Joey Votto’s stiff neck is robbing me of the content that made it so easy to write these Vote Votto posts, so tonight I’m relying on the smile in street clothes to do the talking for me.

I’m beginning to get creative with the email addresses that I’m using for the All Star Voting. Back when I was the president of the Indiana chapter of a professional society, I set up Gmail accounts for all the officers.

The chapter has since dissolved, but the email addresses remain, and I don’t think anyone’s going to much mind if I use them.

Speaking for myself, I’ve now voted 25 times per day, 5 days in a row. If I can do this 30 more days in a row, that’ll be 875 votes all together. That’s not bad, but obviously I can’t get him there by myself. You need to vote too!

You can vote online 25 times per email address.

Ryan Freel, the craziest damn sumbitch you ever loved to watch hurl himself into the stands or steal home, officially retired this month.

The 34-year old was dealing with hip flexor issues, but that was only the latest in a long line of self-imposed injuries and certainly not the reason. Legends are not cut down by hip flexor issues.

It was just his time to walk off into the sunset. Well, dash blindly backward into a wall en route to the sunset, anyway.

Baseball will miss his antics on the field (remember four stolen bases in one game?) and off (remember the disorderly conduct outside the pool hall/sushi bar?) but I’m confident he’ll continue to live it up in his non baseball life. Someday I just expect to see a story in my local paper, picked up off the wire for the sheer weirdness of it, about a Florida man and the wacky way he and his little friend Farney mow the lawn.

When the preliminary counts came in for the NL first basemen, Albert Pujols was the leading the pack by a-freakin’-lot. However, that was all based on mindless following and an absurd continuation of the expectations of the past rather than an understanding of the present.

All that is a long-winded way to say that Pujols is having a truly shitty May. Let’s compare the true All Star, Joey Votto, to “Prince” Albert for this month so far:

That’s right: Pujols’ SLG is .384 in the month of May. Is that All Star caliber? Is it??

Let your voice be heard, and let it be heard to say that actual performance is more important than a big name. Vote Votto!

You can vote online 25 times per email address.

The level of sarcasm is, of course, up to you. Said sarcasm probably depends on whether you’re asking about his kick-ass performance last night or his crappy 90s grunge music.

Bronson Arroyo will be answering questions in an online chat on Reds.com today at 3 p.m. You can go there RIGHT NOW to get your question in the queue.