NewsSox, Yankees lead AL All-Star starters
Jeter oldest shortstop voted to Midsummer Classic since '71
By Tom Singer / MLB.com
07/05/09 1:28 PM ET
The American League's attempt to extend its All-Star Game supremacy will be a national effort. Starters for the 80th Midsummer Classic announced Sunday on the MLB All-Star Selection Show presented by Pepsi reveal a lineup from a cross-section of teams, heralding a new generation of stars.
Six different teams from all three divisions are represented by the eight starters elected by fans, with the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees the only clubs with more than one starter for the July 14 game at St. Louis' Busch Stadium.
Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter was awarded his sixth start as the American League's top vote-getter, and Mariners outfielder Ichiro Suzuki was elected to his eighth start in nine Major League seasons. They are the old hands -- Jeter's actually the oldest AL starting shortstop in 38 years -- in a lineup that also features Tampa Bay third baseman Evan Longoria as a first-time All-Star starter. Additionally, new American citizen Jason Bay is the new American League left fielder, set to make his first AL start three years after being the NL's starting right fielder as a representative of the Pittsburgh Pirates. Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira and Boston second baseman Dustin Pedroia were the come-from-behind winners of historically tight races on the right side of the infield. Entering the final days of voting, Teixeira trailed Boston's Kevin Youkilis by 40,047 votes, and Pedroia had been a scant 6,830 behind Ian Kinsler of the Rangers. Joining Ichiro and Bay in the starting outfield is Texas' Josh Hamilton, another 2008 starter who appears on track to recover from an abdominal injury in time to meet the other All-Stars in St. Louis. Hamilton has been on Texas' DL since June 2, but the folk hero of the '08 State Farm Home Run Derby is currently pulling a rehab stint at Triple-A Oklahoma City, with his activation imminent. Wunderkind Minnesota catcher Joe Mauer completes the starting eight, as one of the five incumbents from the 2008 lineup that contributed to the extension of the AL's unbeaten dominance to 12 straight All-Star Games, including the 2002 deadlock in Milwaukee. This will be Teixeira's second start in as many selections as an All-Star -- but the first came in 2005, during his third season with the Rangers. By earning his second consecutive start, Pedroia dodged an eerie recent jinx that has dogged reigning Most Valuable Players. Since 2000, six of the 18 MVPs in both leagues were omitted from the All-Star starting lineups in the season following their selection. With a total of 17 past All-Star Game starts among them, this group represents one of the greenest in recent years for an AL team which for years was represented by venerable icons such as Ivan and Alex Rodriguez, and Cal Ripken Jr. However, the five repeat starters -- Pedroia, Jeter, Ichiro, Mauer and Hamilton -- still lend the lineup an air of experience. For them, beating the NL is already old hat. In the case of the Bombers' captain, "old" is the operative word. Though this might distress fans who can vividly recall a boyish Jeter's big-league debut in 1995, at 35 -- a birthday he observed a week ago -- he is the oldest AL shortstop elected to start an All-Star Game since 1971, when 37-year-old Luis Aparicio started in Detroit's Tiger Stadium. The preceding does not include Ripken, who was 40 in 2001 when elected starting shortstop A-Rod, in a memorable gesture after the AL team had already taken the field in Safeco Field, surrendered the position so the retiring legend could play the first inning of his final All-Star Game appearance at Rodriguez's old station. Now Rodriguez and Manny Ramirez, two of the recent faces of the league who between them had 16 starts as AL All-Stars since 1997, are absent. Each is also a 12-time All-Star, streaks that will end. Ramirez, who on Friday resumed playing for the Dodgers following his 50-game suspension for violating baseball's drug policy, is now a National League concern and will not be added to the league's roster by NL manager Charlie Manuel -- with the full endorsement of one of his coaches, Los Angeles skipper Joe Torre.Tom Singer is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
