NPB vet Casey McGehee is big in Japan, gets ASG endorsements from Darvish and Tanaka

Like Queen and Bon Jovi before him, Casey McGehee was big in Japan before achieving his greatest success here in the States. The Marlins third baseman spent a few years bouncing between Major League franchises before taking his talents overseas. In 2013, McGehee hit .292/.376/.515 with 28 home runs for the Tohoku Ratuken Golden Eagles on their way to the team's first Japan Series title. 

Fast forward to 2014 and McGehee is hitting .318 for the Fish and leads the NL with 110 hits. Though he hasn't been named to the NL All-Star squad (yet), McGehee has been named as one of the candidates in MLB's #FinalVote.

Like any other election, #FinalVote candidates often rely on the endorsements of their supporters to help put them over in the contest. First the Golden Eagles tweeted support with the official #VoteHitsMcGehee hashtag, which was retweeted by McGehee's 2013 Rakuten teammate (and 2014 AL All-Star) Masahiro Tanaka.

明日の午前5時までに、ハッシュタグ #VoteHitsMcGehee ツイートで、マギー選手がMLBオールスターへ選出される一票としてカウントされます☆ マギー選手、仙台のお寿司と焼肉とラーメンを食べたいと言っていました。笑 #rakuteneagles

- 楽天イーグルス (@Rakuten__Eagles) July 9, 2014

According to Google Translate, that means: "By 5:00 tomorrow, it will be counted as one vote for the hash tag #VoteHitsMcGehee tweet, Maggie players will be elected to the MLB All-Star ☆ It had said he wanted to eat ramen and grilled meat Maggie players, and sushi in Sendai. Lol"

... and later Rangers All-Star Yu Darvish also threw his weight behind McGehee:

日本球界でプレーした翌年にMLBのオールスターに選出されたら凄いですよね！ 是非出て欲しいです！ #VoteHitsMcGehee

- ダルビッシュ有(Yu Darvish) (@faridyu) July 9, 2014

Each of the #FinalVote candidates is deserving of recognition in his own right, but it appears that Hits McGehee's campaign has the largest international base.