MIAMI — Three days after teammates Kris Medlen and Dan Uggla said it was a shame that Freddie Freeman had no chance to make the National League All-Star team as a "Final Vote" candidate against Yasiel Puig and the ESPN- and MLB Network-fueled Puig publicity machine, Freeman remained ahead of the Dodgers rookie and the rest of the five-man field.
An outpouring of support from Braves fans throughout the South and around the world, along with a clever marketing campaign by Braves employees, helped Freeman maintain a seemingly improbable lead over Puig with only one day left before online, Twitter and text-message voting ends at 4 p.m. Thursday.
“It’s incredible,” Freeman said Wednesday morning, after the latest vote standings were announced, with Freeman first and Puig second, followed by San Francisco’s Hunter Pence, Washington’s Ian Desmond, and the Dodgers’ Adrian Gonzalez.
“I just did an interview and they said there’s pockets of red (indicating Freeman support on voting-result maps) all over the country. It’s just … I didn’t know people knew about me. I just go out there and try to win baseball games. To have people jump on my side and start voting for me, it’s incredible.
“Hopefully it pays off and I get to represent the Braves with Craig (Kimbrel) in New York.”
Despite owning the largest division lead in the majors, the Braves had only Kimbrel selected to the NL All-Star team announced Saturday. Another player or two could possibly be added as an injury replacement, but the only certain way the Braves can get another on the team is by Freeman winning on the Final Vote ballot.
When ESPN.com immediately began urging readers to vote for Puig after the field was announced, many Braves cursed the selection process and the bias shown toward the Dodgers phenom who had barely more than one month in the big leagues. Braves pitcher Kris Medlen said Sunday that it wouldn’t matter if Freeman had six homers and 20 RBIs in the three-game series at Miami, because Puig would win regardless.
And yet, after more than 3-1/2 days of voting, Freeman was still in the lead.
The big first baseman was humbled by the passionate response from Braves fans and the Tweets he’d seen from other athletes, such as the Falcons’ Roddy White, and from celebrities including rapper Lil Jon. He was blown away by the efforts of his teammates, who have held up handmade “Vote 4 Freddie” signs in the dugout during games since Sunday, and had T-shirts made with Freeman’s likeness and Hugs For Votes and #VoteFreddie messages.
As Freeman spoke to reporters in the visitor’s clubhouse at Marlins Park, pitcher Tim Hudson had a marker in hand and was working on a sign on big piece of cardboard that a clubhouse attendant ripped from a box.
“You’ve got that going on,” Freeman said, nodding toward Hudson. “That’s a 15-year veteran doing stuff like that for me. It’s just unimaginable, the support I’ve got the last few days. It’s incredible.”
