The opposite of the Mets

I love the e-mail. Opening it means I'll get anything from an offer from a foreign potentate to help him secure his bank deposit to drugs to make my penis bigger. I don't need either, so it was nice to receive one that I could actually make some use of. This came from the Baltimore Orioles - the opposite of the New York Mets - asking me to start voting online for this year's All-Star game. They weren't asking for much, and were giving so much.

Vote for your favorite Orioles for the 2009 MLB All-Star Game on orioles.com today. If you select the Orioles as your "favorite" or "other favorite" Club the maximum 25 times between Wed., April 22 and Thursday, July 2, you'll receive an exclusive promo code good for one (1) FREE Upper Reserve seat to one (1) Orioles non-prime home game after the All-Star break of your choice.

I don't know why the 1 has to be in parenthesis - twice. As you may know, the Orioles are my "other favorite team" so telling them so did not violate any moral obligation I may have had to truth, justice or the American way. I'm sure they're going to have trouble selling tickets to their games after the break, so the offer isn't groundbreaking, but it is a nice gesture to lure fans to the games. Free is free.

So of course, being the promotion whore that I am, I voted 25 times. It goes by quickly because the buttons stay pressed so you don't have to select the players every time. All you have to do is re-enter the security code. The whole thing took less than 10 minutes. Free ticket, bitches.

For the record (as if there is one) this was my online All-Star ballot.

Plenty of Phillies. You could argue the Ruiz and Werth choices, but I really don't want to hear it. The American League ballot is a bit more objective. But any system that lets you vote 25 times doesn't deserve a lot of objectivity. It does, however, deserve to give out free stuff.

Thanks Orioles. You rock.