{"id":362701,"date":"2026-06-16T12:30:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T12:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/362701\/"},"modified":"2026-06-16T12:30:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T12:30:10","slug":"if-dodgers-are-ruining-baseball-why-do-fans-keep-voting-for-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/362701\/","title":{"rendered":"If Dodgers are ruining baseball, why do fans keep voting for them?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

If fans all around the major leagues are sick and tired of the Dodgers<\/a>, they have a funny way of showing it.<\/p>\n

The Dodgers win too much and spend too much, so offensive to so many outside Los Angeles that the league shutting down next season has somehow become an acceptable outcome if the Dodgers cannot be stripped of their payroll advantage.<\/p>\n

So, a pox on all their honors, right?<\/p>\n

Apparently not. When Major League Baseball unveiled its initial batch of All-Star voting results Monday, four players from the team that so bothers the rest of America were in position to make the National League starting lineup.<\/p>\n

Shohei Ohtani<\/a> leads at designated hitter, Freddie Freeman at first base, Max Muncy<\/a> at third base, and Andy Pages<\/a> in the outfield.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou look across the league, across baseball, and we have a lot of recognizable names,\u201d Muncy said. \u201cWe have really talented players who have been playing really well this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor a lot of us, the game has been speaking for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maybe not all four hold their leads in voting. Or maybe the Dodgers get more, as they seem to do in everything: Mookie Betts<\/a> ranks second at shortstop, and Will Smith<\/a> ranks second at catcher. Never has any team had six players start an All-Star Game.<\/p>\n

In all the years Andrew Friedman<\/a> has assembled super teams here, never have the Dodgers had four players start an All-star Game. That has happened once in franchise history, in 1980: infielders Steve Garvey, Davey Lopes and Bill Russell and outfielder Reggie Smith.<\/p>\n

Love the Dodgers, or love to hate them, fans are voting for them.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve played well the last couple of years,\u201d Freeman said. \u201cWe\u2019re playing well again.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of eyes are on us. A lot of fans know all of us. And we\u2019re playing good baseball.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Dodgers <\/p>\n

Mookie Betts, throwing to first base after forcing out Tampa Bay\u2019s Austin Slater at second on Monday, is second in NL voting at shortstop.<\/p>\n

(Eric Thayer \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

In olden times, voting was conducted largely on paper ballots distributed at the stadium. With digital ballots, you can vote from anywhere, to the delight of a team that has extended its fan base to Japan.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no question we have a very, very strong fan base, domestically and internationally,\u201d Dodgers president Stan Kasten said. \u201cThere\u2019s no question that\u2019s an advantage.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut, in every case this year, the players that are up there this year certainly deserve it. It just speaks to the quality of the players we have.\u201d<\/p>\n

But, sir, your team is ruining baseball<\/a>. Haven\u2019t you heard?<\/p>\n

\u201cWho ever said that?\u201d<\/a> Kasten said. \u201cI\u2019ve always said the opposite. I think we have been good for baseball, and I think everyone in baseball would agree.\u201d<\/p>\n

Said Freeman: \u201cI think that\u2019s just noise. We\u2019re good for baseball. You just saw it in Chicago.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Chicago White Sox average 22,000. The Dodgers showed up over the weekend<\/a>, and the White Sox sold out \u2014 all three games, at 38,000 per game.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo say we\u2019re bad for baseball,\u201d Freeman said, \u201cI think that\u2019s what Doc would say is a lazy statement.\u201d<\/p>\n

Doc is Dave Roberts<\/a>, the Dodgers\u2019 manager. He laughed. He already branded popular critiques of the Dodgers as \u201clazy\u201d<\/a> once this season. He didn\u2019t want to say it again.<\/p>\n

But, if the Dodgers give people what they want to see, how can they be ruining the game?<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a great point,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cI think people still love talent. They love the way our guys play. And they should be showcased in the midsummer classic.\u201d<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s All-Star Game is in Philadelphia, home to the most passionate of fan bases. The Dodgers and Phillies each represent the National League, but can you imagine what the Phillies fans might have to say about four \u2014 or more \u2014 Dodgers introduced in the, er, home team lineup?<\/p>\n

People love to hate the Dodgers. Philly fans love to hate, period.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would probably be a lot of fun,\u201d Muncy said. \u201cAt the All-Star Game, you\u2019re just there to celebrate the best players in baseball.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, there will be boos and cheers for everybody. You\u2019re just there to celebrate the talent, and not necessarily what team they\u2019re playing for.\u201d<\/p>\n

If they\u2019re playing for the Dodgers? Philly fans booed Santa Claus. Shohei Ohtani, you have been warned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If fans all around the major leagues are sick and tired of the Dodgers, they have a funny…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":362702,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[2135,4396,426,11154,56824,4203,423,48,52,51,10572,47,50,49,1741,4123,592,9442,427,1710,72],"class_list":["post-362701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-baseball","tag-dave-roberts","tag-dodgers","tag-fan","tag-fan-base","tag-freddie-freeman","tag-game","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-league","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-lot","tag-max-muncy","tag-people","tag-player","tag-team","tag-voting","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=362701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362701\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/362702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=362701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=362701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=362701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}