Well, given that it’s last place on the All-Star team, it’s more like Podsednik for Undersecretary of State or something (and yes, I know, that’s an appointed position not an elected one), but anyway:
After one day of balloting, New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter leads the American League voting by a hair over Chicago White Sox outfielder Scott Podsednik.
The AL’s other nominees, in order of current position in the voting, are Minnesota Twins outfielder Torii Hunter, Yankees outfielder Hideki Matsui and outfielder Carl Crawford of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays (MLB.com)
Funny, I voted for Podsednik 20 times, but I still wouldn’t have thought he would be that close in the running for the votes. Maybe part of that’s a reflection of how fantasy baseball affects your perception of players? Podsednik has speed but no power, but in fantasy baseball terms he’s a god.
Matsui’s in fourth place, which I guess allows me to continue being dubious about the “Japan votes for Matsui” factor. For one, the Japanese vote for Ichiro because he’s an institution, I’m not entirely certain they just vote for any Japanese player. That would be So Taguchi of them. If I recall right, even without votes from Japan Ichiro would’ve been a starting All-Star anyway in his first year here.