NEW YORK (AP) - Joel Hanrahan planned to spend the break buying a couch. Matt Joyce figured to be out on a boat. Ryan Vogelsong, well, there was no telling where he might be these days.
They’re now all headed to the All-Star game, part of the rosters released Sunday after fans, players and managers had their say on who should be in Phoenix on July 12.
Milwaukee’s Prince Fielder and Rickie Weeks were among several players who overcame voting deficits in the final week to earn starting spots. Dodgers outfielder Matt Kemp, Mets shortstop Jose Reyes and Detroit catcher Alex Avila rallied to claim slots, too.
Overtaken by Avila, New York Yankees catcher Russell Martin felt relieved.
“He’s got much better numbers than I do. I’m glad he’s going to get the start,” said Martin, who still made the AL team as a backup. “I was kind of worried about that, actually.”
Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez are among six Yankees on the AL side. Once again, New York had the most players picked.
Philadelphia, having built the best record in the majors on pitching, provided aces Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee and Cole Hamels. Adrian Gonzalez and David Ortiz led a Boston quartet.
The Milwaukee trio of Ryan Braun, Fielder and Weeks will form a mini-Brew Crew in the desert, a nice nod to a team known more for sausage races than pennant races.
“It means the Milwaukee Brewers have arrived on the national scene,” said Braun, the top NL vote-getter.
The small-market Brewers celebrated their largest haul of All-Star starters. Milwaukee draws a lot of attention for its in-game dash of meat mascots _ the team, however, has made the playoffs just once since 1982.
The World Series champion San Francisco Giants added four arms, including Vogelsong.
Vogelsong will certainly be among the feel-good stories. At 33, he’d spent the previous four years in Japan and the minors before getting called up early this season.
“There’s never been a time in my career when this seemed like even a realistic possibility,” he said, choking up while discussing his selection. “A year ago, almost to the day, I got released and didn’t know if I would ever pitch again.”
This year’s squad includes 13 first-time All-Stars in the AL and 11 in the NL, with Hanrahan among them. The closer is Pittsburgh’s lone representative and said he won’t mind changing his vacation plans.
“I think it will be a lot more fun than going to a furniture shop. They say it takes three months to get a couch _ wanted to see one and get it on order,” he said.
Joyce hadn’t thought about a detour to Phoenix, either.
“It wasn’t even on my mind. I was actually planning what I was going to do on the off-days. Probably was going to stay in a condo on the beach that my buddy has. Maybe go out on the water in a boat,” the Tampa Bay outfielder said.
Toronto outfielder Jose Bautista, the reigning home run champion, drew a record 7.4 million votes. He became the first Blue Jays player elected to start since Carlos Delgado in 2003.
Bautista homered Saturday off Halladay, then hit his major league-leading 27th homer Sunday against Philadelphia’s Cliff Lee.
“People are recognizing that you’re doing well and for me it’s been in three different territories _ the United States and Canada and the Dominican,” Bautista said. “I can’t even describe how good that feels.”
The AL starting lineup under manager Ron Washington of Texas: Gonzalez at first base, Robinson Cano at second, Jeter at shortstop, Rodriguez at third base, with Bautista, Josh Hamilton and Curtis Granderson in the outfield, Avila behind the plate and Ortiz at designated hitter.
The NL starters: Fielder at first, Weeks at second, Reyes at short, Placido Polanco at third, with Braun, Kemp and Lance Berkman in the outfield and Brian McCann catching. San Francisco manager Bruce Bochy will choose the DH.
Fans can vote on MLB.com through Thursday for the 34th player on each side. Injuries are sure to impact the final rosters _ three-time NL MVP Albert Pujols was left off while recovering from a broken left wrist and Reyes is nursing a hamstring problem.
Once again, the league that wins will get home-field advantage in the World Series. Led by McCann, the NL won last year for the first time since 1996.
Jeter, a 12-time All-Star, is set to come off the disabled list Monday after recovering from a strained calf.
The 37-year-old Yankees captain always seems to be a lightning rod when it comes to awards and honors, ratcheting up the debate of popularity vs. production. He’s in the midst of another down year _ Cleveland shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera is having a breakout season and made the AL team as a backup, deserving Jhonny Peralta of Detroit was left off.
The Yankees own the best record in the AL, although two of their stars were among the notable omissions: CC Sabathia, tied for the major league high in wins, and first baseman Mark Teixeira, among the leaders in homers and RBIs.
The rival Red Sox put four players on the team: Gonzalez, Ortiz, pitcher Josh Beckett and outfielder Jacoby Ellsbury.
“Seems like the Yankees always take care of all the All-Star voting every year, so it’s just disappointing to not see more Red Sox on that team,” Boston ace Jon Lester said.
On the ballot for the extra AL player are outfielders Alex Gordon of Kansas City and Adam Jones of Baltimore, White Sox first baseman Paul Konerko, Detroit DH Victor Martinez and Tampa Bay second baseman Ben Zobrist.
“I know it’s very possible that when you play the position I play there will be somebody left without a chair,” Konerko said.
Candidates for the final NL spot are outfielders Andre Ethier of the Dodgers, Mike Morse of the Nationals and Shane Victorino of the Phillies, first baseman Todd Helton of Colorado and pitcher Ian Kennedy of the host Diamondbacks.
Two themes sure to attract interest at the All-Star game are the heat _ it was 118 degrees in Phoenix this week and even though the ballpark has a retractable roof, some of the festivities are outdoors _ and Arizona’s immigration law.
The law requires immigrants to carry their registration documents and police who are enforcing other laws to question the immigration status of those they suspect are in the country illegally. Last year, several All-Stars said they would boycott the game if picked.
Atlanta pitcher Jair Jurrjens, a first-time All-Star and a native of Curacao, said the Arizona politics were not a concern to him.
“I don’t try to think about stuff I don’t have control of. They need to do what they need to do to make it safe for the people. If they need to do that under the law, everybody knows a lot of people do bad stuff and they’re just trying to be safe,” he said.
___
AP Sports Writers Stephen Hawkins, Larry Lage, Chris Duncan, Charles Odum and Rick Gano and AP freelance writers Mike Cook, Ian Harrison and Rich Dubroff contributed to this report.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.