Tweets will help decide who wins Final Vote
Freeman, Delabar take leads into last day of balloting to fill All-Star Game rosters
Ready. Set. Tweet.
It's finally here -- the stretch run of a frenetic week-long race involving 10 worthy candidates and only two spots. The winners will head to the All-Star Game, chosen by the fans, who have taken to the voting process in unprecedented ways, dominating social media with proclamations as to why their guy should go be in New York on Tuesday.
Today is the last day to cast ballots in the 2013 All-Star Game Final Vote, sponsored by freecreditscore.com. Not only can you do it online, but for six hours today, from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. ET, you can vote on Twitter, too.
Any tweet that includes a designated player hashtag will be tabulated as part of the overall vote total used to determine the American League and National League winners. Fans may follow @MLB on the popular social networking service for the latest standings updates in advance of the 4 p.m. ET balloting deadline.
So if you're voting for Freddie Freeman, be sure to include #VoteFreddie. For Yasiel Puig, use #votepuig. And the rest:
Hunter Pence: #VotePence; Adrian Gonzalez: #VoteTitan; Ian Desmond: #VoteDesiIn13; David Robertson: #HighSocksForVotes; Koji Uehara: #HighFiveCiti; Tanner Scheppers: #TakeTanner; Joaquin Benoit: #backbenoit; Steve Delabar: #RaiseTheBar.
The latest update, released Thursday morning, show Delabar and Freeman maintaining their leads in the AL and NL, respectively. Yankees righty David Robertson is in second place in the AL, followed by Boston's Koji Uehara, Detroit's Joaquin Benoit and the Rangers' Tanner Scheppers.
In the NL, Dodgers phenom Puig maintains control of second place, where he's been all week, followed by Hunter Pence (Giants), Ian Desmond (Nationals) and Adrian Gonzalez (Dodgers).
If Puig wins the voting in the NL, he will be the first player in history to appear on an All-Star roster having played in fewer than 40 Major League games. Assuming he plays in all three remaining contests leading up to the break, he'll have appeared in 38 games for the Dodgers. In a listing in the Wall Street Journal that cites Stats LLC for the information, Frankie Zak holds the record for playing the fewest career games before a first All-Star selection. Zak played in 44 games for the Pirates in 1944.
Meanwhile, voting via Twitter isn't the only way to cast your ballot today. The standard voting process is still available, including the texting method.
Mobile voting in the U.S. and Canada is open to everyone. In the U.S., to receive the 2013 All-Star Game Final Vote sponsored by freecreditscore.com mobile ballot, text the word "VOTE" to 89269. To vote for a specific player, simply text message your choice using the codes below to 89269 (Example: Text "A1" to vote for Benoit). In Canada, fans should text their choices to 101010. Standard message and data rates may apply. To vote for your player via text message, use the codes below.
AMERICAN LEAGUE
A1 - Joaquin Benoit, Detroit
A2 - Steve Delabar, Toronto
A3 - David Robertson, New York Yankees
A4 - Tanner Scheppers, Texas
A5 - Koji Uehara, Boston
NATIONAL LEAGUE
N1 - Ian Desmond, Washington
N2 - Freddie Freeman, Atlanta
N3 - Adrian Gonzalez, Los Angeles
N4 - Hunter Pence, San Francisco
N5 - Yasiel Puig, Los Angeles
The fun doesn't end there, however. Fans, having already decided the starters and final player on each team, once again will have the opportunity to participate in the official voting for the Ted Williams Most Valuable Player presented by Chevrolet via the 2013 All-Star Game MVP Vote on MLB.com during the All-Star Game.
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. ESPN Radio and ESPN Radio Deportes will provide national radio coverage of the All-Star Game. MLB Network and SiriusXM also will also provide comprehensive All-Star Week coverage. For more information, please visit allstargame.com.