Oakland A’s fans upset that they were screwed out of an Internet popularity contest

I am so glad this is over. This clogged up my timeline like no other this past week. (And I am an A’s fan and I am an Eric Sogard fan.)

MLB, with MLB Network, held a contest where fans on Twitter can send tweets with the hashtag #FaceofMLB and the selected player’s name to be counted as vote for the Face of MLB contest. The final was between #DavidWright and #EricSogard.

But what exactly is the Face of MLB contest and what is the prize? It’s a contest to see who is the Face of MLB. What does that mean? Nothing. It’s a fictional prize that has no merit and it really is a filler space for the offseason to distract baseball fans and get them interacting and uniting for a value-less prize. It’s more of a contest to see which fanbase is more active on Twitter.

Essentially, it’s a pointless Internet popularity contest. A popularity contest. The silly stuff people have in high school.

People are upset over the results of an Internet popularity contest.

It’s smart marketing in terms of interaction with fans, but it is just filler. The contest means nothing. No charity money gets raised, no real tangible prizes are given away. It’s basically just empty sugar.

So when Eric Sogard, an unlikely favorite, lost to David Wright this morning following a late surge, A’s fans called out MLB for tainting the voting process for an award that holds no meaning.

Did MLB allow the voting process to change? Possibly. Did they have some bots in Asia influence the voting process ensuring Wright would win? Appears to be. But does it matter? No. Were these fans really serious? Maybe. (Also, spelling and math on Twitter can give me a headache.)

MLB likely didn’t want Sogard to win and that’s understandable. Sogard winning would be a mockery to their make believe award to their meaningless contest. Wright had to win.

It’s a meaningless award. Fans upset over something meaningless is pretty sad. They were creative in how they shared their tweets, but being upset over it is silly.

Sure, MLB likely altered and rigged the voting process. But does it matter? No.

Luckily I ensured my timeline on Twitter was free of the nonsense.

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