All-Star Votes?

Gwynar-san provided a list of the final vote tallies last week. And Watkins-san put together a great Central League review as well. I think there may have been more.

Both were mentioned in the NPB News section.

I forgot that one of the All-Star games is in Hiroshima this year, so now I understand why the voting was such a fluke. I think Kurihara has been disappointing and one of the reasons the Carp haven't met expectations, so I was surprised he got so many votes. Now I get it!

It looks like Kazuhiro Wada is 10th in votes for CL outfield.

Do people not like Wada? I mean based on hitting stats he has been the best CL outfielder this year.

Wada's hitting great, but Chunichi's fanbase is neither large enough nor zealous enough to get him voted in (unlike in Hiroshima, where you had an All-Star balloting table shoved in your face as soon as you entered the park).

- Do people not like Wada?

Apparently that is the case. As I wrote before, All-Star voting is generally a fluke. It's a popularity contest more or less. Since one game is being held in Hiroshima, they have advertised it well and thus their players have done well in voting despite the fact that it's a mediocre team.

Hey, ya'll, stop picking on Hiroshima. That's my team, it was my first yakyu game and I went with my brother-in-law, well before he was actually my brother-in-law. I remember the game, especially the absolute BOMB that player dropped out of deep center. It had to be a 450+ foot home run.

What a great change of pace yakyu is compared to MLB games. I love them both. I cant wait 'til I get to come back to Japan and catch another game!

I don't think anyone is picking on Hiroshima. My comments here were just criticizing the All-Star game selection process. Whether in NPB or MLB, the selection is often a fluke, with more popular players picked over better players. Technically, there's nothing wrong with that. It's just a matter of whether you consider the All-Star game a fan service showcasing the most popular players or a chance for the best players to face each other. Since it's being held in Hiroshima this year, Carp players were obviously very popular. As for having the actual best-performing players, however, I don't think there are many positions where that would be true for this year's Carp team.

Anyway, not picking on Hiroshima. It's one of my favorite cities in Japan, my second favorite team in the CL, and also home to the current best stadium in Japan!