All-Star Selection Show live now on TBS
After teams are announced, fans can make Final Vote picks
Mark Newman / MLB.com
After more than two months of faithfully voting up to 25 times online and punching ballpark ballots, Major League Baseball fans have spoken loudly to decide starting position players for the 80th All-Star Game on July 14 at Busch Stadium.
Fans spoke so loudly that they voted in record numbers, once again setting online-ballot records. The 223.5 million votes cast and 17.8 million ballots submitted were both the largest figures recorded in the nine years of online balloting at MLB.com, surpassing the previous records set in 2008.
Now it's time to find out how you did, and then start an even more intense round of voting to finalize those American and National League rosters.
The 2009 All-Star Game Selection Show presented by Pepsi is airing now on TBS, revealing 32 of the 33 spots for each roster. That will be immediately followed by the launch of the four-day 2009 All-Star Game Sprint Final Vote, giving fans the opportunity for the eighth straight year to add the last star to both rosters.
Did Ian Kinsler of the Rangers hold off Dustin Pedroia for the AL second-base spot? Kinsler had a lead of fewer than 7,000 votes in the final update on Tuesday, but the reigning AL MVP from Boston was gaining fast in the final days.
Did Kevin Youkilis make it four straight years for a Boston first baseman to be voted the AL starter? Mark Teixeira of the rival Yankees was surging in the final 72 hours in hopes of closing a 40,000-vote gap. They were see-sawing each week, so this was anyone's guess.
Did Jacoby Ellsbury pull this year's Ryan Braun and leapfrog three players in the scramble to earn the final starting spot in the AL outfield? You knew that frontrunners Jason Bay of Boston and Ichiro Suzuki of Seattle were pretty much locked in for the first two spots, but there was plenty of suspense over the third outfielder. Did Josh Hamilton of the Rangers hold on? Ellsbury was charging amid a chase also involving Hamilton, Torii Hunter of the Angels and Carl Crawford of the Rays.
Did Brian McCann of the Braves have enough gas to keep sprinting all the way past Yadier Molina? Or did the Cardinals' catcher resist that rally sufficiently to become the first NL catcher in 17 years to be voted a hometown starter? If Molina's lead was lost in this race, it would go down as one of the biggest final-week comebacks in All-Star voting history.
Did Carlos Beltran of the Mets garner enough votes to hold off the late charges from Chicago's Alfonso Soriano and Philadelphia's Shane Victorino? Raul Ibanez of the Phillies and Braun of the Brewers were a comfortable 1-2, respectively, in the final update on Monday.