The Boise Spuds might quietly be vying for a Wildcard spot this season, but they’re still not getting the respect around the league that they deserve.Take the All-Star game, for instance. Sure, there are always going to be roster snubs, and every team has one or two guys who they feel should have made it, but didn’t. But not every team has the BBA leader in home runs, who was mysteriously left off the Johnson League roster.
Gary Allen has been outstanding this season, not just leading the BBA in homers, but also in OPS, making him the top offensive player across the board. Yet neither the voters nor the JL manager felt he was worthy to represent his team among the league’s greats, instead opting to waste a selection on a player who is injured for the season.
(Fun fact: as great as McBride was in April before he got injured, Allen still has a higher OPS.)
But Boise will concede the result, because they respect a fair democratic process. Which is exactly why Boise’s next snub is particularly maddening: Pepe Madrid was actually voted as the starting first baseman, and then didn’t get to start the game.
Yes, despite the voting, and Madrid being publicly announced as the winner, Calgary’s Larry Stinson started at first base for the Johnson League. Madrid entered in the 8th inning as a pinch hitter, and grounded out in his only plate appearance.
There was no communication from Madrid’s side that he was unable to start, or that his manager would prefer to rest him, or anything like that — no, this was pure, simple, disrespect.
The Johnson League lost the game, 3-2, and Boise can’t help but wonder if the result would have been different had its players been appropriately included.
But let’s not get worked up over a stupid exhibition game. “The Frick can have this one,” Boise GM Woody Donahue said. “If anything, it’s good for us. That’s one less look they get at our guys before meeting us in the playoffs. We’ll see what happens then.”
