Victorino, Inge Win Record-Breaking All-Star Game Sprint Final Vote Races

Fans of Tigers, Phillies help first-time All-Stars earn St. Louis spots

NEW YORK, July 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Philadelphia Phillies outfielder Shane
Victorino and Detroit Tigers third baseman Brandon Inge were chosen by fans as
the winners of the 2009 All-Star Game Sprint Final Vote in record-shattering
voting exclusively on MLB.com, the official Web site of Major League Baseball,
and the individual Club sites.

Baseball fans supported the 10 candidates named by All-Star managers Joe
Maddon and Charlie Manuel in unprecedented fashion by casting a record 68.6
million votes since the program commenced on Sunday, July 5 at 2:00 p.m.
(EDT). This year's record number of votes represents an increase of 43.5
percent from the previous mark of 47.8 million set in 2008. Since its
inception in 2002, the All-Star Game Sprint Final Vote has now recorded nearly
200 million votes.

The National League winner, Victorino, received the highest total number of
votes ever, surpassing Evan Longoria's nine million in 2008, and led all
vote-getters with 15.6 million en route to becoming the second Phillies player
to win the balloting (Bobby Abreu, 2004). He was followed by Pablo Sandoval of
the San Francisco Giants, Mark Reynolds of the Arizona Diamondbacks, Matt Kemp
of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Cristian Guzman of the Washington Nationals.

On the American League ballot, Inge became the first Detroit player to win the
All-Star Game Sprint Final Vote by holding off Ian Kinsler of the Texas
Rangers to claim the final spot on the All-Star roster with a final tally of
11.8 million votes, the most ever for an American League player. Inge and
Kinsler were followed by Chone Figgins of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim;
Carlos Pena of the Tampa Bay Rays; and Adam Lind of the Toronto Blue Jays.

Previous winners of the All-Star Sprint Game Final Vote are: Evan Longoria
(AL, 2008); Corey Hart (NL, 2008), Hideki 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.com

Matthew Gould, +1-212-485-8959, cell +1-908-892-3143, matthew.gould@mlb.com