Jason Bay tonight will be named an All-Star starter, thanks to a massive push from the Pirates and Pittsburgh sports fans far and wide.

A Major League Baseball source confirmed yesterday that Bay led National League outfielders in the final tally of fan balloting to select starting lineups for the 77th All-Star Game, July 11 at PNC Park. The voting closed Thursday, and the full results are being kept secret until they are broadcast at 7 p.m. today on ESPN.

The source would not divulge the vote count, but Bay is thought to have received more votes than any player in his league other than St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols.

Pirates shortstop Jack Wilson finished second to the New York Mets' Jose Reyes in the voting at that position. The other two members of the team who were in range of a berth, third baseman Freddy Sanchez and second baseman Jose Castillo, also fell short.

For Bay, it will mark a second consecutive All-Star appearance, his first as a starter. He will be the first member of the Pirates voted into the starting lineup since center fielder Andy Van Slyke in 1993, as well as the first to start a classic in Pittsburgh since third baseman Bob Elliott in 1944 at Forbes Field.

Bay, 27, was the league's player of the month in May, when the Pirates, independent advertising agencies, online cliques and the common fan instigated a widespread public campaign to vote him into the starting lineup. He was batting .302 with 17 home runs at the end of May, but he has dropped to .279 since then with only three additional home runs.

How great an obstacle did the Bay supporters overcome?

When the first vote totals were released May 30, he ranked 19th among outfielders with 115,023. With each passing week, though, he rose to ninth, sixth, third and achieved the top spot by June 26 with 1,706,105. There were four days of online voting allowed after that.

In addition to the eight elected starters for each team, the 23 pitchers and reserves will be announced tonight. Those are determined by a combination of a player ballot, the handpicked choices of All-Star managers Phil Garner and Ozzie Guillen, and MLB executives.

One spot will be left open on each team. That will be determined by another round of online voting that ends Thursday.