Enrique Rojas 17y

I-Rod and Mo Rivera on top

SAN FRANCISCO – The first one can already be considered the best catcher of all time, while the other one has the arguments to be proclaimed the best closer in history.

That's why it doesn't seem strange that Puerto Rican catcher Ivan Rodriguez and the Panamanian Mariano Rivera received the most votes in the "Latin Stars" team of all time, announced Monday by ESPNdeportes.com in a special edition of "Baseball Tonight".

The place and date couldn't have been more perfect, in the midst of the 73rd All Star Game in the Major Leagues, and with San Francisco's AT&T Park in the background.

The complete "Latin Stars" team is formed by Rodriguez, first baseman Albert Pujols, Panamanian second baseman Rod Carew, Venezuelan shortstop Omar Vizquel, Dominicans Alex Rodriguez (3B), Manny Ramirez (LF) and David Ortiz (DH), and Puerto Ricans Bernie Williams (CF) and Roberto Clemente (RF).

Dominican Juan Marichal was selected as the staring right handed pitcher, while Venezuelan Johan Santana is the starting left handed pitcher, and Rivera is the closer.

Combining all of the starters, they have 104 appearances in the All Star Game, 42 Gold Gloves, 15 batting titles, 14 World Series rings, six MVP awards, and two Cy Young awards.

The results were a combination of the fans votes (33%), and panel of expert journalists (33%) and ESPN specialists (33%).

The 36 finalists (three by position) were selected in the first stage of the process.

Rivera, who has saved more than 400 regular season games, and owns practically every record in the book in the playoffs, beat Puerto Rican Guillermo Hernandez and Mexican Aurelio Lopez, with the 84% of the votes from the fans.

The Panamanian was categorically supported by the ESPN experts (94.4%) and the panel of specialists in the United States (89.3) that also had a say in the vote.

Ivan Rodriguez, a 12 Gold Glove winner and six silver bats, received 94.1% of the votes from ESPN and 76.7% of the votes from the fans, and beat Benito Santiago and Tony Peña.

Last week, Rodriguez was selected to the All Star game for the fourteenth time in his career.

Others that eased on to the team were Clemente, who received 91.1% of the votes from the American journalists, Alex Rodriguez (79.4% from the US and 72.2 from ESPN), Marichal (68% in the US), Williams (72% from the fans), Ramirez (77.5 from the fans) and Vizquel (68% from the fans).

But not all the selections were easy. The closest one was the battle between Big Papi and Edgar Martinez for the designated batter position.

Martinez receives more votes from ESPN (55.5 %against 38.8%), but the journalists (53.4%) and the fans (44.6%) favored Ortiz.

Roberto Alomar was ESPN's favorite second baseman, but the fans and the journalists preferred Carew (63 and 47%).

Lefty Johan Santana had to deal with Fernando Valenzuela in order tog et his spot, while Pujols took advantage of his popularity amongst the fans (68.3%) in order to beat Tony Perez as the first baseman.

Santana was ESPN's favorite (55.5%) and the fans' too (53.3%), but Valenzuela got the vote from the journalists in the United States (44.7%).

LINEUP "ESTRELLAS LATINAS"

C- Iván Rodríguez

1B- Albert Pujols

2B- Rod Carew

3B- Alex Rodríguez

SS- Omar Vizquel

LF- Manny Ramírez

CF- Bernie Williams

RF- Roberto Clemente

DH- David Ortiz

RP: Juan Marichal

LP: Johan Santana

CL: Mariano Rivera

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