Major League Baseball

Showalter cracks computer joke over Royals All-Star votes

Published Jun. 16, 2015 10:44 a.m. ET

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By Jason Rowan

Some argue that fans of the Kansas City Royals are making a mockery of the Major League Baseball’s All-Star voting system given that eight members of the team currently are leading the balloting and are in line to start in the Midsummer Classic at the Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati on July 16. Others, including Baltimore Orioles skipper Buck Showalter, are not only annoyed by the notion that fans can easily stuff the virtual ballot box, but feel compelled to crack silly jokes about how they may be going about doing it.

“What do they have a virus in the computer? There’s got to be,” Showalter joked on Monday, per CSN Baltimore’s Rich Dubroff.

Depending on one’s particular point of view, the notion that nearly an entire All-Star Game starting lineup can be dominated by one team courtesy of rabid fan participation (and arguable bastardizing) of the online voting system is either an indictment of all that is wrong with the current system or is a testament to how Royals fans deserve credit for their dedication and crafty methods.

Either way, Showalter is correct in noting that there are more deserving candidates than some of the Royals players who are slated to start in the All-Star Game if voting does not take a turn into a different direction. He notes that Royals second baseman Omar Infante probably isn’t enjoying a season worthy of All-Star status.

“Infante is the eighth [All-Star]? What’s he hitting .204? He must be having a heck of a defensive year,” Showalter quipped.

In actuality, Infante now is batting .210 after going 2-for-4 in Monday’s game. But let’s be honest, the slight improvement doesn’t take away from Showalter’s point one bit.

Further, the news that the Royals reportedly may actively try to replace Infante in the coming weeks as the team searches to upgrade the second base position certainly is an odd aside concerning a player who could very well start in an All-Star Game. Even Infante acknowledges his play hasn’t been up to snuff.

“I know I don’t have the numbers,” Infante said, via the Kansas City Star. “But I don’t have control over that. The fans voted for me. I appreciate that.”

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