Baseball, Apple Pie, and Political Science

I regret to inform you there will be no apple pie on today’s menu.  I have recently received word that my hemoglobin A1c exists, and is “elevated” into the “prediabetic range.”  I attribute this to my skill at taking tests, but the doctor seems to think it reflects some sort of reality. (Perhaps you were thinking of my six-month-long chocolate binge?) So she has told me to “work on significant reduction in… carbohydrate intake including sugar, bread, pasta, potatoes, rice, and corn products” — essentially eliminating my entire diet. Except chocolate.

(No, it’s not on the list.  Read it again: sugar, bread….  Not one word about chocolate. You know the rules of construction: if the author of a document makes a list, by implication anything not on the list is excluded. It’s legally impossible for me to become diabetic from eating chocolate, since it’s not on the list.)

Not all is is lost.  Melanie knew about a thing called “cauliflower rice” which, it turns out, is by far the best use of nature’s sheetrock. I actually liked it!  Just add a little chocolate…

Since I still have substantial stockpiles of breakfast cereal, and don’t know how to eat anything else for breakfast (other than toast, bagels, pancakes, cupcakes, waffles, english muffins, regular muffins, and chocolate chip cookies), I have already had a bowl of carbohydrates today. Apple pie is off limits.

But baseball and political science?  Plenty of that to go around today.

Let’s start with some political science:  MLB has undergone All-Star balloting electoral reform!  They’ve been using a plurality decision rule, where whoever gets the most votes gets to be an All Star Game starter.  Now they are going to a modified run-off model, where the top three vote getters at each position  in the “primary” round face off in a second-round of voting.

Among political scientists, the plurality voting system (the same we use for most elections here in the US) gets a lot of criticism, especially for two reasons:  1.) in races with more than 2 candidates, the plurality voting system often produces a winner who was opposed by the majority; and 2) plurality voting propels the entrenchment of a two-party system.

We don’t want two dominant parties in our league.  We want everyone to have a chance.  A run-off election system is a good move in that direction.

You can check out the new ASG voting here.  I did. Here are my results FOR THE EFL, so I only considered EFL players.

If I had to pick the EFL All-Star lineups today, who would I pick?

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American League

C Santana    M Chavis       M Chapman   J Polanco      J Gallo       A Meadows    M Trout        G Sanchez     D Vogelbach

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National League

     J Bell         M Moustakas   A Rendon        N Ahmed      C Bellinger   J Pederson    H Renfroe      W Contreras

EFL Standings for 2019