Today, I learned that Armando Benitez is the best closer in the whole major leagues.
The SI.com voters did themselves proud in the latest online baseball poll:
Who is the game's best closer?
| Armando Benitez | 23% | 2635 votes |
| Francisco Cordero | 20% | 2619 votes |
| Eric Gagne | 11% | 1237 votes |
| Trevor Hoffman | 21% | 2410 votes |
| Mariano Rivera | 10% | 1098 votes |
| John Smoltz | 16% | 1845 votes |
| Total: | 11544 votes |
I must confess, I'm completely baffled by these results on many levels. Not that I'm expecting any cogent baseball knowledge to be displayed in an online poll, but I can't figure out these results no matter which angle I look at them from.
For one thing, the results are precisely backwards from what I would have expected. Gagne and Rivera should be battling it out for the top spot -- Mariano always gets the nod due to playoff domination -- with Smoltz as the obvious pick for third. The other three split the remaining 10% of the votes, Hoffman probably getting fourth place due to name recognition.
Okay, fine. Nothing to get in a tizzy about. Online polls are not fountains of knowlege for baseball, or any other topic, for that matter.
But I can't even process this from a pop culture standpoint.
Even if this poll is just reflecting the anti-Yankee sentiment amongst the baseball fan community, why would that translate to the Dodgers or the Braves? Is it an anti-First-Place backlash? That doesn't even make sense, because even if these teams are generally disliked, I'd think that Rivera and Gagne and Smoltz are still popular players and resistant to backlash.
Was there some campaign by previously non-existent Marlins fans and previously non-existent Rangers fans to hype up their closers? While the rest of the baseball community argues endlessly about Hall Of Fame credentials and AL MVP voting, have the small-market teams decided that they must go after the much-coveted Rolaids Relief Man Award? Unaware that it's not even voted for, but just based on some formula?
Maybe it's just two computer geeks battling it out online? TexasRocks85 vs. EyeLoveLA2002 in a spillover from some two-year-old game of Doom.
If you two were trying to confuse Felz, it worked. You guys rock.
Just to prove the Internet is not completely useless, git on down with this site.
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