Can We Believe the All Star? There Are 8 Players from Kia at the West Best 10

There are as many as 8 players from Kia at the West Best 10, which is participating the 2002 Pro Baseball All Star Game in Munhak Stadium, Inchon on the 17th.

This is the first in the history of the All Star games that this many players from a team made the ‘best 10.’

Kia only had 7 players (86, 88) made to the best 10 even when they got 9 Korean Series Championships. Therefore, people questioned the fairness of the All Star vote. And the Internet voting is in the middle of this mystery.

▽How the All Star was selected?= The valid votes for this 2002 Pro Baseball All Star Vote were 356,781. The direct votes at the stadium were 119,970(33.6%), the mobile votes using mobile phones were 5,817(2%), and the Internet votes through the homepage of the Korea Baseball Organization took the highest portion with 230,994(64.7%) votes.

▽What was wrong?= Kim, Chang-Hui of Kia, who was in the 6th place after the first and second total with 25,883 votes, jumped to the 3rd place after the third total with 50,621 and kept his place till the end and made to the outsider All Star.

Kim, Chang-Hui’s record for the first half was 0.239(48 hits in 201 at bats) batting average in 63 games, 4 homers, and 29 RBI’s. Other players from Kia, who were the All Star candidates, also got more than 24,000 votes each during the second total and third total (May 28 ~ June 3). The total Internet votes for the period were 43,365.

The Kia officials said in response to that, “The club did not urge to vote. But fan clubs of some players did some campaign on their own.”

▽How about in America or Japan?〓 In America or Japan, fans can also vote at the stadium, through the Internet, or at the sponsors’ agency.

Korea and Japan started the mobile vote using cell phones this year for the first time.

Korea limits the fans to vote only once a day through the Internet, but in America or Japan, fans can vote as many as they want.

In the Major League, Ichiro was selected as number one from all and Sinzo Syosi(San Francisco Giants) unusually made to the 4th of the National League outfielders.

Sinzo was omitted because he was excluded from the Manager’s list; however, there was a high criticism that a hitter with 0.242 average with 8 homers and 16 RBI’s made to the 4th. It is clear that the exclusive votes from Japanese fans affected the result.

▽Is it good or bad〓It is possible to change the outcome of a vote if unspecified large crowd click at least once as a whole. However, it is impossible to eliminate the Internet vote in the age of the cutting edge information. The secretary general of the Korea Baseball Organization Lee, Sang-Il says, “Everything is the interests of our fans regardless of the exclusive votes.” After all, the final decision is for our fans to make.

Sang-Soo Kim ssoo@donga.com