SportsNet LA's on-air talent has "openly campaigned ... Dodgers viewers to put in a vote" for 3B Justin Turner during the fan vote for the final spot on the NL All-Star team, according to Tom Hoffarth of the L.A. DAILY NEWS. The net's Alanna Rizzo on Tuesday wore a “#VoteJT” T-shirt and a "I Voted" button during the pregame show. She also used "air quotes" to allow Dodgers P Kenley Jansen to "clarify comments he made" regarding fans not voting any Dodgers to the All-Star Game's starting lineup. Rizzo said she thought some people took Jansen's comment's "out of context." During the game, Rizzo was shown "at the 'Turner voting headquarters' somewhere in the stadium where around-the-clock fan voting was taking place." Dodgers TV analyst Orel Hershiser "showed no shame in also putting on a T-shirt and trying to coax the Dodger Stadium in-house fans to text in a vote all at once for Turner" (INSIDESOCAL.com, 7/5).
JUSTIN TIME? In L.A., Dylan Hernandez notes Turner leads the voting for the final NL roster spot ahead of today's 4:00pm ET deadline, and Dodgers fans "had to be nudged -- or, in this particular case, insulted by the team's closer" -- to vote. In a market the size of L.A., Turner "should have been voted in as a starter." With the support of a "passionate fan base, there’s no reason Turner should be waiting to finalize his plans for next week." If the fans’ "spirited backing of Turner is evidence" of L.A.’s "potential as a baseball town ... his place on the Final Vote ballot is a cruel reminder of how that promise remains an abstraction because a majority of the market can’t watch the Dodgers regularly." It is "hard to strengthen bonds with your fans if your fans can't watch you every night, as has been the case" for the past three-and-a-half years (L.A. TIMES, 7/6).
