Given the crowded field of strong candidates, Frank Thomas said he'd be hard-pressed to pick a starter at shortstop for the 70th All-Star Game July 13 at Fenway Park. And while he was aware that the Yankees' Derek Jeter led the American League balloting, the White Sox first baseman said yesterday that Nomar Garciaparra probably ''deserves to start, just because the game is in Fenway.''
After the voting was closed Sunday, the likelihood of Garciaparra starting his first All-Star Game on his home turf grew even more remote as the Red Sox star had dropped from second to third in the results released yesterday. Jeter, who led Garciaparra by 7,334 votes a week ago, garnered 586,173 votes to stretch his lead to almost 30,000 votes over Cleveland's Omar Vizquel (556,673).
With one week remaining before the final tabulation and the announcement of the AL starters next Monday, Garciaparra was third at 555,518, trailing Jeter by 30,655 votes.
After the Red Sox wrapped up their four-game set with the White Sox last night at Fenway, Jeter led Garciaparra in batting average (.376 to .362), hits (106 to 96) and total bases (175-170). But Garciaparra leads Jeter in four AL batting categories: Home runs (14-12), RBIs (57-53), extra-base hits (42-38), and slugging percentage (.642 to .621).
''It's going to be a tough vote, because you've got three great shortstops in the game right now, especially in the American League,'' Thomas said, referring to Jeter, Garciaparra and Seattle's Alex Rodriguez. ''Any one of those guys deserve to start.''
And if he were to pick?
''I wouldn't,'' he said. ''Those are three great ballplayers right there. Definitely all three start. It's hard to pick a starter, it really is.''
But Thomas seemed to cast a vote for the hometown favorite when he added, ''I think since Nomar is home he deserves to start, just because the game is in Fenway. But with the year Jeter is having right now, leading the league in hits, he's having an incredible year. So it's a very, very tight race.''
One in which Jeter still remained the front-runner.
''New York has such a huge, huge following that it's going to be hard for him to lose out on the vote,'' said Sox first baseman Mike Stanley, a former Yankee teammate of Jeter's. ''You know, playing in the World Series the last couple of years, they've gotten so much notoriety and he's playing so well. He's on the cover of all the magazines, so it'd be hard. Who deserves to be there? You couldn't choose one.''
But Pedro Martinez was clear-cut in his choice.
''If I were picking, I'd pick my teammate. I'd pick Nomie,'' he said. ''But they're equally good, so whoever starts the game is going to be OK. They're both good and they both should take it and have fun. It's a fun game, so make it fun.''
Certainly, if he were eligible for the fan balloting, Martinez likely would be the leading vote-getter among the league's starting pitchers.
''Oh, I don't know about that,'' Martinez said. ''You don't know how fans react and how people are. If it was up to me, the All-Star Game would be played by the numbers.
''I would just choose [players with] the best numbers to be out there, and that's what I would do,'' he added. ''Fans voting [for you] just because you're probably cuter than the other; it doesn't make sense. Numbers is the thing that should put you out there on the field. Whoever earns the respect to be the starting player at that position is because he has the better numbers, that's all. But that doesn't necessarily mean one is any better than the other, because they're both good.''
But next Monday only one will be named starting shortstop for the American League All-Stars.
