You did it, Brewers fans. You turned out, voted often and got Jesus Aguilar into the All-Star Game.
On Wednesday, the Brewers announced that their burly, beloved first baseman had won the Camping World All-Star Final Vote and will be playing for the National League – with teammates Lorenzo Cain, Christian Yelich and Josh Hader – in the Midsummer Classic at Nationals Park in Washington, D.C. on July 17.
"I want to give my sincerest thank you to every single fan that helped me become an All-Star," Aguilar said. "The support I received has been incredible. I feel like a winner, and I would not have been able to do it without my teammates, the front office and most importantly the fans. Thank you again."
When Aguilar was among the five candidates for the Final Man – the last spot on each league’s All-Star team, to be elected by fans – the Brewers immediately launched an aggressive "We Believe in Jesus. Do you?" campaign to get out the vote. Thanks to that, Aguilar climbed to an early lead in the balloting and never looked back, ultimately drawing 20.1 million votes, the second-highest total ever in a Final Vote, behind the Dodgers’ Justin Turner last year.
"We did all we could to get the populace behind him, and the populace showed up," Brewers CEO Rick Schlesinger told reporters at Miller Park on Wednesday. Our fans are amazing, and Jesus is having an incredible year."
Besides a social-media push, the first-place Brewers organized multiple in-person events around the city with Aguilar appearing and interacting with fans, who were encouraged to vote over and over for the slugger.
"We had some fun with it, and the fans loved it," Schlesinger said. "This was a victory for the fans, not just Jesus."
In addition, bars like Who’s On Third held Jesus Aguilar All-Star voting parties.
In the end, it was more than enough. Brewers fans showed out in force, voting in a Milwaukee player as the Final Man All-Star for the third time (Geoff Jenkins and Corey Hart won in 2003 and 2008, respectively), yet again beating out bigger cities like New York, San Francisco and Philadelphia.
"It makes you proud to be a Brewer because we're not the biggest market, but our fans continue to show up," Schlesinger said. "We're a family."
Aguilar, who leads the National League in slugging percentage (.638) and OPS (1.001), is tied for first in home runs (23) and is second in RBI (67), will join Cain, Yelich and Hader at the game.
This marks the sixth time in franchise history that the Brewers have had four players represented at an All-Star Game, a franchise record (also 1980, 1982, 1983, 2007 and 2014).
"It's a testament to us having a great season so far and a lot of talented players," Schlesinger said. "Maybe next season we can get five."
Good on ya, Milwaukee. Democracy lives.
Born in Milwaukee but a product of Shorewood High School (go ‘Hounds!) and Northwestern University (go ‘Cats!), Jimmy never knew the schoolboy bliss of cheering for a winning football, basketball or baseball team. So he ditched being a fan in order to cover sports professionally - occasionally objectively, always passionately. He's lived in Chicago, New York and Dallas, but now resides again in his beloved Brew City and is an ardent attacker of the notorious Milwaukee Inferiority Complex.
After interning at print publications like Birds and Blooms (official motto: "America's #1 backyard birding and gardening magazine!"), Sports Illustrated (unofficial motto: "Subscribe and save up to 90% off the cover price!") and The Dallas Morning News (a newspaper!), Jimmy worked for web outlets like CBSSports.com, where he was a Packers beat reporter, and FOX Sports Wisconsin, where he managed digital content. He's a proponent and frequent user of em dashes, parenthetical asides, descriptive appositives and, really, anything that makes his sentences longer and more needlessly complex.
Jimmy appreciates references to late '90s Brewers and Bucks players and is the curator of the unofficial John Jaha Hall of Fame. He also enjoys running, biking and soccer, but isn't too annoying about them. He writes about sports - both mainstream and unconventional - and non-sports, including history, music, food, art and even golf (just kidding!), and welcomes reader suggestions for off-the-beaten-path story ideas.
