All of the talk, debate and bickering of the past week regarding the All-Star roster has gotten a bit annoying on all fronts.

In the end, Major League Baseball is the only place a finger should be pointed. Commissioner Bud Selig and his cronies are trying to have their cake and eat it too.

For the tenth straight season the league that wins the Midsummer Classic will gain home-field advantage for the World Series.  I’ve never been a fan of the overreaction by the Commish after he got booed in his hometown when the 2002 game was called after 11 innings due to a tie. But if you’re going to place such magnitude on the game then perhaps you should take fans being able to vote 25 times per day, per email account.

MLB is driving millions of page views to its website, MLB.com, not only for the initial roster, but the last player in vote as well. They are selling out and it’s not going to change.

If that’s the case then the league needs to remove the “now it counts” tagline and go back to the good old game that the fans always enjoyed that was nothing more than a glorified exhibition.

I for one miss the old days when I had to go to the ballpark to vote. I would take an inning or two and really ponder my decision before turning my ballot back to the usher. Even back then teams stuffed the ballot box, but it was less susceptible to corruption than the internet opens things up to today.

It’s funny I found this 1988 commercial that made a big deal that you could vote through a USA Today promotion anywhere you bought Budweiser…

MLB mlb all-star game, bud selig, fan ballot, 1988 budweiser commercial