Yang Hyeon-jong tops KBO All-Star vote

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Yang Hyeon-jong tops KBO All-Star vote

Yang Hyeon-jong of the Kia Tigers reacts during a game against the Kiwoom Heroes at Gocheok Sky Dome in western Seoul on June 29. [YONHAP]

Yang Hyeon-jong of the Kia Tigers reacts during a game against the Kiwoom Heroes at Gocheok Sky Dome in western Seoul on June 29. [YONHAP]

 
Kia Tigers starter Yang Hyeon-jong topped the All-Star vote this year with more than 1.41 million as the KBO saw a record voter turnout ahead of the game on July 16.
 
Starting last month, KBO fans voted for their All-Star picks out of a 120-player shortlist to make up the Dream All-Star and Nanum All-Star squads. One vote per day was permitted on three different platforms, allowing each person to vote up to 78 times across the 26-day period. The total number of fan votes this year was 2,648,888, the highest number in KBO history.
 
This year, team voting returned for the first time since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. The public vote accounted for 70 percent of the final tally and the team vote accounted for the remaining 30 percent.
 
Yang topped all players by earning more than 1.41 million votes, 12,000 short of Lee Seung-yuop's record 1,530,047 set in 2015.   
 
Alongside the final tally, the KBO on Monday announced the starting lineups for the All-Star Game which is scheduled to be held on July 16 at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in southern Seoul.
 
The All-Star Game pits the Dream All-Star team made up of from players from the KT Wiz, Doosan Bears, Samsung Lions, SSG Landers and Lotte Giants, and the Nanum All-Star team made up of players from the LG Twins, Kiwoom Heroes, NC Dinos, Kia Tigers and Hanwha Eagles.
 
This year’s All-Star Game pits the former Texas Rangers pitcher Yang with former St. Louis Cardinals left-hander Kim Kwang-hyun as the two starting pitchers for their respective teams.
 
Jung Woo-young of the Twins took the Nanum reliever spot while the Tigers' Jung Hai-young took the closer position.   
 
For the Nanum team, there are a total of nine Kia players on the squad, including catcher Park Dong-won, first baseman Hwang Dae-in, second baseman Kim Sun-bin and third baseman Ryu Ji-hyuk, with Twins shortstop Oh Ji-hwan completing the infield.
 
The three outfielders for the Nanum team are Na Sung-bum and Socrates Brito of the Tigers and Lee Jung-hoo of the Heroes, while Choi Hyoung-woo of the Tigers was voted as the starting designated hitter.
 
For the Dream team, there are six Lions players on the squad including two Samsung pitchers, Lee Seung-hyun and Oh Seung-hwan, who will play as reliever and closer respectively.
 
The catcher is Kim Tae-gun of the Lions, who received the most votes out of all Dream team players.  
 
In the Dream team infield, Park Byung-ho of the Wiz takes first base, Kim Ji-chan of the Lions takes second base, Choi Jeong of the Landers takes third base and Park Seong-han of the Landers will play the shortstop.
 
Jose Pirela and Koo Ja-wook of the Lions and Han Yoo-seom of the Landers will play in the outfield.  
 
Lee Dae-ho of the Giants was voted as the Dream team’s designated hitter, beating Choo Shin-soo of the Landers.
 
Lee Dae-ho will this year play his 10th All-Star Game and his first in four years, setting a new record for the most All-Star appearances. It will be his last All-Star match, as the veteran slugger plans to retire at the end of this season.  
 
The manager for the Dream team is Lee Kang-chul of the Wiz while Ryu Ji-hyun of the Twins is the manager for the Nanum team.
 
There are no representatives of the Bears, Dinos or Eagles voted into the All-Star squads. While this comes as little surprise for perennial bottom-feeders Hanwha, it is yet another sign of the remarkable fall from grace that NC, the 2020 KBO champions, and Doosan, who have appeared in the last seven Korean Series, have gone through this season. 
 
As of press time, Doosan sits in eighth, NC ninth and Hanwha 10th on the KBO table. 
 
The 2022 All-Star game is scheduled to be held on July 16 at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in southern Seoul. 

BY YUN SO-HYANG [yun.sohyang@joongang.co.kr]
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