are worthy of meaningful representation in Cincinnati. They play aggressive ball, never back down and their manager, Ned Yost, enjoyed the last laugh last season over those who had constructed a cottage industry demeaning his tactical skills.
The same Yost who so stressed the 2008 Milwaukee Brewers that he was dismissed two weeks shy of the playoffs now gives off a more relaxed vibe. A longtime Atlanta Braves coach, Yost became the first limb off the Bobby Cox coaching tree to steer a team to the World Series. Good stuff.
But even Yost would have trouble disputing his fan base is acting as nouveau riche.
Last August, before the Royals reached their first postseason since 1985, Yost wondered aloud who kidnapped his team’s following. He contrasted the tsunami of enthusiasm that greeted the long-inept Braves’ rise to power in 1991 to the cricket farm that remained inside Kauffman Stadium.
“I mean, what, 13,000 people got to see a great game?” Yost wondered to scribes in the aftermath of a late August walk-off over the Twins.
Predictably, local media ripped Yost for touching professional sports’ third rail. Predictably, the chastised manager immediately backtracked. Undeniably, his initial point was spot on.
The fan vote hasn’t delivered a Royals starter since Jermaine Dye in 2000.
Look, I’m among those who believe Kansas City sports fans are grossly underrated. Located at the intersection of Big 12 and SEC territory, it’s probably a better college sports berg than Our Town. It not only boasts a crazy-popular MLS franchise — Sporting KC — it counts the future training complex for the U.S. national soccer team among its attractions. (Ouch.) Taking in the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum should also be on any sports fan’s bucket list. The Chiefs are high religion.
Now the Royals are reigning American League champs and playing to the label with the loop’s best record (34-23). They just swept a three-game series from the surprising Twins in Minneapolis. Less than three weeks ago they doused the Cardinals’ scalding run, briefly overtaking them for Missourah’s best record. For the love of Freddie Patek, can it get any better than this?
Apparently Royals Nation believes it can.
At the other end of I-70, the City of Fountains has thrown open the windows to let the thump-thump blare regardless of what their 14 neighbors might think.
You got a problem with Alex Rios sniffing an All-Star start despite playing 16 games? Then how ’bout these decibels? (Cue Eddie Van Halen working Eruption.) No team has ever placed more than six starters on an All-Star team. That happened with the 1939 New York Yankees long before Al Gore invented the Internet machine and fans could vote 35 times from any e-mail address they might hijack. Only two teams have placed five starters. Reds fans tried to similarly take over the 1957 game but were thwarted by commissioner Ford Frick, who replaced fan favorites Gus Bell and Wally Post with two guys named Hank Aaron and Willie Mays. Four Cardinals finished second in balloting that year.
Of course, MLB is an unindicted co-conspirator in this farce. This is the first year paper ballots are no longer distributed at ballparks so all votes must go through mlb.com. Vote early, vote often and if you’re really bored, vote responsibly. Just keep the clicks coming. There’s no more issue with hanging chads, just one of missing integrity regarding a game that somehow determines which league hosts Game 7 of the World Series.
Everyone knows we in St. Louis are baseball old money. And with old money sometimes comes a sense of entitlement.
What other franchise markets its patrons as the Best Fans In Baseball? The sea of red gives Skip Schumaker a standing O when he returns with the Reds. It applauds a right-side grounder that advances a runner to third base with the second out. (Whatever.) Larry Walker received enduring love after striking out in his first at-bat as a Cardinal.
In return, a faction clings to the quaint notion that privileged athletes should play here for a discount, as if the franchise might capsize if actually forced to pay market value. It can become tedious if you’re not from here. But the folks show up in blocks of 3.4 million and they don’t orchestrate a Pete Kozma write-in campaign for the All-Star Game. They’ve been here before.
Maybe the new money folks are dealing with BFIB envy. It’s plausible. Tired of living at the other end of the street, they want to one-up the blue bloods to the east.
Unfortunately, the reputation of Best Fans in Baseball is taken. And Bestest Fans sounds just plain goofy.