Another day, another round of teams rocking the All-Star Game Final Vote
On Wednesday, teams around the league urged fans to make a pick in the 2016 Esurance MLB All-Star Game Final Vote, as each club has hopes of sending another representative to the All-Star Game presented by Mastercard next week in San Diego.
Since we live in a social media age, teams began getting fans to rock the vote through some pretty intense campaigns on Twitter. There were hashtags, silly .GIFs, videos and other forms of media shared heavily, and it won't stop until Friday at 4 p.m. ET.
Thursday, things picked up steam as teams raced to the deadline. Two participating clubs, the Rays and D-backs, formed a strategic alliance in support of their respective candidates Evan Longoria and Jake Lamb:
It might be an off-day for the #Dbacks, but not for the #FinalVote.#VoteLamb #VoteLongo pic.twitter.com/osTPu5D0U4
— Arizona Diamondbacks (@Dbacks) July 7, 2016
The Cardinals put in a good word, too:
The whole Valley has your back, @JakeLamb18! #VoteLamb pic.twitter.com/GYBr9HZYcC
— Arizona Cardinals ? (@AZCardinals) July 7, 2016
Arizona's campaign for Lamb didn't stop there, as slugger Paul Goldschmidt (who recently joined Twitter for the first time just to help spread the word) did some campaigning in the Bay Area ahead of the D-Backs' series in San Francisco this weekend:
Comedian/impression king Frank Caliendo even lent a hand as only he could -- by imitating one Mr. Trump:
Make America Jake again.#VoteLamb @FrankCaliendo pic.twitter.com/pOiDYoTaQg
— Arizona Diamondbacks (@Dbacks) July 7, 2016
And, for good measure, 'Zona shared a video of Lamb singing Drake's Hotline Bling, because why not?
.@JakeLamb18's karaoke game is ?
— Arizona Diamondbacks (@Dbacks) July 8, 2016
As if you didn't have enough reasons to #VoteLamb.https://t.co/7zZLW6wLj3
But wait, there's more: A lamb crashed the D-backs' Legends Race, too:
Now, as for the rest of the candidates ... the Tigers backed Ian Kinsler with enthusiasm on Thursday. James McCann did his part:
Hey @tigers fans.... #VoteKinsler NOW!!!
— James McCann (@JamesMcCann34) July 7, 2016
...and then do it again later
...and again after that
While FOX Sports Detroit announced a "#VoteKinsler Party" set for Friday morning, which includes something intriguingly called #KittensForKinsler ...
YouˇŻre Invited ??
— FOX Sports Detroit (@FOXSportsDet) July 7, 2016
?: #VoteKinsler Party
?: Friday, July 8
?: 11am ¨C 1pm
?: Cadillac Square
?: #KittensForKinsler pic.twitter.com/L8v6Wesz86
Not opposed to alliances themselves, the Tigers joined the Pirates in a push for Kinsler and Starling Marte:
Hey @tigers- yesterdayˇŻs #FinalVote Voting Hour was pretty funˇanotha one would be major? #VoteMarte #VoteKinsler pic.twitter.com/9D8DsELyaM
— Pirates (@Pirates) July 7, 2016
.@pirates ? We're in! We have some awesome stuff to give away.#VoteMarte #VoteKinsler pic.twitter.com/SgoyyfPgAV
— Detroit Tigers (@tigers) July 7, 2016
The Pirates also reached out to the Steelers, who were definitely on-board with supporting their fellow Pittsburgh team:
You heard the man.
— Pittsburgh Steelers (@steelers) July 8, 2016
Text N4 to 89269 to #VoteMarte.#BurghProud https://t.co/jKSDnq5XXj
Teamwork!
? #BurghProud pic.twitter.com/9N7HQkSsZA
— Pittsburgh Steelers (@steelers) July 8, 2016
Over in the Bay Area, the Giants' push for Brandon Belt resulted in -- what else -- a photo-op of Belt and his namesake, a giraffe named Brandon at Six Flags Discovery Bay:
Let's all vote for Brandon Belt to make the NL #AllStarGame team! here he is with his namesake, Brandon the giraffe! pic.twitter.com/KDLyn4WLPL
— Six Flags Discovery Kingdom (@sixflagsDK) July 6, 2016
While Belt's teammate Hunter Pence held a big axe, wore long johns and voted for Belt in his posh San Francisco loft:
#VoteBelt for the #ASG. Go to https://t.co/EiIYQbJkGl or text N1 to 89269 - voting ends tomorrow! @SFGiants @bbelt9 pic.twitter.com/WKEnGWqqK7
— Hunter Pence (@hunterpence) July 7, 2016
The team also rolled out a .GIF of Belt in a giraffe hat, naturally:
Wait for it ?
— SFGiants (@SFGiants) July 7, 2016
? https://t.co/dmEb66KxYW
? text N1 to 89269#VoteBelt #SFGiants pic.twitter.com/qO18TmQ4O6
AND formed an alliance with the Red Sox in their push for Dustin Pedroia:
Reminder! When you #VoteBelt, you should #VotePedey too! https://t.co/CQ5fc7nB0G pic.twitter.com/qQ6Cyxy2iD
— SFGiants (@SFGiants) July 7, 2016
On their own, the Sox employed the use of Bigfoot (he's real!), who did some on-the-ground campaign work around the Boston area on Thursday:
#Bigfoot sighting??#VOTEPEDEY: https://t.co/TNu271yiIB pic.twitter.com/TPIWUlSEKs
— Red Sox (@RedSox) July 7, 2016
Campaign so hard. #Bigfoot ?#VOTEPEDEY: ?A3??89269 pic.twitter.com/osgQxn520C
— Red Sox (@RedSox) July 7, 2016
Up in Toronto, the Blue Jays went full-steam-ahead with their push for Captain Canada, a.k.a. Michael Saunders, as his teammates wore t-shirts in support:
Family is not always about blood. #TorontoisFamily #VoteCaptainCanada #OurMoment ??? pic.twitter.com/dkuexXEmKJ
— Jason Grilli (@GrillCheese49) July 7, 2016
Saunders is in 1st place with more than 11 million votes!
— Toronto Blue Jays (@BlueJays) July 7, 2016
Send Saunders #VoteCaptainCanada https://t.co/DwPiRklsGA pic.twitter.com/8fCFT4zTWL
George Springer strengthened his Final Vote candidacy with a leadoff triple in the first inning in the Astros' game against the A's, prompting this:
How about a leadoff triple to Tal's Hill! #VoteSpringer #SpringerStory https://t.co/C9XSBgCmB7 pic.twitter.com/Nw1mMgbS1N
— Houston Astros (@astros) July 8, 2016
Earlier in the day, his sister Lena shared a rather amazing #TBT pic of young George as her push for votes:
Dreamed of saving lives, now he saves his pitchers. #VoteSpringer https://t.co/NSdzrHfkM7 or text A5 to 89269 pic.twitter.com/qmQAwSbEPC
— Lena Springer?? (@LenaSpringer) July 7, 2016
And, in another show of intra-town togetherness, J.J. Watt of the Texans told his 2,000,000+ Twitter followers to vote as well:
Hold it down for Houston.#VoteSpringer
— JJ Watt (@JJWatt) July 6, 2016
The Brewers, meanwhile, pulled out a photo of Ryan Braun and his precious young daughter Celine, because who can resist something like this?
#VoteBraun now at https://t.co/ZGJNZUiN2V or text "N2" to 89269! pic.twitter.com/nvkDVe4NqB
— Milwaukee Brewers (@Brewers) July 7, 2016
With no game Thursday, the Crew also sent Bernie the Brewer around town for some grassroots campaigning of his own:
.@Bernie_Brewer is on the campaign trail for #VoteBraun! Vote now at https://t.co/ZGJNZUiN2V or text "N2" to 89269! pic.twitter.com/pENJ2UarQw
— Milwaukee Brewers (@Brewers) July 7, 2016
While all of this was going on, the Rockies continued #StoryTime in their push for Trevor Story by throwing some lighthearted shade toward Dodgers fans:
TAKEAWAYS:
— Colorado Rockies (@Rockies) July 7, 2016
1. Canada loves @Tstory2 because Canada is awesome!
2. Texas holdin' it down.
3. Midwest up for grabs! pic.twitter.com/0dQO7DRKPK
And all those @Dodgers fans who say they don't like the @SFGiants and then vote for the Giants' guy. ???#StoryTime pic.twitter.com/AWhVstZoyk
— Colorado Rockies (@Rockies) July 7, 2016
All of the above, mind you, is merely a smattering of the tweets, Snaps, Instgrams, Vines and GIF'ing that went on throughout the day. As you can see, this has been an all-out frenzy as these eight clubs campaign for their respective players.
Fans can vote for the 2016 Esurance MLB All-Star Game Final Vote until 4 p.m. ET on Friday. The winners, as chosen exclusively by online fan voting totals, will be announced during a Final Vote-themed telecast of "MLB Now" featuring commentary from political analyst Jeff Greenfield, live on MLB Network and MLB.com from 4-5 p.m. ET. MLB Network will provide extensive coverage across all of its studio programming during the Final Vote, including interviews with the candidates, frequent updates, heat maps indicating the cities where votes are being cast for each candidate, news on player and club campaigns and a running countdown clock leading up to the announcement.
Baseball fans have cast nearly 600 million online votes for Final Vote candidates since the program's inception in 2002. In addition to MLB.com and the official club websites, fans can use their mobile devices to cast votes at MLB.com/vote or via text message. To receive the ballot, text the word "VOTE" to 89269. To vote for a specific player, fans can text their choice to 89269. EXAMPLE: Text "A3" to vote for AL Player 3 or "N3" to vote for NL Player 3. Message and data rates may apply. Text "STOP" to end and "HELP" for information. Mobile voting in Canada also is available and fans should text their choices to 101010.
For the fifth consecutive year, the Final Vote will include social balloting, as Twitter support for the 10 candidates over the last six hours of balloting will count toward their vote totals. From 10 a.m.-4 p.m. ET on Friday, any tweet that includes a designated player hashtag will be tabulated as part of the official vote total used to determine the winners.
