Sports Central / Original Sports Fan Commentary Since 1998

There are a few very special MLB all-stars in the history of the game — players so special that your mind gets tripped up reading their name on the all-star roster.

But this year's American League all-star team has someone truly special — Mark Redman.

You say he's not all that special? Well, my friends, which all-star has received the most attention from the media? The answer is a 32-year-old Kansas City Royal who is 5-4 with a 5.51 ERA as of this writing.

I know what you're thinking.

"Oh great, here's another piece about why the all-star process is flawed and so-and-so got snubbed," you say to yourself while thinking of a dozen players on your favorite team who could been an all-star over Redman.

If you're a Yankees or Red Sox fan, you're probably thinking, "I thought I cast enough write-in votes for our pitchers to get one of them in before this Redman dude."

Well, folks, I'm not here to tell you that he doesn't deserve to sit next to Mariano Rivera or Johan Santana. I'm here to tell you why Mark Redman should be a 2006 American League all-star.

Why Defend Redman?

Journalists are taught to look at every side of a story. In sports journalism, there are always times of the year when the negativity plays out much more elaborately than the positive side of things.

During all-star coverage, we all notice what gets the most pub: snubs. Analysts talk about who should have gotten in, and naturally, the conversation heads toward who shouldn't have gotten in.

No one has even tried to justify the Redman selection. We all know Ozzie Guillen, the guy who selected Redman, can't justify himself. Guillen may be a baseball genius but the things he says to the media never seem to come out right, and it has nothing to do with a language barrier.

So with that, I take on this mission with valiance.

All-Star Criteria

We must first agree on what criteria all-stars are chosen on.

Firstly, and most importantly, is performance. All-Stars are players who have put up better statistics than most of their peers. We can only measure statistics, so all the things a player does that isn't a statistic are often left on the wayside. We'll call this factor "measurable performance."

The second category is "immeasurable performance." For example, Gary Matthews, Jr. made the team and Raul Ibanez was not even considered for the team. Matthews is having a good season (.330/8/43), but so is Ibanez (.286/19/68). Yet Matthews made the catch of the century — it's certainly the greatest play I've seen on the diamond. So that catch counts as something that can't be measured on paper, but is definitely affecting the mind of the managers and players who choose the reserves.

The third factor is fan appeal. The Yankees, Mets, and Red Sox feed off of fan appeal because they play in huge baseball towns. Also, players like Ichiro have entire nations that support them. But unless you're a player who is in the running for a starting spot in the field, this has minimal effect.

The last and probably smallest factor is the "good-guy appeal." It's pretty simple: everyone wants the good guy before the guy with an attitude problem.

Measurable Performance

At first, Redman's numbers are quite horrifying. He's 5-4 with a 5.51 ERA. Even scarier are Redman's stats from the beginning of the season until the end of May: 0-4, 6.92 ERA.

It almost seems like Guillen, the White Sox manager, played a cruel joke on a division rival by picking a player Royals' fans would simply be ashamed of. Then you look into the numbers and realized Redman hasn't been all that bad.

In fact, take out his three worst outings and he's 5-1 with a 4.35 ERA. Remember that he plays with the Kansas City Royals behind him, so you can shave his ERA to at least under 4.00.

But there's a more intriguing argument: left-handed batters are hitting just .176 against him. So when there's a crucial spot in the game and Ryan Howard (or any other lefty) is up to bat, Redman could come in and be a specialist.

One last factor in Redman's favor is the month of June, where he was 5-0 with a 3.74 ERA. Five wins in a month for any pitcher is impressive — for the Royals, it's miraculous.

Immeasurable Performance

Simply put, he is the ace of a staff that is on life-support. It's tough to get knocked around as a pitcher, but it's even tougher when the harsh beatings are relentless.

As a pitcher, you need some time to recover and Redman has had none of that. Just ask Rick Ankiel how hard it is to get back into rhythm once you're off a little bit. The guy simply overcame whatever problems he had at the beginning of the season and is now pitching very well.

In addition, he has done his job very well. He's kept his team in the game nearly every time he has made a start, which is all you can really ask of a pitcher.

Fan Appeal

Let's write out a little equation here: Kansas City + quiet journeyman = no fan appeal.

This is sad, but true. Can you name the last few Royals' all-stars? Ken Harvey, Mike Sweeney ... uh ... Jose Rosado?

All of those players made the team without a big fuss from the mainstream media. We can't say the same about Redman.

This is partially because Redman made it over Francisco Liriano and Justin Verlander. Both are young, dominant players who play for contenders — fan favorites, if you will. If Ozzie had any sense of fairness in him, he would have taken those two over two of his own players, Mark Buehrle and Bobby Jenks.

Good-Guy Appeal

Redman's five-game winning streak started when he learned his dad would have to go through a 12½-hour heart procedure.

"He just asked me to win one game for him, and (we knew) that might be the last game that he ever watched me," he told Bob Dutton of The Kansas City Star.

In an era where money, greed and steroids have dominated the game, we finally have a good story here — a story we can all relate to. We know the feeling of trying to do well to make dad happy. And even at 32-years-old, Redman reminds us that Major League Baseball is still the same ballgame we played when we were little.

What a thrill it will be for Redman to participate in the All-Star Game knowing his father's watching. It's the kind of thing that makes me, the fan, happy.

Jayson Stark of ESPN wrote that Redman "represented what's wrong with the dumbest rules in baseball," and he may be right.

But I tend to think Redman represents the best rules in baseball — try hard, have fun, and carpe diem. And to me, we need someone who represents that at the highest stage of the game.