Vote Fraud on All Chicago Team?

By Benjy Lipsman in News on Jun 21, 2005 4:05PM

The Trib named its All-City team leading up the first meeting between the White Sox and Cubs this year. As the second crosstown series approaches, the Trib is allowing its readers to pick their team.

Chicagoist is a little skeptical of the result thus far, however. We make no excuses for our allegiance to the South Siders and the Sox do sport the best record in baseball, but we still think the fan selected All-City team results look a little funny.

With fans voting on one position per day, here are the results so far (votes):

Shortstop
Juan Uribe, White Sox (2,917)
Neifi Perez, Cubs (128)

Catcher
A.J. Pierzynski, White Sox (2,802)
Chris Widger, White Sox (1,794)
Michael Barrett, Cubs (1,681)
Henry Blanco, Cubs (48)

First base
Paul Konerko, White Sox (6,998)
Derrek Lee, Cubs (1,161)

Second base
Tadahito Iguchi, White Sox (6,285)
Todd Walker, Cubs (72)

Third base
Joe Crede, White Sox (1,806)
Aramis Ramirez, Cubs (172)

Today's poll for Left field has Scott Posendnik pulling in about 75% of the votes.

While Uribe is a better shortstop than Perez, he's not so much better than he should garner 96% of the votes. While Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski is the best catcher in town, surely Michael Barret should be ahead of Sox backup Chris Widger. And Paul Konerko beat Derek Lee by a 6-1 ratio? Um... Lee's only been the best hitter in baseball all season! Iguchi and Crede both getting more than 90% of the vote? Something's just not right here... Some Sox fans are stuffing the ballot box and the Trib has been unable to stop them. Should we expect anything else from a Chicago election? Probably not.

Since the Trib's poll is clearly faulty, Chicagoist will step up:

Chicagoist All Chicago Team
1B: Derek Lee - Cubs
2B: Tadahito Iguchi - Sox
SS: Juan Uribe - Sox
3B: Aramis Ramirez - Cubs
LF: Scott Podsednik - Sox
CF: Aaron Rowand - Sox
RF: Jeromy Burnitz - Cubs
C: A.J. Pierzynski - Sox
SP: Jon Garland - Sox
SP: Mark Buehrle - Sox
SP: Carlos Zambrano - Cubs
RP: Dustin Hermanson - Sox