Twins' three best all going to New York

David Joles, Dml - Star Tribune

Joe Mauer, left, and Joe Nathan will be joined by Justin Morneau at this year's All-Star Game in New York.

Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau and Joe Nathan will represent the team at Yankee Stadium.

By LA VELLE E. NEAL III, Star Tribune

Last update: July 7, 2008 - 8:45 AM

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79TH ALL-STAR GAME

7 p.m. July 15 • Ch. 9

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Joe Mauer was the people's choice. Justin Morneau was the players' choice. Joe Nathan was the manager's choice.

The Twins were thrilled that their three most deserving players were named to the American League All-Star team Sunday. It didn't matter how they were going to the July 15 midsummer's classic at New York's Yankee Stadium, as long as they made it and were able to represent a club that has been one of the surprises in baseball.

"There's a lot of guys in here who contributed," Morneau said. "So everyone was happy when we got to send three guys to the game."

The three will be among the players on hand at the 79th All-Star Game as baseball celebrates the final season of Yankee Stadium before the Yankees move to a new ballpark across the street.

A record 20 million votes were cast during balloting this year.

The players learned of their selections during a brief meeting before their 4-3 comeback victory over Cleveland on Sunday, their 18th victory in 21 games. The victory came against Cleveland's Cliff Lee, who might form the AL starting battery with Mauer in the All-Star Game.

Each Twins selection doffed his cap when the team announced the selections before the start of the fourth inning, and each received an ovation from the announced crowd of 30,258.

The 25-year-old Mauer became the first Twins player since Torii Hunter in 2002 to be voted by fans into the starting lineup. He is second in the AL with a .325 batting average and second with a .415 on-base percentage. He beat Boston's Jason Varitek by more than 600,000 votes on the fans' ballot and was ahead 554-159 on players' ballots.

Mauer, who also played in the 2006 All-Star Game in Pittsburgh, admitted that he monitored the election at times, as the possibility of starting the game couldn't be ignored.

"It is cool," he said. "Coming from a small market and getting voted in and getting to start in the All-Star Game, it does not get better than that."

Morneau, 27, is batting .307 with 12 homers and is second in the league with 65 RBI. He lost to Boston's Kevin Youkilis by only 56,823 votes in fan voting for first basemen but earned a spot as a reserve thanks to the players' ballots, where he soundly beat Youkilis 502-229.

"Last one at Yankee Stadium, it's pretty cool," Morneau said. "It was kind of a goal I set for myself. You want to be playing well enough to be make that All-Star team. To get in there with Joe and Joe is pretty cool.

Morneau is headed to his second consecutive All-Star Game and is a possible entrant in the annual Home Run Derby. The fact that it's in New York and at Yankee Stadium could persuade Morneau, who struggled in last year's Home Run Derby in San Francisco, to try it again. "I would seriously consider it," he said.

Nathan, 33 and heading to his third All-Star Game, was a possibility to be snubbed because of a numbers crunch at his position. But AL manager Terry Francona named six relievers to his team -- Nathan, Boston's Jonathan Papelbon, the Yankees' Mariano Rivera, the Angels' Francisco Rodriguez, Baltimore's George Sherrill and Kansas City's Joakim Soria.

That saved Nathan, who didn't finish among the top three vote-getters on the players' ballot. Now the former Stony Brook (N.Y.) star and his family get to go home next week.

"I don't want to say [I was] surprised," said Nathan, who is 25-for-27 in save situations. "The numbers were there. I know if it didn't happen, it doesn't take anything away from my first half or what we've done in this clubhouse."