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Freeman, Delabar win record-breaking Final Vote campaign

2013 All-Star Game MLB.com Final Vote Sponsored by freecreditscore.com sets new marks across the board; 1.5 million tweets, trending topics drive final hours of voting

Freddie Freeman of the Atlanta Braves and Steve Delabar of the Toronto Blue Jays were chosen by fans as the winners of the 2013 All-Star Game MLB.com Final Vote Sponsored by freecreditscore.com in record-shattering online voting on MLB.com, the official website of Major League Baseball, the individual Club websites and Twitter, where designated player hashtags counted during the final six hours of balloting today.

Baseball fans around the world supported the 10 candidates named by All-Star managers Jim Leyland and Bruce Bochy by casting a record 79.2 million votes. This year's record number of votes surpassed the previous mark of 68.6 million set in 2009. Fans also cast 10.2 million of those votes via text message in 2013.

On the National League ballot, both Freeman and Puig paced a close race by each finishing with more votes than the previous record-holder, Shane Victorino (15.6 million in 2009). Freeman's total of 19.7 million is the new all-time Final Vote record as he becomes the second Braves player to win the online balloting. They were followed by Hunter Pence of the San Francisco Giants, Ian Desmond of the Washington Nationals and Puig's teammate, Adrian Gonzalez.

The American League winner, Delabar, became the first Toronto player to win with 9.6 million votes, holding off the rallies from fellow pitchers David Robertson (NY Yankees), Joaquin Benoit (Detroit), Koji Uehara (Boston) and Tanner Scheppers (Texas).

This year's All-Star Game MLB.com Final Vote Sponsored by freecreditscore.com concluded with a six-hour Twitter vote as tweets with a player's designated hashtag counted in his overall total. The program drew a sustained average of more than 4,200 tweets per minute (+63% more than 2012 in a four-hour window), highlighted by a peak of 24,660 at 3:59 p.m. EDT, and accounted for 13 percent of the total votes cast during the six-hour window. The leading Twitter vote-getter was #VoteFreddie, followed by #VotePuig, #HighSocksForVotes, #RaiseTheBar and #HighFiveCiti in the top five. All of the leading contenders had their hashtags trending in the U.S., worldwide and in their respective local markets.

For a regional analysis of the 2013 All-Star Game MLB.com Final Vote Sponsored by freecreditscore.com, go to MLB.com's data visualization map. Scroll over any county to see the color-coded display to show the online vote share for each player. Click here or visit MLB.com to access the map.

Here is the complete list of previous winners: Yu Darvish (AL, 2012); David Freese (NL, 2012); Paul Konerko (AL, 2011); Shane Victorino (NL, 2011); Nick Swisher (AL, 2010); Joey Votto (NL, 2010); Brandon Inge (AL, 2009); Victorino (NL, 2009); Evan Longoria (AL, 2008); Corey Hart (NL, 2008); Hideki Okajima (AL, 2007); Chris Young (NL, 2007); A.J. Pierzynski (AL, 2006); Nomar Garciaparra (NL, 2006); Scott Podsednik (AL, 2005); Roy Oswalt (NL, 2005); Hideki Matsui (AL, 2004); Bobby Abreu (NL, 2004); Jason Varitek (AL, 2003); Geoff Jenkins (NL, 2003); Johnny Damon (AL, 2002); and Andruw Jones (NL, 2002).

The 84th All-Star Game will be televised nationally by FOX Sports; in Canada by Rogers Sportsnet and RDS; and worldwide by partners in more than 200 countries via MLB International's independent feed. Pregame ceremonies will begin at 7:30 p.m. (EDT). ESPN Radio and ESPN Radio Deportes will provide exclusive national radio coverage of the All-Star Game. MLB Network, MLB.com and Sirius XM also will provide comprehensive All-Star Week coverage. For more information, visit MLB.com or mets.com/asg.

Read More: Atlanta Braves