I don’t think I’m alone here. In the first round of balloting, Manny Ramirez was 4th in the NL amongst outfielders. He’s only 34-thousand-ish votes behind Carlos Beltran for the 3rd starting spot. Personally, I think that’s great.

Voting for Manny shows that the majority of fans aren’t so outraged by performance enhancing drugs. I’m of the opinion that pretty much everyone was on them. (I’ll be careful out on this limb, I promise.)

Hell, I’m crazy visionary that think players like Manny, Bonds, Clemens, etc. should be in the Hall of Fame. The All-Star voting just solidifies the fact that fans for the most part, don’t care. To quote Mark McGwire, “Do you want to know the terrifying truth? Or do you want to see me sock a few dingers?” Well, just as Springfield answered so many years ago, today’s baseball fans are simply yelling, “Dingers!”

Update: In the AL, Alex Rodriguez is third at his position. A number of factors could be at play - The emergence of Evan Longoria (Who has a massive lead), missing the first month of the season, being a douche, taking steroids.

So, yeah, I’m sitting here encouraging you all to vote early and often for the guilty greats in the game today. Yoink!

[LA Times, MLB]