I had the pleasure of visiting the set of Padres Social Hour yesterday after cashing in my Compadres points for a behind the scenes experience. While there, I used my powers of persuasion and devilish good looks to get a pressing topic added to the docket of discussion points: the movement that’s sweeping Padres Nation, the #VoteAmarista campaign.  As I laid out yesterday, the realities of the All Star Game election process are that undeserving players get elected all the time.  Even in Padres history, an underperforming Benito Santiago was elected annually at catcher.  Even last year, the category I identified as a low vote category that was ripe for the taking, had a mediocre Aramis Ramirez elected.  Here’s the thing, if you think Brewers fans were upset or ashamed that Aramis Ramirez was elected, think again.  It’s thrilling for a fanbase to see their uniform in a national capacity like the All Star Game.  Similarly, for a team that hasn’t had someone elected since 1999, it would be thrilling to see the Padres uni out there.  Not to mention, electioneering strategies like this one will be absolutely critical to get as many Padres elected as possible next season when we host the ASG.

Anyways, Jesse Agler and Kurt Bevacqua talked about the #VoteAmarista movement on the show.  Here’s the clip:

With endorsements like this, the campaign will gain a lot of steam.  As I’ve tested yesterday and today, the All-Star Game ballot allows you to vote 35 times PER DAY, PER E-MAIL ADDRESS.  Also, you can type anything you want into the e-mail field and it will take it, allowing for virtually infinite votes.  The system also makes it easy to rapidly enter in your 35 votes as it retains your selections.  All you have to do is reenter the Captcha code to register another vote.  We are talking 2-3 minutes per 35 votes.  I just do it on my 2nd monitor while I’m waiting for stuff to process.

What hasn’t been discussed yet here, is that the entire “Now it counts” policy instituted by noted buffoon Bud Selig is stupid.  Especially when fans are voting in players.  What better statement about how dumb the whole thing is than voting in Alexi Amarista, letting new commissioner Manfred realize the folly of the Selig ways.

#VoteAmarista