Pod-tas-tik!

Congratulations and thanks to baseball fans all over the world who voted for Scott Podsednik to be the last player on the AL All-Star roster over Derek Jeter and Hideki Matsui. After all those years of Jeter having terrible first halves but being selected as a reserve by Joe Torre, and last year, when he was batting about .220 at the break and the fans decided to vote him in as a starter for the first time, only after the greatest collapse in sports history does Jeter not make an All-Star team, despite hitting over .300 and being in the top five in the league in runs scored to this point.

For those of you not familiar with how this miracle happened, I'll do my best to explain. First, the fans vote for the best shortstop in the AL. Wisely, we selected Miguel Tejada by a wide margin. Next, a group of players, coaches, and managers voted for the second best shortstop in the AL. Just as wisely, they chose Michael Young. Next, Terry Francona picks the odds and ends to complete the roster. He tabs such superstars as Shea Hillenbrand, but no Jeter. Feeling bad, he throws Jeter on the "Final Man" ballot, where fans get one last chance to pick the last player on the team. And we picked Scott Podsednik. God bless us every one.