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Face of the Oakland Athletics vote underway

By Jeremy F. Koo
Eric Sogard is the defending Face of the Athletics, and runner-up in the 2014 Face of MLB competition.
Eric Sogard is the defending Face of the Athletics, and runner-up in the 2014 Face of MLB competition.
Tom Pennington/Getty Images

MLB Network's second annual exercise in anointing the "Face of MLB" is ongoing, with the Athletics voting in progress. Eric Sogard was Oakland's representative last year and the eventual runner up to David Wright, whose victory remains clouded by accusations of vote-rigging. The entire contest last year was a spectacle of dedicated attempts to defeat MLB's efforts to create a face.

A's fans so far

To this point, 23 teams have nominated their "faces" over twitter, but A's fans have done their best to spin the contest in the favor of former A's players, documents Alex Espinosa at his "The Rickey Henderson" blog. For instance, Alberto Callaspo finished in a strong third place in the Face of the Atlanta Braves competition:

And Seth Smith actually won the Face of the Padres competition on December 18. He has since been replaced by Matt Kemp, though there was an effort to get Smith named the Face of the Mariners in the contest that concluded on January 6 with Felix Hernandez winning.

The current effort is to get Grant Balfour named the Face of the Rays:

A close race for the Face of the Athletics?

An early scan of the voting indicates that Eric Sogard is unlikely to repeat as Face of the Athletics, but it is otherwise anyone's game. The contenders:

Sean Doolittle

He's very funny on Twitter, especially when collaborating with girlfriend Eireann Dolan:

A highlight of the votes in support:

Stephen Vogt

Stephen Vogt's NBA referee routine is his best known act, and it will be showcased on Thursday, May 28 with a bobblehead giveaway in the game against the New York Yankees. Did you know, however, he actually finished second in last March's spring talent with a Chris Farley impression?

Brett Lawrie

New third baseman Brett Lawrie has so far received few votes in the competition, but maybe if we knew he does not skip leg day, we would cast more votes for him:

Brett Lawrie does not skip leg day.

Ineligibles

Unfortunately, only currently rostered players are eligible to win the competition, making these ballots spoiled:

How to vote

Today, just tweet out #FaceofAthletics and a hashtag of the first and last name of the player you're voting for, like this:

Happy voting.

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