Dye's all-star bid falls just short
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Jermaine Dye said he was in a win-win situation.
If he won the fan vote for the final spot on the American League All-Star team, great. If not, great, too.
While final vote totals were not released by Major League Baseball, which conducted the balloting through its in-house MLB.com, Dye allegedly finished a "close'' second to Tampa Bay's Evan Longoria, who apparently received 9 million votes.
"I feel good,'' Dye said. "It's an honor to see as many votes as we all got. That's unbelievable. Just great support from everyone, the fans and my teammates. I'm just happy to be mentioned.''
The White Sox' 34-year-old right fielder will gladly use the four-day all-star break to relax.
"Pretty much, that's what I'm going to do,'' Dye said. "I'm getting old now. I've got to get as much rest as possible. It's going to be a tough stretch when we come back. We don't get too many days off. And the dog days of August are around the corner.''
If he has one regret, Dye wanted to play in the final All-Star Game at Yankee Stadium, which is facing demolition at the end of the season.
"I think that's what makes it more special to be there,'' Dye said. "It's in New York, it's going to be the last year for that stadium and it would be interesting to see what festivities they have going and being around the guys. But everyone has that one goal of making the playoffs and winning the World Series. That's what you play for.''
Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said Dye is playing well enough to deserve his third career trip to the All-Star Game.
"It shouldn't matter to us because he's still having an all-star year,'' Guillen said. "He was going against a couple of guys that also deserved to be there. I'm happy for Longoria because he's a new face on the block and this kid can make baseball a lot better.
"As long as J.D. is here to help us win the division, that's all I care about. And by the way, thank you to the fans and the Sox (public relations) department to push for J.D. the way they did. And his teammates, they went out of their way to be behind him and support him.''