Tampa Bay Rays rookie third baseman Evan Longoria and Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Corey Hart were chosen by fans as the winners of the Monster 2008 All-Star Game Final Vote in record-shattering voting exclusively on MLB.com (http://mlb.com/), the official website of Major League Baseball. Baseball fans supported the 10 candidates named by All-Star managers Terry Francona and Clint Hurdle in unprecedented fashion by casting a record 47.8 million votes since the program commenced on Sunday, July 6 at 3:00 p.m. (EDT). This year’s record number of votes represents an increase of 107 percent from the previous mark of 23.1 million set in 2007. Since its inception in 2002, the Monster All-Star Game Final Vote has now recorded nearly 130 million votes. The American League winner, Longoria, received the highest total number of votes ever and led all vote-getters with nine million en route to becoming the second consecutive rookie to win the balloting, following Boston’s Hideki Okajima last year. He was followed by Jermaine Dye of the Chicago White Sox; Jason Giambi of the New York Yankees; Brian Roberts of the Baltimore Orioles; and Jose Guillen of the Kansas City Royals. On the National League ballot, Hart became the second Milwaukee player to win the Monster All-Star Game Final Vote by holding off a late charge from David Wright of the New York Mets to claim the final spot on the National League All-Star roster with a final tally of eight million votes. Hart and Wright were followed by Pat Burrell of the Philadelphia Phillies; Aaron Rowand of the San Francisco Giants; and Carlos Lee of the Houston Astros. Previous winners of the Monster All-Star Game Final Vote include: 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).Source: MLB Advanced Media Maury Brown is the Founder and President of the Business of Sports Network (http://www.businessofsportsnetwork.com/), which includes The Biz of Baseball (http://www.bizofbasketball.com/), The Biz of Football (http://www.bizoffootball.com/), The Biz of Basketball (http://www.bizofbasketball.com/) and The Biz of Hockey (http://bizofhockey.com/). He is contributor to Baseball Prospectus (http://baseballprospectus.com/news/?author=124), and is available as a freelance writer.Brown's full bio is here. (http://www.businessofsportsnetwork.com/index.php?option=com _content view=article id=47 Itemid=18) He looks forward to your comments via email and can be contacted through the Business of Sports Network (http://www.businessofsportsnetwork.com/index.php?option=com _contact view=contact id=2 Itemid=29).
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