MLB wipes out more than 60 million votes for All-Star Game
More than 300 million votes have been cast by fans to determine the starters for the 2015 All-Star Game and by the time balloting closes on July 2, the record of 390 million will certainly fall.
But despite the huge numbers MLB will get from the process, millions of those votes are going under, according to Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports.
"I'm not saying we bat 1.000," said Bob Bowman, CEO of MLB Advanced Media. "But it's between 60 and 65 million votes that have been cancelled. We don't really trumpet it because if someone thinks they're getting away with it, they'll try to again."
This is, by no means, an attempt by the league to knock down any Kansas City Royals from participating, eight of which are slated to start. This is an annual process to crack down on fans who exceed the 35-vote limit each fan is permitted.
"We scrubbed these first set of numbers incredibly thoroughly," Bowman said. "We said, 'Can this possibly be right? Look at all these votes for Kansas City.' It just didn't turn out that way."
In the future, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said he'll try to find a way to avoid the scandal that has taken center stage this season associated with Royals fans fuelling their players to start, including second baseman Omar Infante, who owns the lowest OPS in the majors.
Royals first baseman Eric Hosmer, who has put up good enough numbers to start, is a big proponent that the best players should start, specifically a certain Detroit Tigers first baseman.
"If I'm Miguel Cabrera, I'm looking at myself like, 'Are you kidding me?'" Hosmer said. "Miguel is a candidate and should be the starter."
Hosmer, like most Royals players, doesn't want to discourage fans from voting, but he knows that the current process portrays the players themselves as villains.
"It puts us in a hard spot," Hosmer said. "You won't go on my Twitter and see, 'Hey, vote for me and I'll sign a bat and send it to you.' We're not trying to go out and advertise ourselves.
"Obviously, the team does stuff for us. But that's what every team's gonna do."