If you vote online for the All-Star team

[Oeditpus Rex]

why do you have to give your name and e-mail address? :wtf:

If you vote with a paper ballot at a ball park, is this required?

[charlie and algernon]

1. nope

i've gotten the ballots at the Phillie's stadium and, unless i missed it, it doesn't ask for your name or anything.

[PeaceNikki]

2. Do they still have the awesome punchcard ballots at the park?

You could punch like 30 at a time. It was like a ticker-tape parade back in the day.

Did they ever have to face issues of "hanging chads"?

[Oeditpus Rex]

3. Y'know, in 2000

that was the first thing I thought of. I could never figure how "hanging chads" were possible with the punch machines Kollyforniya used. Suckers took a bit of pressure.

Those Gillette™ All-Star ballots, though — I punched those out with a pencil. And, yeah, you could vote as many times as you wanted. :shrug:

I've never gotten behind fan balloting too much, though, because that makes the game a popularity contest — or leads to stuff like what happened in 1957:


Controversy surrounded the 1957 outing as the fanatical Cincinnati voters stuffed the ballot boxes and elected nearly their entire team (minus first baseman George Crowe & the batboy) onto the National League's starting roster. This upset Commissioner Ford Frick greatly and he responded by removing Gus Bell and Wally Post from the starting nine. He also transferred the responsibility for All-Star voting to the players, managers and coaches the next year.

http://www.baseball-almanac.com/asgbox/yr1957as.shtml