The fan voting was the usual mix of astute calls, predictable calls and outright swings and misses, but it's not done yet. Jason Giambi's inclusion among a list of five players up for the final roster spot on the American League all-star team means fans have a chance to go where far too many writers and broadcasters fear to tread and maybe even make life uncomfortable for commissioner Bud Selig. This article was written by Jeff Blair and appeared in the Globe and Mail.

Or they could just elect the best young player on the most talked-about club in the game in online voting that will run until 5 p.m. on Thursday.

Frankly, any of the five – Giambi, Evan Longoria of the Tampa Bay Rays, Jermaine Dye, Jose Guillen or Brian Roberts – are worthy candidates, but Giambi's selection is the one that would upset people. And that's a good thing. Always, always, always.

Put it this way: How many questions would Giambi get asked about steroid use in the days leading up to the All-Star Game? After all, his name has been linked with the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative scandal, and his non-denial denial is still an eye-roller among the chattering classes, although it has made him look like a Rhodes Scholar compared with the mess Roger Clemens has created for himself.

So maybe you want to reward the guy, no? Attendance indicates that fans have moved beyond the steroid issue, if they ever did in fact stop popping Viagra, guzzling Red Bull and triple espressos for another hard day staring at a keyboard, dying their hair, squeezing Botox into their aging bodies or fudging taxes long enough to worry about which major-league player did or didn't cheat.Players have, too – either to more effective performance enhancers that are not as easily detected or perhaps even to the cleaner, all-natural future deemed possible by the daydreamers. Maybe all this steroid and amphetamine testing is working, considering how the first half has belonged to teams such as the Rays, Florida Marlins and Minnesota Twins who are among the youngest in the game, at a time when the Elias Sports Bureau says the average number of runs a game is at its lowest total since 1992?

There were omissions from the starting teams, although nothing that would incite the erecting of barricades in the streets. Ryan Ludwick, Ian Kinsler and Michael Young were all taken care of by voting among their peers.

Whining about online fan voting is a non-starter because by now only the dim believe there's anything wrong with it. It's an exhibition game, and people are entitled to see whom they want to see. Sure, you can say Derek Jeter doesn't deserve to start or that Kinsler deserves to get the call over Dustin Pedroia. But guess what? There are more Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees fans around than Texas Rangers fans, and they vote early and vote often, so deal with it.

Roy Halladay is the only Toronto Blue Jays player on the American League team, voted in by his peers, and that's as it should be. No one else deserves consideration, frankly, and few pitchers live up to their considerable reputations in the manner of Halladay.

There's good Canadian content, too: Ryan Dempster of Gibsons, B.C., is one of seven members of the Chicago Cubs, Justin Morneau of New Westminster, B.C., and Russell Martin of East York in Toronto by way of Chelsea, Que., will be in uniform. It's the first time three Canadians have been chosen, and who knows what would have happened if Rich Harden of Victoria had been healthy from the start and Jason Bay of Trail, B.C., had come out of the gate stronger? All three Canadian-born players were chosen in player voting, by the way.

The New York Post broke the rosters on its website on Saturday and also included the news that Brandon Webb of the Arizona Diamondbacks and Cliff Lee of the Cleveland Indians have been selected as the starting pitchers. Webb is fully deserving, but Lee hardly makes it a marquee matchup. Nice numbers ... but, uh, boring.

Perhaps the best idea to be floated is the notion of having Yankees closer Mariano Rivera pitch the first inning of the game, since his name has been synonymous with Yankee Stadium in recent years. The guess here is the players wouldn't mind it and the fans would love it, and when it comes to the All-Star Game, they are the two most important and determinate constituencies.

So there you are, fans: the angel on your shoulder whispering Longoria. The devil whispering Giambi. Lucky for us in the media, who still can't wrap our heads around Mark McGwire going into the Hall of Fame – let alone wondering what the heck we'll do with Clemens. This article was written by Jeff Blair and appeared in the Globe and Mail.