By now, most all baseball fans know that Manny Ramirez is serving a 50 game suspension under MLB’s drug policy, a suspension that will see Ramirez sitting on the sidelines until July 3rd.

But, due to how MLB allows fans to vote for players into the Mid-Summer Classic, what if (and if is the optimal word here), Ramirez were voted in as a starter for the game set to be played on July 14th? Ramirez’s suspension ends on July 3, but balloting concludes on Sunday, June 28th. How would MLB and Commissioner Selig react?

That’s the question being posed by Jason Rosenberg of the It’s About the Money, Stupid blog. Rosenberg has started a new website called Vote for Manny, 2009. As noted on the blog’s first entry:

The purpose of this blog is to get Manny Ramirez elected as a STARTER to the 2009 All Star Game in St. Louis?

WHY?

To highlight the silliness that are the MLB rules towards PED users as well as their "head in the sand" approach to this situation. Rather than confront it head-on, MLB is choosing to do nothing and simply hope there are three higher vote getters in the NL OF.

He then provides a link to the ASG vote page on MLB.com. Where is Manny at in the voting as of May 26th? #4; 1,213,423 votes

Maury Brown is the Founder and President of the Business of Sports Network, which includes The Biz of Baseball, The Biz of Football, The Biz of Basketball and The Biz of Hockey. He is contributor to Baseball Prospectus, and is available as a freelance writer. Brown's full bio is here. He looks forward to your comments via email and can be contacted through the Business of Sports Network.

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Comments (2)

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written by Galley, May 27, 2009

If he's currently serving a suspension, why is he even on the ballot?

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written by Ara Rainey, May 27, 2009

Is this not the prototype for why the fans should be limited in voting powers? It's sad enough Raul Ibanez gets snubbed from starting cause of popularity, but now he is getting pushed aside by a stunt by some fans to thumb their nose at baseball. For those that say, "What about ARod?" two different cases. Manny is suspended, and ARod was outed for the past. One case was one of 104 in a measuring litmus test, the other is someone dumb enough to get caught during a whirlwind of backlash.

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