Starting today, voting begins for the 2016 Esurance MLB Awards giving baseball fans across the country the opportunity to voice their opinions for the top players, moments and fans of the 2016 season. This year, Esurance and Major League Baseball are celebrating the start of awards season with an all-new award: "MLB Fans of the Year presented by Esurance." The award recognizes baseball fans in a completely new way and empowers them to vote for their favorite team's biggest fan.
Fans can cast their vote for the MLB Fans of the Year by visiting MLB.com/awards from Sept. 13-19. Once on the website, fans will choose between four Fan of the Year nominees per club. Fans' votes will be cast via posts on Twitter by including a desired nominee's unique hashtag. Voting percentages will be available throughout the voting period showing in real time where each nominee stands. Fans can vote as many times as they want throughout the course of the voting period and the nominee with the most hashtag uses will be declared the winning Fan of the Year for their club. Each winner will be part of the inaugural class of MLB Fans of the Year.
"Through our partnership with MLB, we're creating unique fan experiences and using smart technology to bring fans closer to baseball," said Alan Gellman, Chief Marketing Officer at Esurance. "We spent a lot of time listening to fan feedback on the awards program and continue to incorporate that feedback to enhance the awards platform and engage fans even more."
The MLB Fan of the Year award launches the start of the Esurance MLB Awards season. Voting on the remaining award categories begins Sept. 19 and runs through Nov. 11 when the winners will be announced via a MLB Network telecast from 8-9 p.m. EST on Nov. 18.
"MLB fans are enormously dedicated and passionate. This new award is an opportunity to celebrate our fans and recognize their extraordinary support," said Noah Garden, MLB Executive Vice President, Business. "Esurance has been a great partner and their involvement in this program as part of the Esurance MLB Awards demonstrates their deep commitment to MLB."
The all-digital awards experience includes an awards website that also serves as a content hub, discussion forum and voting platform for fans to engage with each other throughout the final weeks of the MLB season and Postseason. Below is a list of this year's Esurance MLB Awards categories.
2016 Esurance MLB Awards Categories
Esurance is in its second year of a multi-year partnership with MLB as the exclusive auto insurance partner for the league and is the title sponsor of the Esurance MLB Awards and the all-digital Esurance MLB All-Star Game Ballot.