A Major League Baseball all-star position player should at the very least be able to hit his weight to participate in the annual showcase event.
Six-foot-six Adam Dunn of the Chicago White Sox weighs 285 pounds and is batting .208 at the midway point of the season. That's pathetic, and yet he was still a member of the American League's so-called elite squad, which dropped an 8-0 decision to the visiting National League on Tuesday night.
What a bad joke this has become.
Can't blame Dunn or the fans, though, because he was voted on the AL team by his peers - the players themselves.
What's that tell you about Dunn's peers?
Well, besides lacking any objectivity, they're all a bunch of comedians.
Maybe the All-Star game should've been played in a Las Vegas nightclub instead of Kansas City's Kauffman Stadium.
Seriously, Dunn, a former Cincinnati Red (by the way, ha), was added to the team because of his long ball prowess and the fact that this year's game had a DH (designated hitter).
If the 2012 game had been played in a National League city, Dunn probably wouldn't have been in the mix.
As far as power numbers are concerned, Dunn really does have All-Star stats with 25 home runs (third in the AL) and 61 RBIs (fifth).
He's also first in walks and of course in strikeouts.
With Dunn, it's swing and mostly miss with an occasional dinger here and there. But that's been true for most of his MLB career.
Last year, a season he'd just as soon forget, Dunn was pretty much a designated out with a .159 batting average.
Compared to 2011, Dunn has been "on a tear" with his .208 batting average this summer.
Amazingly, Dunn's BA is not the lowest in the history of the All-Star game. Not even close.
Davey Lopes made the team with a .169 average in 1981, according to Elias Sports Bureau.
Hall of Famer Harmon Killebrew was a 1968 all-star with a .204 BA, and Graig Nettles was hitting a whopping .222 when he was included on the 1977 squad.
This year's NL team featured starting second baseman Dan Uggla of the Atlanta Braves and his .221 BA. Yes, the same Uggla, who in the 2008 All-Star tilt at Yankee Stadium, committed a record three errors, fanned three times, and hit into a double play.
Wonder if the fans who voted Uggla in had ever heard of a second baseman by the name of Brandon Phillips and his .280 BA, 10 homers and 48 RBIs with the Reds? Or how about Pittsburgh's Neil Walker and his .291 BA, 6 HR and 41 RBIs?
Then, there's Bryan LaHair of the Chicago Cubs, one of the worst teams in the big leagues.
Bryan LaWho?
LaHair was voted on the NL team by his peers as a first baseman, and he doesn't even play that position anymore. First-pitch swinging, he grounded out to short in the ninth inning.
As for Dunn, he was the only position player not to see action for the American League. AL skipper Ron Washington could've used him as a pinch hitter in the bottom of the ninth but elected not to do so.
Dunn was done, and so was the American League.
Ron Johnston is the Marietta Times sports editor and can be reached at 376-5441 or at rjohnston@mariettatimes.com
