Fans picked the Braves' Freddie Freeman and the Blue Jays' Steve Delabar in the Final Vote to make the MLB All-Star Game for the National League and American League, respectively, shattering previous records for voting and sending each player to their first trip to the Midsummer Classic.
MLB All-Star Game 2013: Freddie Freeman, Steve Delabar win Final Vote
Yasiel Puig came close, but couldn’t muster enough votes to snag the final spot on the National League’s All-Star Game roster from Freddie Freeman, despite a record-setting number of votes cast. Steve Delabar won the vote on the AL side.
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Freeman earned 19.7 million votes, setting a record for most received in the competition to pick the last player on each league's All-Star team, established in 2002. Freeman edged out Dodgers rookie Yasiel Puig, who also received enough votes to break the previous record for most received, which was the 15.6 million set by Shane Victorino in 2009. Meanwhile, Delabar only received 9.6 million votes, but that was enough to win the much less spirited AL voting.
In total, 79.2 million votes were cast, breaking the record of 68.6 million also set in 2009. Those were cast via MLB.com, team sites, texts, and Twitter, where hashtag #VoteFreddie received the most votes, followed by #VotePuig, the #HighSocksforVotes hashtag belonging to Yankees reliever David Robertson and Delabar's #RaiseTheBar.
Freeman, a 23-year-old first baseman, is hitting .307 with nine home runs, while Delabar, a reliever, has a 1.74 ERA with 57 strikeouts in 41 1/3 innings. Puig is hitting .394 with eight home runs, but has only played in 35 games, while Freeman has appeared in 79, apparently too small a sample size for the voters.
Finishing behind Freeman and Puig were the Giants' Hunter Pence, the Nationals' Ian Desmond, and the Dodgers' Adrian Gonzalez. Delabar was followed by Robertson, Detroit's Joaquin Benoit, Boston's Koji Uehara, and Texas' Tanner Scheppers.
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