07/05/2009 - New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Major League Baseball has announced the rosters for the 2009 All-Star Game, and the squads are filled with many familiar names, as only a pair of first-time starters were selected.
The 80th Mid-Summer Classic will be played July 14 at Busch Stadium in St. Louis, and for the second season in a row a member of the host team was the top vote-getter overall. New York's Alex Rodriguez received the most votes for last year's game at Yankee Stadium.
Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols will make his eighth All-Star appearance and sixth start -- fifth as a first baseman -- after garnering 5,397,374 votes, the second-most in history behind Ken Griffey, Jr., who had 6,079,688 votes in 1994.
Pujols' teammate, catcher Yadier Molina, will make his first All-Star Game appearance, as St. Louis is one of three National League teams to have two starters in the game.
The defending champion Philadelphia Phillies and their NL East arch-rival New York Mets also each had a pair of starters selected. Philadelphia outfielder Raul Ibanez and second baseman Chase Utley will be in the lineup, while New York outfielder Carlos Beltran and third baseman David Wright were also voted in by the fans.
This marks Ibanez's first All-Star Game selection in his 14-season career.
The rest of the National League starting lineup is filled out by Florida shortstop Hanley Ramirez and Milwaukee outfielder Ryan Braun.
Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter headlined the American League squad, receiving a league-high 4,851,899 votes to earn his 10th All-Star Game selection -- his fifth as a starter.
Jeter will be joined in the infield by new teammate Mark Teixeira, who is an All-Star for the second time. Filling out the rest of the infield are the reigning AL MVP -- Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia -- and last year's AL final vote winner -- Rays third baseman Evan Longoria.
Twins catcher Joe Mauer is the AL's starting backstop, while the Junior Circuit's starting outfield will consist of Boston's Jason Bay, Seattle's Ichiro Suzuki and Texas' Josh Hamilton.
The AL champion Rays will have four total players to join their manager, Joe Maddon, in St. Louis, as shortstop Jason Bartlett and outfielders Ben Zobrist and Carl Crawford were selected as reserves for the All-Star squad.
The other American League reserves are Baltimore outfielder Adam Jones; Boston first baseman Kevin Youkilis; Cleveland catcher Victor Martinez; Detroit outfielder Curtis Granderson; Angels outfielder Torii Hunter; Minnesota first baseman Justin Morneau; Texas third baseman Michael Young and Toronto second baseman Aaron Hill.
Headlining the AL pitching staff is 42-year-old Tim Wakefield, who will make his first All-Star Game appearance in his 17th MLB season. Wakefield, a knuckleballer who recently set a Red Sox record for most career starts, is the second oldest player to make his first All-Star Game appearance to Satchel Paige, who was 46 years old.
Joining Wakefield are Kansas City's Zack Greinke; Toronto's Roy Halladay; Detroit's Justin Verlander and Edwin Jackson; the White Sox's Mark Buehrle; Boston's Jonathan Papelbon and Josh Beckett; Minnesota's Joe Nathan; the Yankees' Mariano Rivera, who is making his 10th All-Star Game appearance; the Angels' Brian Fuentes; Oakland's Andrew Bailey, who is the only rookie in the game, and Seattle's Felix Hernandez.
Arizona's 21-year-old outfielder Justin Upton is one of four first-time All- Stars among the National League reserves. Joining Upton in that respect are Colorado outfielder Brad Hawpe, Houston outfielder Hunter Pence and Washington third baseman Ryan Zimmerman.
Accompanying them on the team will be Atlanta catcher Brian McCann; Houston shortstop Miguel Tejada; Dodgers second baseman Orlando Hudson; Milwaukee first baseman Prince Fielder; Philadelphia first baseman Ryan Howard; Pittsburgh second baseman Freddy Sanchez and San Diego first baseman Adrian Gonzalez.
The National League pitching staff will consist of San Francisco's Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain; the Cubs' Ted Lilly; Arizona's Dan Haren; the Dodgers' Chad Billingsley and Jonathan Broxton; Florida's Josh Johnson; St. Louis' Ryan Franklin; San Diego's Heath Bell; the Mets' Francisco Rodriguez and Johan Santana; Cincinnati's Francisco Cordero and Colorado's Jason Marquis.
Each team will have an additional player, as voted again by the fans.
The National League choices are Arizona third baseman Mark Reynolds, Dodgers outfielder Matt Kemp, Philadelphia outfielder Shane Victorino, San Francisco third baseman Pablo Sandoval and Washington shortstop Cristian Guzman.
The American League candidates are Angels infielder Chone Figgins, Detroit third baseman Brandon Inge, Texas second baseman Ian Kinsler, Toronto outfielder Adam Lind and Tampa Bay first baseman Carlos Pena.
Balloting for the final player began Sunday and will continue through 4 p.m. (et) on Thursday, July 9.
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My fellow Americans, as tempting as it may be to don the coat and HD-ready tie in order to deliver this State of the Game address before the cameras, I know better. As Brad Paisley sings on his latest album, "I'm so much cooler online."
The ideas for this annual essay to kick off the MySportsbook.com college football betting preview flowed like frat-house beer, which is to say they were cheap and spilled all over the floor. The 2007 season will be better than 2007, if only because there will be more of it. A year ago, the NCAA Football Rules Committee made two rule changes in the interest of speeding up the game. These changes went over like Kobe burgers at a vegan banquet.
To its credit, the rules committee rectified its mistakes. This season the clock once again will start when a kickoff is received, rather than when it is kicked, and the clock will not start so quickly on a change of possession.
However, kickoffs have been moved back five yards, to the 30, which will force more returns. (Thus forcing the clock to run. Clever, huh?) Special teams might decide a lot of games, because coaching strategy will come straight out of another new Paisley lyric (almost), I'd like to check you for kicks.
Paisley sings with a twang, which is why he's appropriate for this college football season. The sun coming up over the 2007 college football betting lines season rises from the south. It's a Southern football world. As the Southeastern Conference begins its 75th year, the power shift is noticeable.
Eight-figure budgets, glamorous settings -- and that's just for the head coaches. The SEC has four coaches who have won national championships -- the greatest aggregation of coaching know-how since Eddie Robinson dined alone.
Steve Spurrier, Phil Fulmer, Nick Saban and Urban Meyer have given lie to the idea that a conference championship game is too daunting a hurdle on the road to No. 1. In six of the past 10 seasons, the national champions played and won a conference championship game -- three of the six (Tennessee, 1998; LSU, 2003; Florida, 2007) from the SEC.
There will be more of the same this season, if the preseason prognostications are correct. Six SEC teams are in the preseason coaches' poll, more than from any other conference. Only one conference has talent so deep that a team with 15 returning starters, including the best quarterback in the league, from an eight-win season is considered an afterthought. That may speak more to Kentucky's losing legacy than to the wisdom of the predictions, but there you have it. And seriously, keep an eye on Wildcats QB Andre' Woodson.
The reach of the South extends all the way to No. 1. Take a look at the team that is a consensus pick to win the national championship. The quarterback is from Shreveport. The best wide receiver is from Nashville. The top recruit is from New Orleans.
So what's the campus doing in Los Angeles? Hey, it is the University of Southern California.
USC lost two Pacific-10 Conference games a year ago, the first time that had happened in five seasons, and university officials withstood the urge to form blue-ribbon panels to unearth the cause of such a disaster. Instead, the Trojans gathered themselves and routed Michigan, 32-18, in the Rose Bowl.
USC's losses at Oregon State and at UCLA last year should have given pause to those who question the Pac-10's football prowess (such as, without naming names, L.M. from Baton Rouge). The league only got deeper this season; Dennis Erickson is taking over an Arizona State team that never quite got out of its own way under his predecessor, Dirk Koetter.
Erickson will resume his quest to become the first coach to win a national championship at two schools. Both he and Spurrier, now in his third season at South Carolina, returned to college football at schools with lower profiles than where they won their titles.
That isn't the case for the third coach looking for the national championship double. You may have missed this, but NASA reported the astronauts on the space shuttle last spring made contact with what can only be described as beings from another galaxy.
The leader of the aliens said, "We come in peace," followed by, "So how do you think Nick Saban will do at Alabama?"
The public is reacting to the new Crimson Tide coach as if he is the Barry Bonds of college football -- beloved at home for what his fans believe he is going to do, hated on the road for his intimidating attitude and for what his detractors believe he did (bend NCAA recruiting rules). I made this comparison from the dais at a charity dinner in Mobile, Ala., last month, and the chill that washed over me didn't come from the air conditioning.
Saban will attempt to prove that he can remake in Tuscaloosa what he built in Baton Rouge, much like another member of the national championship fraternity. Bobby Bowden is attempting to remake at Florida State what he built at, um, Florida State. Bowden rebuilt his offensive staff, bringing in four new coaches led by Saban's former offensive coordinator, Jimbo Fisher, to jump-start an offense that has been dead for a couple of years.
The Atlantic Coast Conference is expected to show new signs of life, too. That is said with no disrespect toward last season's champion, Wake Forest, which provided one of the best story lines of 2007. The Demon Deacons begin this season in their customary position, overshadowed by the Virginia Techs, Miamis and Florida States.
It's not that Wake will find it difficult to duplicate its success in 2007 as much as the feeling that success engendered. Surprising success is the narcotic of sport. It never feels quite so euphoric the next time. Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese has figured this out. He refers to 2007, when a league looked down upon by fans and foes alike took three undefeated teams into November, as "Cinderella."
The fairy tale may be over, but the Big East has four genuine Heisman Trophy candidates in Louisville quarterback Brian Brohm, West Virginia tailback Steve Slaton and quarterback Pat White, and Rutgers tailback Ray Rice. Rutgers, as did Wake Forest and, of course, Boise State, proved last season that the have-nots in college football occasionally have quite a lot.
The Broncos' rousing 43-42 overtime victory over Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl has raised the profile of all schools in conferences that don't get automatic BCS bids. This season, TCU and Hawaii are the preseason favorites to burst through the BCS doors and earn an at-large bid. The Warriors return 14 starters from an 11-3 team, including quarterback Colt Brennan.
Brennan not only broke the single-season record with 58 touchdown passes in 2007, but he also led Division I-A in passing efficiency (186.0). The senior is expected to contend for the Heisman Trophy, and neither his success nor the rise of his team should come as any surprise in the 2007 season.
After all, Hawaii is the southernmost team in the country.
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