Baseball All-Star Starters Announced

N E W  Y O R K, July 4 -- San Francisco’s Jeff Kent overcame a138,000-vote deficit in the final week to overtake Craig Biggio andEdgardo Alfonzo and win the NL’s starting spot at second base innext week’s All-Star game.

Kent, who leads the National League with 80 RBIs, finished at1,018,430 in totals released today. Houston’s Biggio was secondat 964,316, followed by New York’s Alfonzo at 865,853.

In voting through last week, Biggio was first at 452,863,Alfonzo second at 387,893 and Kent third at 314,907.

Rodriguez Is Top Vote Getter

Texas catcher Ivan Rodriguez received the most votes(2,808,456), ending the streak of Ken Griffey Jr., the topvote-getter the previous four years and five times overall beforehis offseason trade from Seattle to Cincinnati.

Rodriguez, the first AL catcher to top voting, will be appearingin his ninth consecutive All-Star game, his eighth straight as astarter.

Mets catcher Mike Piazza, elected for his seventh straightstart, received the most votes among NL players, 2,780,452, markingthe first time the top vote-getters in both leagues were catchers.

Piazza, who had the largest margin of victory, finishing2,034,838 ahead of Pittsburgh’s Jason Kendall, also led NL votingin 1996 and 1997 while playing for the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The rest of the NL lineup has Mark McGwire of St. Louis(2,347,317), at first, Barry Larkin of Cincinnati (1,593,944) atshortstop, Chipper Jones of Atlanta (1,553,944) at third, andGriffey (2,188,169), San Francisco’s Barry Bonds (2,015,590) andChicago’s Sammy Sosa (1,800,444) in the outfield.

Griffey was elected to his 11th All-Star game, his first in theNL. McGwire was picked for the 12th time, his eighth as a starter.Larkin was selected for the 11th time.

Also elected to the AL lineup for the July 11 game at Atlanta’sTurner Field were Oakland’s Jason Giambi (1,229,295) at first,Cleveland’s Roberto Alomar (2,615,501) at second and Seattle’s AlexRodriguez (1,654,852) at shortstop. The Yankees’ Derek Jeter(1,516,492) was second at shortstop, followed by Boston’s NomarGarciaparra (1,341,550).