Michael Saunders celebrates as he scores the go-ahead run in the eighth inning during against the Detroit Tigers on July 7, 2016 at Rogers Centre.Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images
Michael Saunders's 2015 season was over before it began. In a freak accident, the Blue Jays outfielder was taking fly balls when he stepped on an exposed sprinkler head at the team's spring training facility in Dunedin, Fla. Saunders tore his left meniscus and was to miss up to six weeks. A bone bruise complicated his rehab, and save for a nine-game return, the 29-year-old's entire year was a wash.
It was not the way he envisioned spending his first campaign in a Blue Jays uniform.
"I had some tough times and dark moments last year dealing with that injury," Saunders said. "I knew that I was gonna get healthy, but it really felt it was taking its sweet time."
It turns out his extended recovery was worth the wait. On Friday, hours before the Blue Jays took the field to face the Detroit Tigers, Saunders appeared to have exorcised his misfortune. In the midst of a career year, the native of Victoria B.C., was rewarded with his first-career all-star selection. The result was a marriage of his outstanding performance in 2016 and a massive social-media campaign undertaken by the Blue Jays in recent days to push him over the top in a final fan vote, where he was matched against Houston's George Springer, Dustin Pedroia (Boston), Ian Kinsler (Detroit) and Evan Longoria (Tampa Bay).
Saunders received a staggering 17.7 million votes over a three-day period, eclipsing the total accrued by the National League-winning selection Brandon Belt, who received 10.4 million to earn his late entry into the midsummer classic.
A voting heat map provided by Major League Baseball showed most of Saunders's U.S. votes came from the Pacific Northwest, where he is best known because he grew up in British Columbia and spent six seasons with the Seattle Mariners. Not surprisingly, he nearly swept Canada, taking 98.6 per cent of the vote north of the border, according to MLB. A Canadian vote total was not available.
The Send Saunders campaign was conceived after the Blue Jays marketing department kicked around slogans and ideas for about 30 minutes on Tuesday after they'd learned Saunders was a finalist, according to Michelle Seniuk, the club's manager of promotions and fan activation.
After Blue Jays designers created the overall look of the campaign, the team had graphics made and postered their website, e-mail signatures and social media channels with a message to vote for "Captain Canada."
They then had 5,000 T-shirts made and gave them to Blue Jays players, local media and fans who sat in the centre field bleachers for Wednesday's and Thursday's games.
The Canadian sports community also jumped on the bandwagon, as the Edmonton Oilers, Toronto Maple Leafs, Toronto FC and the Toronto Raptors helped push the message to their fans.
Seniuk said the excitement surrounding Milos Raonic's semi-final victory over Roger Federer at Wimbledon also stoked patriotic pride, which gave Saunders a boost as well.
"It was a good day for Canadians," she said.
Beyond the fan element to his selection, Saunders's trip to the All-Star Game is validation of a strong first half. He's provided the Blue Jays with a steady left-handed bat that's had some extra pop. Entering Friday's game against the Tigers, he had hits in 12 of his previous 25 at-bats. His .610 slugging percentage for the season, meanwhile, led all left-handed hitters in the majors, powered by 16 home runs and 43 extra-base hits.
Blue Jays manager John Gibbons admitted he's been surprised at what Saunders has been able to accomplish after missing nearly an entire season.
"We didn't know what to expect," Gibbons said. "I'd seen him a bit in Seattle, but we didn't know how good he was going to be. He's a much better hitter than I ever thought he was."