Click the photo to vote for Youk!
Kevin Youkilis is not impressed with the fans and their voting ways (and I don’t blame him):
Youkilis also discounted the possibility that, given the trend of electing Red Sox players, he might have a better chance than other players to top the field.
“This year, we didn’t have too good a fan turnout in the vote,†he said, noting that no Red Sox player was among the eight AL starters chosen.
Now it’s obvious to me, through comments I’ve read and conversations I’ve had, that many Red Sox fans made a conscious decision to not vote Sox players into the All Star Game (“let them rest!” was repeated often). I also think that Red Sox fever might have died down a bit due to the slow start and seemingly endless injuries to the team. (The bandwagon lost a lot of folks in April. Can’t say that makes me all that sad.) For whatever reasons, no Red Sox players were voted in by the fans for the All Star Game this year so I understand why Youk would think he doesn’t have much of a chance to win the final fan vote.
But, see, he is totally discounting the spiteful nature of many of us. There are two mitigating factors that will cause Sox fans to rock the vote for Youk: 1) He should have already been there. If not voted by the fans, voted by his peers. It’s a little stunning he wasn’t and many Red Sox fans will take this as yet another fast ball to Youk’s noggin. Many Sox fans feel Youk is greatly under-appreciated in MLB and this just fuels that fire. (Of course these same fans could have voted him in initially. This is Youk’s point and he’s right and all I have to say is, we were hoping MLB just forgot about the Red Sox so they could all spend 3 days in bubblewrap.) 2) Nick Swisher. Generally speaking, Nick doesn’t bother me. He’s the Yankee version of Kevin Millar. Totally ‘gets’ that he’s privileged to have the job he does and plays every game like he’s still in little league. If he was wearing any other uniform I’d just look at him, shake my head and laugh. But he isn’t wearing any other uniform, he’s wearing pinstripes so he must be destroyed.
It’s quite simple, really.
Nick Swisher made a video (When? Yesterday before the game? I mean how freaking quickly did he get his ass in front of a video camera and make the campaign vid?) dressed in beach clothes, holding a surfboard and begging folks to vote for him. Kevin Youkilis will NOT be (as he put it) “self-promoting”. I respect that. The idea of Youk in a video bragging about his Tommy Bahama shirt and begging the fans to vote for him makes me a little stabby. But we don’t need Youk to ask for our votes. We have our burning hatred for injustice (if you fall under number 1 above) and/or the Yankees (wave your hand if you fall under number 2).
So whether you think a wrong needs to be righted or you just want the Red Sox to defeat the Yankees in this meaningless contest (I don’t judge. In fact I’m a little from number one and a little from number two) get your fingers walking over to MLB and vote for Kevin Youkilis.
Voting ends at 4pm ET on Thursday, July 8th, so I won’t be bothering you all too much longer with these messages (but I will be harping on it until the voting is over!).