MLB All-Star Voting Goes Exclusively Online
By Edward Cardenas
SOUTHFIELD (CBS Detroit) - Baseball fans hoping to send Miguel Cabrera, Yoenis Cespedes and their other favorite Tigers to the Major League Baseball All-Star Game will need to pull out their smart phones this year.
Balloting for the 86th Major League Baseball All-Star Game at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati will be exclusively online for the first time this year.
"As we launch our annual tradition of All-Star fan voting, Major League Baseball and the Reds look forward to the upcoming celebration of the Midsummer Classic in a city known for its enduring baseball history," Baseball Commissioner Robert J. Manfred, Jr. said. "Baseball fans represent the heart of our game, and through All-Star balloting, I am proud to bring the best that our sport has to offer to the great fans and community of Cincinnati this summer."
In recent years fans have had the option of voting for their All-Star game candidates on punch card ballots in the stadium, or by casting ballots virtually online. But with more than 16 million paper ballots going unused last year, according to Bloomberg News, MLB decided to go green and end paper balloting.
Starting Wednesday, fans now can cast votes for starters 35 times at MLB.com, and for all 30 clubs online or through their mobile devices.
The online ballots are available in English and Spanish, and offer audio CAPTCHA functionality for visually-impaired fans. Chinese, Korean and Japanese versions of the online ballot will be available in May.
According to MLB, the AL All-Star Team will have nine elected starters through the fan balloting program and the NL All-Star Team will have eight fan-elected starters.
Pitchers and reserves for both squads will be determined through a combination of "Player Ballot" choices and selections made by All-Star national league manager Bruce Bochy and American League manager Ned Yost.
Following the announcement of the American League and National League All-Star rosters, fans will begin voting to select one of five players from each league as the final player for each League's 34-man roster.
The 2015 All-Star Game will be played at Great American Ball Park on Tuesday, July 14.