My Campaign

I want Endy Chavez in the 2007 All-Star Game.

See, the people at www.voteforrory.com had the right idea. They wanted to recognize Vancouver Canucks defenseman Rory Fitzpatrick as a representative of "all the players who work hard behind the scenes and never get any recognition", and started a campaign to vote him into the 2006-07 NHL all-star game. The campaign almost worked, as Fitzpatrick and his one point in 2006-07 finished third in the voting among Western Conference defensemen, hence relegating himself to "first runner up."

Seeing as if baseball's all-star extravaganza actually means something (which of course we all know is a mistake), it would be fruitless to, say, vote in somebody like Julio Franco or Shingo Takatsu or somebody equally useless. So I propose Endy Chavez who, while he has received plenty of recognition for his stellar play in last season's Game 7 alone, a vote for Endy Chavez is a vote for the player who learns from past mistakes, and perseveres long enough to make a difference later in their career without being "baseball royalty".

What? You say that voting for Endy Chavez would be a farcical vote? Do you agree with the NHL types who thought that voting for Rory Fitzpatrick was a farce because only All-Stars should be on an All-Star team?

Well it's a logical line of thinking. But with the chance to choose real All-Stars after the Rory Fitzpatrick "scare" subsided, the NHL responded by sending Blackhawks winger Martin Havlat, who missed 21 games due to injury, and Red Wings forward Henrik Zetterberg with his 33 points to the All-Star Game instead of Paul Kariya, who has 47 points? (Ooh, here's an idea: let's open up the game so that everybody scores more, then fail to reward the players that score the most points to go to the All-Star game!)

Well, if the NHL could screw this up, don't you think that Major League Baseball is capable of the same thing? Remember, this is the same league that chose Barry Zito to join the All-Star team in 2003, then turned around and said "aah, sorry Barry...but Roger Clemens is in all of the commercials so we have to bring him so you're staying home."

Certainly in a world where Bobby Bonilla can receive two votes for baseball's Hall of Fame, we can muster up enough votes to get Endy Chavez into 2007's All Star game, right? So I say, let's not give MLB the chance to change their minds. I say go forth and vote Endy Chavez to the All-Star game in San Francisco...the home of Barry Bonds I might add...and make sure that Chavez is playing left field instead of Bonds. Stop baseball royalty and reward the little guy. Reward the perseverance. Reward the catch. And let's piss off the baseball establishment together.

www.voteforendy.com, anyone?

***

About the only thing that made me sadder than hearing that Todd Pratt was invited to Yankees' spring training was being told that Entenmann's was ceasing the selling of their cakes and cookies.

The good news is that the Entenmann's info that I received was slightly exaggerated, and that we will still be able to buy great items such as Marshmallow Iced Devil's Food Cake, and Chocolate Frosted Donuts.

The bad news is that the Todd Pratt information is not exaggerated, and he might be on the Yankees' roster come April 1st.

Think of how "It's a Wonderful Life" would have ended if George Bailey worked for Henry Potter at the end. That's the possibility we face as Todd Pratt, a good guy, might end his major league career as a New York Yankee.

It's a bitter-ful life.