MLB

Kevin Youkilis Is Trying To Ride Joey Votto’s Coattails Into The All-Star Game

It’s almost universally accepted that Joey Votto, a leading MVP candidate to this point, merits to fill the extra spot in next week’s all-star game. Online voting closes at 4 p.m., and soon thereafter Votto will be added to the N.L.’s list of reserves. Not as clear, however, is the American League race, which stays neck-and-neck between Kevin Youkilis and Nick Swisher in the final day. Is this another example of a Red Sox player butting heads with a Yankee for supremacy? Perhaps. But what’s most impressive is the momentum that Youkilis has gained from outside his northeast base.

A much-publicized PR project titled “Go Red!” rings the “spirit of ’75“  as the Reds and Red Sox are matched again in their joint campaigns to recruit votes from fans. Rather than rally for their players alone, the franchises have apparently teamed up to promote both players at once for their respective leagues. A.L. fans who may not have had an allegiance or compelling reason to cast a ballot in the opposite column for one of the five candidates ahead of another might now decide to elect Votto. This effort goes beyond numbers and worthiness; it’s a savvy initiative to urge voters to sway in one direction. Youkilis and Votto are, for lack of a better term, running mates.

But for Reds fans, there’s an extra reason to choose Youkilis: his hometown ties. “Cincinnati will always be my home,” Youkilis told the Boston Herald. “I might not live there, but it’s very dear to my heart.” Youkilis, a Cincinnati native, graduated from Sycamore High School before attending the University of Cincinnati. (Votto, on the other hand, does not have an obvious connection to Boston.) Youkilis’ ties to Cincinnati though aren’t being exploited for the purposes of mutual gain. He’s spoken on several occasions in the past about how dear the city remains to him. In 2005, before interleague play that brought the Reds back to Fenway Park for the first time since the 1975 World Series, Youkilis told MLB.com how significant that series was for him when he was growing up:

“I was negative fours year old,” joked Youkilis, who wasn’t born until March 15, 1979. “But you grow up in Cincinnati, and you come to live and breathe baseball. I’ve heard way too many stories about the Big Red Machine. It was a great atmosphere just going down [to Riverfront Stadium] and seeing the Reds.

He was an avid Reds fan in the 1980s and remembers idolizing Eric Davis. Youkilis had similar reflections to offer when he arrived in 2008 for a series in his hometown: “It was a lot of fun growing up here and being a big fan of the Cincinnati Reds,” he told MLB.com then. “I have a lot of memories of going to games at Riverfront Stadium.”

As “Go Red!” fever impresses on Reds nation to vote for the Sox first baseman, casting a ballot for Youkilis is so much more natural with this kind of proven, real sentiment behind him. He’s glowingly spoken of his hometown, his favorite team, and their rich history on several occasions. Every one of these comments were made well before Youkilis was in need of critical votes to get him to his third straight all-star appearance. Now that Youkilis is looking for support, it’s worth rewarding him if only as retribution for his longstanding appreciation for the game, past and present. Those who speak so fondly of their childhood surrounded by baseball are worthy representatives for the midsummer classic.

It’s not an onus on just Reds fans to return the favor to Youkilis as part of a deal that helped propel Votto to the top of his race. The rest of us should also get behind Youkilis in recognition that he’s never lost sight of his original colors.