Victoria鈥檚 Michael Saunders, the Toronto Blue Jays left fielder, is on the Final Vote fan ballot for the Major League Baseball all-star game 鈥� and the enormity of that is not lost on him.
Less than 24 hours after being named one of five players on the Final Vote ballot for the American League, he promptly went 2-for-4 with a home run, double and two RBIs to lead the Blue Jays to a 4-2 win over the defending World Series champion Kansas City Royals.
鈥淵ou look back to Babe Ruth and all the historic names who have played in the all-star game,鈥� Saunders said, by phone from Toronto. 鈥淚t would obviously be a huge honour to be among them,鈥� said the former Lambrick Park Secondary baseball-basketball-volleyball all-rounder.
The fan vote will decide the final American League and National League roster spots for the all-star game Tuesday in San Diego. (Fans are also voting in the starting lineups for both the American and National leagues. The managers are selecting the rest of the roster except for the Final Vote players.)
The names on the AL鈥檚 Final Vote ballot, selected by the league, are Saunders, Evan Longoria of the Rays, George Springer of the Astros, Ian Kinsler of the Tigers and Dustin Pedroia of the Red Sox.
Results of balloting up to Wednesday morning showed the Victorian receiving 98.7 per cent of all votes cast in sa国际传媒.
Fans can vote for Saunders, or any of the other final roster-spot candidates, until 1 p.m. Friday at MLB.com or by mobile phone in sa国际传媒 by texting their choice to 101010. Twitter support (#VoteCaptainsa国际传媒) over the final six hours of balloting will also count.
Saunders, who has represented sa国际传媒 at the Olympics and World Baseball Classic, took note of the surge in voting support from across the country. 鈥淕rowing up in Victoria, I grew up watching the Blue Jays,鈥� he said. 鈥淭his is not just Toronto鈥檚 team, this is sa国际传媒鈥檚 team. You saw that national support last year. We feed off that energy.鈥� The Blue Jays made the playoffs last year for the first time since their World Series years of 1992 and 1993.
That Saunders is even in this position, after missing all but nine games last season because of a knee injury in preseason training, speaks volumes of his will and resolve. Not only that, the Blue Jays were on the verge of dealing him at the beginning of this season.
Through it all, the 29-year-old Islander has held steady emotionally and physically to hit .296 after Wednesday鈥檚 game, with a .396 on-base percentage, 16 home runs, 40 RBIs and 45 runs scored. Saunders is second in extra-base hits with 42 and third in on-base-plus slugging (OPS) among American League outfielders.
鈥淚鈥檝e had consistency at the plate this season. I am seeing the ball well,鈥� said Saunders, who was the 2004 sa国际传媒 Premier League MVP with the Victoria Mariners.
鈥淎nd the players around me in the lineup are getting hits, too. We lean on each other a lot. We鈥檙e starting to pick up the pace and are putting runs on the board.鈥�
