The Tampa Bay Rays will have another All-Star representing their team as the Evan Longoria won the American League All-Star 32nd man voting by the fans. Longoria will join his teammate Scott Kazmir in the Bronx next week.
Corey Hart was the recipient of the fans voting in the National League and he will be joining his MIlwaukee Brewers teammates Ryan Braun and Ben Sheets.
This year’s voting set a record as more than 46 million votes were cast. Last year there were only 23.2 million votes cast.
Longoria finished with 9 million votes just ahead of Jermaine Dye. Mustache boy Jason Giambi finished third followed by Brian Roberts and Jose Guillen.
Two-time All-Star David Wright was the runner-up to Hart. Pat Burrell finished third followed by Aaron Rowand and Carlos Lee.
With each team having to replace a player due to injury, it’s quite possible we could still see any of the remaining 8 in this year’s festivities.
I can’t believe that Jason Giambi didn’t win after the “moustache give-away day” at Yankee Stadium.
What I’m more surprised about is that the fans of Tampa got Longoria to the All-Star Game although I’m sure he got some national support as well.
Given the market sizes I’m surprised that Dye and Giambi didn’t finish 1-2.
I’m expecting Dye to replace Big Papi and Pat Burrell to replace Alfonso Soriano in the All-Star Game since both are injured.
David Wright’s prize for being runner-up in the voting: a trip to the All- Star Game as he was named to replace Soriano on the NL Roster.