Nippon Professional Baseball All-Star fan voting has resulted in a “first place sweep” for a certain team. A first in history.
The Nippon Professional Baseball Organization (NPB) announced the final results of the 2023 NPB All-Star Fan Vote on Monday. The Central League’s Hanshin Tigers swept the top nine categories.
The Central League will select 11 All-Stars in nine categories: starting pitcher, middle reliever, closer, catcher, first baseman, second baseman, third baseman, shortstop, and outfielder (three).
Hanshin selected Murakami (starting pitcher), Iwasaki (middle reliever), Yuasa (closer), Umeno (catcher), Oyama (first baseman), Nakano (second baseman), Sato (third baseman), Kinami (shortstop), and Chikamoto (outfielder), who topped the fan vote in all nine categories 토토사이트.
In the outfielders (3) category, Akiyama (Hiroshima Carp) and foreign player Noiji (Hanshin) came in second and third after Chikamoto. Of the 11 players, 10 are Hanshin players except for Akiyama. Chikamoto was the top vote-getter in both leagues with 795,887 votes.
The Nippon Professional Baseball All-Star fan vote has been swept twice before, in 1978 and 1983. At that time, pitchers were not categorized as starting, middle, or closers. They voted in seven categories: pitcher, catcher, first baseman, second baseman, third baseman, shortstop, and outfielder. Nihon Ham in 1978 and Yomiuri in 1983 swept all seven categories 메이저놀이터순위.
Hanshin’s first-place finish in all nine All-Star categories marks the first time since pitchers were divided into starting, middle, and closers. Hanshin is in first place in the Central League with 28 games remaining. They have a half-game lead over second-place Yokohama.
Japanese baseball fans reacted to Hanshin’s dominance of the top spot with comments such as, “They’re not All-Stars,” “Except for Akiyama, I thought it was Hanshin’s starting lineup,” and “Is this a strategy by fans of other Central League teams to avoid giving Hanshin players an All-Star break?”
In the Pacific League, “Perfect Pitcher” Roki Sasaki (Chiba Lotte) was the top starting pitcher for the second consecutive year. Yanagita (SoftBank) was the top vote-getter in the Pacific League with 775,834 votes.
Sasaki (Chiba Lotte), Yamazaki (Oryx), Osuna (SoftBank), Mori (Oryx), Tongu (Oryx), Donosaki (Seibu), Kurihara (SoftBank), Genda (Seibu), Gondo (SoftBank), Matsumoto (Nippon Ham), Sugimoto (Oryx), and Yanagita (SoftBank) were selected by fan vote.
In the Pacific League, Oryx and SoftBank received four fan votes, Seibu two, Chiba Lotte one, and Nippon Ham one.
The results of the player voting will be announced on July 30, and the manager selection will be announced on July 5. The results of the “plus-one vote” to determine the final player will be announced on July 14.
The Nippon Professional Baseball All-Star Game will be held on July 19 at the Nagoya Banterin Dome and July 20 at the Mazda Zoom Zoom Stadium.