Texas Rangers outfielder Josh Hamilton, who leads the American League in home runs (15) and runs batted in (63), has jumped from sixth place last week to second place this week among A.L. outfielders in balloting results for the 79th All-Star Game, to be played on Tuesday, July 15th at Yankee Stadium.

Hamilton, who also leads the A.L. with 77 hits, 25 multi-hit games, 144 total bases, a .613 slugging percentage and 34 extra-base hits, has drawn 479,492 votes. Hamilton’s .328 average trails only Hideki Matsui (.330) of the New York Yankees and Magglio Ordoñez (.329) of the Detroit Tigers. The only A.L. outfielder with more votes is Boston’s Manny Ramirez, who has collected 811,612. Ramirez, an 11-time A.L. All-Star, became the 24th player in history to join baseball’s 500 home run club over the weekend. As of today, Ramirez and Hamilton are joined in the A.L. outfield by Seattle’s Ichiro Suzuki, who has been an All-Star in each of his seven Major League seasons and a fan-elected starter for six Midsummer Classics. Suzuki’s 456,136 votes is running ahead of the 431,101 cast for eight-time All-Star Vladimir Guerrero of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

The A.L.’s leading vote-getter continues to be Red Sox designated hitter David Ortiz, who has attracted 893,915. Ortiz and Ramirez are joined by three other teammates as fellow A.L. leaders: Kevin Youkilis (662,869) at first base, Dustin Pedroia (591,860) at second base and Jason Varitek (477,630) behind the plate. Meanwhile, Derek Jeter (832,561) and Alex Rodriguez (712,899) of the host New York Yankees also are in line to comprise the starting left side of the A.L. infield for the fourth time in the last five years. Hamilton, Youkilis and Pedroia are vying for their first appearances in the Midsummer Classic.

The 2008 American League and National League All-Star Teams will be unveiled on Sunday, July 6th on the 2008 MLB All-Star Game Selection Show Presented by Chevrolet, televised nationally on TBS following the weekly Sunday MLB on TBS match-up. The American League All-Star Team will have nine starters elected via the fan balloting program, while the National League All-Star Team will have eight fan-elected starters. The pitchers and reserves for both squads – 23 for the N.L., 22 for the A.L. – will be determined through a combination of “Player Ballot” choices and selections made by the two All-Star managers – American League skipper Terry Francona of the Boston Red Sox and National League manager Clint Hurdle of the Colorado Rockies – in conjunction with Major League Baseball.

Immediately following the announcement of the American League and National League All-Star rosters, fans will have the opportunity to select the final player for each League's 32-man roster at MLB.com. The Monster 2008 All-Star Final Vote will provide fans the opportunity to cast their votes from a list of five players from each League over a four-day period. For the fourth year, fans will be able to vote for their Final Vote selections on their mobile phone. Both winners of the Monster All-Star Final Vote will be announced after the voting has concluded on Thursday, July 10th. Finally, fans once again will have the opportunity to participate in the official voting for the 79th All-Star Game’s Ted Williams Most Valuable Player presented by Chevrolet via the Monster All-Star Game MVP Vote on MLB.com.
 
The 79th Major League Baseball All-Star Game, being held at Yankee Stadium in its final season, will be televised nationally by FOX Sports, in Canada by Rogers Sportsnet and Sportsnet HD and televised around the world by Major League Baseball International, with pregame ceremonies beginning at 8:00 p.m. (EDT). ESPN Radio will provide exclusive national radio coverage that will also be available on XM Satellite Radio, while MLB.com will provide extensive online coverage.

The second National League balloting results will be released tomorrow. The remaining updates will be released as follows:

Select the image above to see details in PDF 

 Source::Major League Baseball, Press Release

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Maury Brown is the Founder and President of the Business of Sports Network, which includes The Biz of Baseball, The Biz of Football, The Biz of Basketball and The Biz of Hockey. He is contributor to Baseball Prospectus, and is available as a freelance writer.

Brown's full bio is here. He looks forward to your comments via email and can be contacted through the Business of Sports Network.

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