Six St. Louis Cardinals and one Kansas City Royal will represent the state of Missouri in next week’s All-Star Game in Detroit.
The Cardinals will have three starters on the National League squad, as David Eckstein and Scott Rolen got the most votes at shortstop and third base amongst N.L. ballot-casters. Eckstein beat out Cesar Izturis of the Dodgers by 572,236 votes and Rolen topped Aramis Ramirez of the Cubs by 369,187 votes.
Center fielder, Jim Edmonds, was second in the balloting as of Thursday afternoon, but ended up leading all outfielders in votes with over 2.8 million. In fact he was the third-leading vote getter in the National League.
The two most popular players, according to the votes, both play first base and for the Cardinal fans, the final tallies were probably a little frustrating as Derek Lee beat out Albert Pujols by 105,299 votes. Many expect Pujols to still start at DH, since the game will be played at an American League site.
Starter Chris Carpenter and reliever Jason Isringhausen were also named to the team.
Other N.L. starters include Mike Piazza of the Mets at catcher, Jeff Kent of the Dodgers at second, former Kansas City Royal Carlos Beltran of the Mets and Bobby Abreu of the Phillies in the outfield.
The Royals lone representative on the American League roster will be first baseman/designated hitter Mike Sweeney, who will be making his fifth appearance in the All-Star Game. That ties Amos Otis and Frank White for the second-most in franchis history. George Brett, who went 13 times leads the team.
Sweeney is hitting .299 and leads the team with nine homers and 19 doubles. He and Emil Brown are tied for the team lead with 37 RBI’s.
The American League starters are Jason Varitek of the Red Sox at catcher, Mark Teixeira of the Rangers at first base, Brian Roberts of the Orioles at second base, Alex Rodriguez of the Yankees at shortstop, Miguel Tejada of the Orioles at shortstop, Manny Ramirez and Johnny Damon of the Red Sox and Vladimir Guerrero of the Angels in the out field, and David Ortiz of the Red Sox at DH.
The All-Star Game is July 12 in Detroit.
