Griffey Tops AL All-Star Roster

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

June 30, 1998 / 10:31 PM EDT / CBS Sportsline

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While Ken Griffey is second in the chase for the home run record, he's still first in fans' hearts.

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Seattle Mariners outfielder became the leading All-Star vote-getter for the third straight year and fourth time overall, blowing away the competition in American League totals announced Tuesday.

Griffey, elected to start for the ninth consecutive time, got 4,202,830 votes, well ahead of Baltimore third baseman Cal Ripken, second with 3,402,657. Griffey's total also topped NL leader Mark McGwire, who got 3,377,145 in figures released Monday.

McGwire leads the majors with 36 homers, while Griffey and Chicago Cubs outfielder Sammy Sosa -- overlooked in the voting -- are tied for second with 32. All three are on pace to break Roger Maris' record of 61 and are expected to become the focus of next Tuesday night's game at Coors Field in Denver.

However, Griffey has said he doesn't intend to participate in the home run derby during Monday's All-Star workout.

Ripken was elected to play in his 16th consecutive All-Star game, all of them as a starter. The rest of the AL starting lineup has Cleveland's Jim Thome (1,193,823) at first, Baltimore's Roberto Alomar (1,834,970) at second, Seattle's Alex Rodriguez (2,571,985) at shortstop, Texas' Ivan Rodriguez (3,012,549) at catcher and Juan Gonzalez of the Rangers (1,900,735) and Kenny Lofton of the Indians (1,467,423) joining Griffey in the outfield.

Rodriguez will make his seventh straight All-Star appearance. Gonzalez, an All-Star for just the second time, had 96 RBIs going into Tuesday night's game and is on pace to finish two ahead of Hack Wilson's record of 190, set in 1930.

The closest competition was at second base, where Alomar finished 184,000 ahead of the New York Yankees' Chuck Knoblauch (1,650,428), At first base, Thome beat New York's Tino Martinez (993,944) by nearly 200,000 votes.

Ripken had the largest victory margin, finishing with more than four times the total of Cleveland's Travis Fryman (843,642).

NL starters were announced Monday, with McGwire at first, Houston's Craig Biggio at second, Colorado's Walt Weiss at shortstop, Atlanta's Chipper Jones at third and the New York Mets' Mike Piazza at catcher.

Larry Walker of the Colorado Rockies, Tony Gwynn of the San Diego Padres and Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants were elected to start in the outfield.