MLB All Star Final Vote

[GrandPa]

I think Milwaukee is stuffing the ballot box for Hart. Did you see that Prince Fielder finished ahead of Pujols at first base and Rickie Weeks, batting .208, finished ahead of Ugla at second????

Probably so.

The voting process needs to be tweaked, especially since the game now awards Home Field in the Fall Classic to the winner.

There is a combination of 1) fans voting, with no limit on the number of ballots, 2) coaches and managers selecting reserves and pitchers,with a tendency to favor their own teams and 3) players voting, who have shown obvious personal bias with hatred of .292 hitting AJ Pierszinski, and love for .217 Jason Varitek.

And this extra player voting with on-line stuffing is a joke too. Sometimes they get it right, but every time it gets the wrong people in, it makes a mockery.

[griswold]

Grandpa is right.

This is as silly as American Idol. There is nothing stopping somebody from voting 100,000 times.

Also, it's ridiculous that Ichiro gets in because of internet voting from Asia. They should go back to voting only at the ballpark or by mail-in

[LVJimmy]

Call me a Homer or whatever you want, but Burrell should be in hands down.

Among OFs:

1st in SLG
2nd in HRs
7th in RBIs
3rd in OBP
1st in OPS

Yes, BA isn't in the top, but .279 is very respectable.

He shouldn't even be included in this voting BS, he should be starting.

[myrjimmy3]

Call me a Homer or whatever you want, but Burrell should be in hands down.

Among OFs:

1st in SLG
2nd in HRs
7th in RBIs
3rd in OBP
1st in OPS

Yes, BA isn't in the top, but .279 is very respectable.

He shouldn't even be included in this voting BS, he should be starting.

you are absolutly correct

[wayne1218]

Why wouldn't St Louis stuff the box for their beloved Pujols? Every City does it. I'm assuming they are a bigger City than Milwaukee? ... and they are always called a great baseball city. What gives??? I think that is a bigger question!

[weazel079]

Sportswriters should pick the teams. The common fan who doesn't follow baseball day to day see's names like Varitek, Jeter, and Griffey and it becomes a popularity contest.

[GrandPa]

Griffey wasn't selected. Varitek was voted on by players

[BigMike]

I took Burrell and Eva

[wayne1218]

Final Vote races going down to the wire
Hart, Longoria hold leads with one day remaining in balloting

With more than 33 million votes cast, and everything from fake mustaches to candy hearts to club alliances and fan pacts becoming all the rage, the Monster 2008 All-Star Game Final Vote approached the final 24 hours Wednesday, and there was no change in the latest nominee standings. However, wild three-way races are emerging in both leagues.
Tampa Bay third baseman Evan Longoria continues to hold off the charges of his closest two competitors in the American League, Jermaine Dye of the White Sox and Jason Giambi of the Yankees, as each has totaled more than 3.75 million votes. Brian Roberts of the Orioles and Jose Guillen of the Royals round out the current standings in fourth and fifth place, respectively.

On the National League side, Brewers outfielder Corey Hart remains atop the standings despite significant challenges from David Wright of the Mets and Pat Burrell of the Phillies. The top three candidates, who have each accumulated nearly 4 million votes, are followed by Aaron Rowand of the Giants and Carlos Lee of the Astros.



The 100 millionth vote in the history of the Monster All-Star Game Final Vote was cast Tuesday night, and fans needed only half as long as last year to demolish the 2007 Final Vote record of 23.2 million votes. This balloting period ends at 5 p.m. ET on Thursday, and the final 24 hours easily could wipe out any one-day voting record at MLB.com and approach whatever one-day Internet voting record that exists.

While many fans have been voting over and over on their computers, mobile voting continues to be a happening this week -- and an increasingly larger share of the overall numbers. More than a million votes had come in from cell phones going into Wednesday's balloting. You can cast your mobile vote by texting "Vote" to 36197 to receive the list of Final Vote candidates. (In Canada, text "Vote" to 88555.)

Two of the leaders were actually facing off while the third-day update was being announced at MLB.com, and they were both making news in different ways. During the Rays-Yankees game in New York, Major League Baseball announced that Longoria had just won the AL Rookie of the Month Award for June, while Yankee Stadium was filled with fake mustaches as part of the "Support the 'Stache" campaign for Giambi.

"It's going to be exciting to see how it turns out," Longoria said. "If I make it, I'll be here [at Yankee Stadium]. If not, I've got plans for the break anyway. ... I haven't thought about it one bit other than when I'm here at the field."

Eleven-year-old Ryan Karr of Hornell, N.Y., wore the mustache at Wednesday's game. His favorite player is Alex Rodriguez, but he said he thinks Giambi should get the All-Star nod "because he hits lots of home runs." And then there was Tim Chretien, who is not a Yankees fan but was looking forward to the mustache movement even before he got to Yankee Stadium. He said he tried to buy a mustache from vendors but none sold them. Chretian, who came from Oshawa, ON, said getting one for free at the game "was a bonus."

Originally a Montreal Expos fan, Chretian is now a supporter of baseball in general. "If they would have given out pink dresses today," he said, "I would have worn pink dresses."

There was a movement afoot for Wright-Longoria "pacts" among fans around the Internet. The whole concept of "player pacts" has taken shape, on message boards and within social networks. Blocs of fans get together with other blocs of fans to each support their guy.

"A pact that we bloggers over at MetsGeek.com and DRaysBay.com have created is for Mets fans to include Longoria and Rays fans to include Wright," said Pat Andriola, who e-mailed MLB.com with that pact. "We're voting all day and trying to spread the Wright-Longoria word as far as possible. Vote for the young third basemen from the Yankees' least-favorite teams so we can take over The Stadium!"

Each club has mounted aggressive political-like campaigns; take the Giants as just one example. Their front-office people have been voting non-stop for Rowand online. Employees have been encouraged to vote as often as possible and have their families vote on their behalf. There are contests among employees to see who votes the most. Winners of those contests receive "cash prizes" and "memorabilia." Staci Slaughter, the club's senior vice president of communications, said the first time they counted how many times the employees had voted, some had already registered 10,000 votes.

The Giants and White Sox formed an alliance on Monday and have been campaigning that way ever since, with the White Sox endorsing their former outfielder, Rowand, while the Giants are helping the White Sox get out the Dye vote. They are in opposite leagues, and this one just made sense.

"It's truly a political campaign, creating alliances with people," Slaughter said. "That's the only way to win something like this."

During the online balloting process to decide starters, 214.7 million votes from 16.5 million ballots were cast at MLB.com and the 30 individual club sites, even though there were seven fewer days in the voting cycle than in 2007. These record figures each represent increases of nearly 40 percent over the previous marks for total votes and ballots cast.

With the majority of the individual races going down to the wire, fans cast their final votes online at unprecedented rates -- more than 41 million votes in the final 24 hours of online balloting were cast last Wednesday. That mark was 57 percent higher than the previous single-day record, 26 million, set on the final day of online balloting in 2005.

The Final Vote certainly picked up where the starter balloting left off. And a big milestone was reached on Tuesday night, too. There now have been more than 100 million votes cast in the Monster All-Star Game Final Vote program dating back to its inception in 2002, including a record 23 million last year, when fans chose pitchers Hideki Okajima of the Red Sox and Chris Young of the Padres.

Previous winners of the Monster All-Star Game Final Vote include A.J. Pierzynski (AL) and Nomar Garciaparra (NL) in 2006; Scott Podsednik (AL) and Roy Oswalt (NL) in 2005; Hideki Matsui (AL) and Bobby Abreu (NL) in 2004; Varitek (AL) and Geoff Jenkins (NL) in 2003; and Johnny Damon (AL) and Andruw Jones (NL) in 2002.

Once the Final Vote has been decided, there is still work to do. Fans will have the opportunity to participate in the official voting for the Ted Williams Most Valuable Player presented by Chevrolet at the 79th All-Star Game through the Monster 2008 All-Star Game MVP Vote on MLB.com.

The 79th Major League Baseball All-Star Game will be televised nationally by FOX, in Canada by Rogers Sportsnet and Sportsnet HD, and around the world by Major League Baseball International, with pregame ceremonies beginning at 8 p.m. ET. ESPN Radio will provide exclusive national radio coverage that will also be available on XM Satellite Radio, and MLB.com will provide extensive online coverage.

[steelersfan1203]

Dye and Hart - my favorite player on Brewers

[wayne1218]

Longoria and Hart are in!

Giambi finished 3rd and Wright finished 2nd in the NL!

[tech fan]

WHAT MAKES ME MAD IS THAT FOR THE OUTFIELD THEY JUST TAKE THE TOP 3 VOTE GETTERS.wHY IS THAT?????????? NATIONAL LEAGUE WILL NOT HAVE A TRUE CF IN THE STARTING LINEUP.ALL CORNER OUTFIELDERS.THE BIGGEST THING TO ME IS A GUY LIKE NATE MCCLOUTH WHO PLAYS CF AND IS THE BEST CF IN THE NATIONAL LEAGUE WILL NOT MAKE THE GAME.NOT ALL CORNER OUTFIELDERS CAN PLAY CENTER FIELD.MOST CF CAN MPLAY RIGHT OR LEFT THOUGH.

[wayne1218]

WHAT MAKES ME MAD IS THAT FOR THE OUTFIELD THEY JUST TAKE THE TOP 3 VOTE GETTERS.wHY IS THAT?????????? NATIONAL LEAGUE WILL NOT HAVE A TRUE CF IN THE STARTING LINEUP.ALL CORNER OUTFIELDERS.THE BIGGEST THING TO ME IS A GUY LIKE NATE MCCLOUTH WHO PLAYS CF AND IS THE BEST CF IN THE NATIONAL LEAGUE WILL NOT MAKE THE GAME.NOT ALL CORNER OUTFIELDERS CAN PLAY CENTER FIELD.MOST CF CAN MPLAY RIGHT OR LEFT THOUGH.

Nate is on the team isn't he????

[tech fan]

Nate is on the team isn't he????

NOT STARTING I KNOW.HE DESERVED TO MAKE THE TEAM.DID NOT SEE THE RESERVE LIST YET WORKING TO MUCH.

[frankb03]

Sportswriters should pick the teams. The common fan who doesn't follow baseball day to day see's names like Varitek, Jeter, and Griffey and it becomes a popularity contest.

No way! They're as clueless as the fans.