Major League Baseball All-Star Voting – American League

Think there’s not a “steroid-era” hangover for Major League Baseball fans? Take one look at the American League top vote getters and guess again. Toronto Blue Jays Outfielder Jose Bautista, 23 home runs and New York Yankees Curtis Granderson, 21 homeruns, lead all American League players with 4,156,940 and 3,473,227 respectively. 2008 Home Run Derby star Josh Hamilton is third with 2,400,408 votes for outfielders.

The other obvious voter trend is fan voting for the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox. Of the seven positions (fans vote for three outfielders regardless of their natural positions; centerfielder, left fielder, and right fielder) American League positions fans can vote for, six of the seven positions top vote getters are from one of the two teams. Jose Bautista is the only non Yankee or Red Sox player leading a position in fan balloting.

Vote Totals for American League Players

CATCHER
Russell Martin, Yankees: 2,226,797
Alex Avila, Tigers: 1,730,511
Joe Mauer, Twins: 1,341,474
Jarrod Saltalamacchia, Red Sox: 1,135,617
Yorvit Torrealba, Rangers: 980,697

FIRST BASE
Adrian Gonzalez, Red Sox: 3,017,960
Mark Teixeira, Yankees: 2,407,665
Miguel Cabrera, Tigers: 1,771,893
Mitch Moreland, Rangers: 890,468
Paul Konerko, White Sox: 676,194

SECOND BASE
Robinson Cano, Yankees: 3,664,498
Dustin Pedroia, Red Sox: 2,239,172
Ian Kinsler, Rangers: 1,452,880
Orlando Cabrera, Indians: 910,941
Ben Zobrist, Rays: 828,771

THIRD BASE
Alex Rodriguez, Yankees: 2,876,537
Adrian Beltre, Rangers: 2,307,380
Kevin Youkilis, Red Sox: 2,025,438
Evan Longoria, Rays: 1,639,405
Brandon Inge, Tigers: 490,734

SHORTSTOP
Derek Jeter, Yankees: 2,654,040
Asdrubal Cabrera, Indians: 2,242,157
Elvis Andrus, Rangers: 1,513,929
Jhonny Peralta, Tigers: 875,371
Marco Scutaro, Red Sox: 813,888

DESIGNATED HITTER
David Ortiz, Red Sox: 3,116,578
Michael Young, Rangers: 1,760,195
Jorge Posada, Yankees: 1,120,830
Victor Martinez, Tigers: 932,711
Johnny Damon, Rays: 864,535

OUTFIELD
Jose Bautista, Blue Jays: 4,156,940
Curtis Granderson, Yankees: 3,473,227
Josh Hamilton, Rangers: 2,400,408
Jacoby Ellsbury, Red Sox: 2,249,323
Carl Crawford, Red Sox: 1,789,097
Ichiro Suzuki, Mariners: 1,537,101

You can cast your vote for your favorite MLB player until Thursday 8:59 p.m. P.T. at www.mlb.com.

The MLB All-Star Game is July 12^th at Chase Field in Phoenix, Arizona. 

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Curious Sports News

Sports Conspiracy Theorist? Maybe but here are some curious pieces of news!

Jose Bautista, the sometimes right fielder and sometimes third baseman for the Toronto Blue Jays, belted his 20^th homerun of the year Saturday against the Cleveland Indians. Bautista is on pace to hit over 60 homeruns this season. How can a can a career journeyman (Baltimore, Kansas City, Pittsburgh twice, Tampa Bay, and Toronto), who is now 30 years old, all of the sudden hit 54 homeruns in 2010 and possibly hit 50 or 60 this year when his previous season’s best was 16 homeruns in 2006?!?! Hate to be skeptical but… something doesn’t seem on the up and up here. All the talk has been about his stance being changed which has lead to his increased homerun production. If Sammy Sosa could understand English again, he would tell us that's what helped his playing career as well!

ABC and the NFL?

Is it a coincident that the NFL has a television contract with ABC and ESPN, both under the same ownership, and all of these NFL players keep winning or placing in the top three on ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars”?

Checkout the results:

Jerry Rice, Hall of Fame wide receiver, came in second in the winter of 2006, Emmit Smith, Hall of Fame running back, won in the fall of 2006, Jason Taylor, former Miami Dolphins and NY Jets defensive end, came in second in the spring of 2008, Warren Sapp, former defensive lineman for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Oakland Raiders, came in second in fall of 2008, and Hines Ward, Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver, won in the spring of 2011; linebacker Kirstie Alley came in second!

Burn it down maybe we can get insurance money for it!

Did Frank McCourt try to burn down Dodger Stadium Saturday night for the insurance money? In the 5^th inning of the Dodger’s game versus the Florida Marlins, smoke billowed out of the upper tier sections in right field down into the bleacher sections. Los Angeles Fire Department officials said the fire was caused by paper igniting in a storage section below the reserved sections. The fire was quickly put out and no one was hurt at Dodger Stadium… this time.

Nothing has gone right for the Dodger’s this season. Nothing!!! Of course the Dodgers lost that game as well.

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 HogManInLA