Boston, N.Y. dominate AL All-Star voting

NEW YORK, June 9 (UPI) -- Texas's Josh Hamilton and Seattle's Ichiro Suzuki and a bevy of Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees lead the voting for the 2008 American League All-star team.

Hamilton is second and Suzuki third among AL outfielders and are the only players not from Boston or New York currently in position to claim a starting position for the 2008 All-Star Game July 15.

Several of Hamilton's teammates, benefiting from his come-back story and a weeklong home stand, moved up in the voting but the balloting is still dominated by Boston and New York.

Red Sox designated hitter David Ortiz leads all vote-getters with 1,261,879 votes as of Monday, AL officials said. New York shortstop Derek Jeter (1,218,881) and third baseman Alex Rodriquez (1,109,916) led their position's voting and Boston outfielder Manny Ramirez was the only other player with more than 1 million votes.

Hamilton was about 257,000 votes back of Ramirez and Suzuki was at 696,176 votes.

Other leaders are Boston first baseman Kevin Youkilis, second baseman Dustin Pedroia and catcher Jason Varitek.

Voting continues at mlb.com through July 2.