NEW YORK, July 10, 2014 /PRNewswire/ --The creative campaigns are over. Twitter voting ended in a furious rally. And at the end of the four-day online voting program, it is Chris Sale of the Chicago White Sox and Anthony Rizzo of the Chicago Cubs who were chosen by fans as the winners of the 2014 All-Star Game MLB.com Final Vote Sponsored by Experian. Sale and Rizzo earned the final two AL and NL All-Star Team roster spots through online voting on MLB.com, the individual Club sites and Twitter, where designated player hashtags counted during the final six hours of voting.
On the NL ballot, Rizzo passed Justin Morneau (Colorado) on Wednesday night and ultimately held off both Morneau and the leading Twitter vote-getter, Justin Upton (Atlanta). Rizzo received 8.8 million votes and became the first Cubs player to win the All-Star MLB.com Final Vote. The top three were followed by Anthony Rendon (Washington) and Casey McGehee (Miami).
The AL winner, Sale, became the fourth White Sox player to win the All-Star Game MLB.com Final Vote, using his 6.7 million votes to join Paul Konerko (2011); A.J. Pierzynski (2006); and Scott Podsednik (2005) as Chicago's South Side winners. Sale held off a late charge from Garrett Richards, who trailed only Upton in Twitter voting. Fellow AL starting pitchers Rick Porcello (Detroit), Corey Kluber (Cleveland) and Dallas Keuchel (Houston) followed Sale and Richards.
This year's All-Star Game MLB.com Final Vote Sponsored by Experian concluded with an incredible sustained average of 65,000 votes per minute across the multiple balloting platforms over the final six hours today, including a dramatic final 10 minutes before the 4:00 p.m. (ET) deadline when Twitter voting accounted for nearly one-quarter of all votes cast.
As noted above, the top two leading Twitter vote-getters were VoteJUp and VoteGRich, followed by VoteKluber, VoteMorneau and VoteRizzo in the top five. All of the leading contenders had their hashtags trending in the U.S., worldwide and in their respective local markets, ultimately leading to 52.5 million votes cast.
For a regional analysis of the 2014 All-Star Game MLB.com Final Vote Sponsored by Experian, go to MLB.com's data visualization map. Click here to access the map.
The 2014 All-Star Game will be played at Target Field on Tuesday, July 15. The 85th 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 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, please visit allstargame.com.
SOURCE MLB.com
