Boston’s Terry Francona will manage the A.L. All-Stars.

The Journal / Gretchen Ertl

NEW YORK — The All-Star rosters have been set. The venue — Yankee Stadium — is ready. The only thing to wait for now is July 15.

The baseball world will ascend upon New York City and the Bronx a week from tomorrow to celebrate Major League Baseball’s midsummer classic and the final season at Yankee Stadium.

Because the All-Star game is a legendary part of the season with so many players deserving to play in it, the process can be arduous as Red Sox manager and American League skipper, Terry Francona, has found out.

“Working with some of the people at MLB is excruciating,” joked Francona. “The process is actually excruciating and thank goodness you deal with people you care about and respect because I think the players deserve for us to agonize over it. It’s a big deal.”

The process is intriguing and sometimes difficult to understand, as Francona has been quick to point out for the last few months while he’s been preparing for the game.

Here’s a small taste of how the process works:

The fans vote for the starters in each league. The players vote for the backups and eight pitchers (five starters and three relievers) to get the roster to 26 players. Each team needs to be represented, and Francona said he wishes he could have more of an extensive roster.

The final group of players could either be five pitchers or five position players, but Francona and his staff felt it best to go with 12 pitchers. Because there’s a limit, Francona made a list of players whose names did come up and are deserving of an All-Star selection, so they know they were thought of.

Basically, said Francona, this process is like walking a tightrope.

“We have a responsibility to do the best we can,” he said. “We want to the best players in the world to show what they can do, and hopefully the American League will be one run better than the National League. Everyone will go home happy, except the National League, and we don’t care about that.”

A total of seven players — Manny Ramirez, Kevin Youkilis, Dustin Pedroia, J.D. Drew, Jason Varitek, Jonathan Papelbon and David Ortiz — will represent the Red Sox on the All-Star team. Ortiz will not be able to play due to his wrist injury. So, the Rangers’ Milton Bradley, who finished second in player voting behind Ortiz in the DH category, will replace him in that role.

For those who aren’t that familiar with the process, seeing so many Red Sox players on the roster could seem unfair.

“Because of our success and the popularity of our team, I think that is shown and reflected in the number of Red Sox that are on this team,” said Francona. “I also don’t want to sit here and apologize for that. We have won and we have good players. Next week to represent the American League with that many Red Sox will be very exciting and I’m very proud of that.”

Because Francona is the manager, he’ll take most of the heat for the players on the roster. But, he really doesn’t have too much say in the situation. He did, however, have the chance to select the backup catcher and he made the right decision to choose Tampa’s Dioner Navarro. Francona wanted to respect the fact the Rays are one of the best clubs in the league right now and their players deserve recognition.

“The way they’ve played is probably a manager’s dream,” he said. “They were kind of the underdog at the start of the year. They are playing so well and they feel good about themselves. They’re getting additions from everyone and that’s a fun way to play. At the same time, we need to recognize that they have the best record in baseball.”

Another difficult decision was to keep Red Sox third baseman Mike Lowell and the Yankees pitcher Mike Mussina off the team.

Francona said he had a long and difficult conversation with Lowell about why he wasn’t selected. Then Francona had to call Yankees manager Joe Girardi and explain why Mussina wasn’t, either.

“We talked long and hard about what is right and ultimately to (put Lowell and Mussina on) somebody would have been left off who is really deserving,” explained Francona. “That would have been difficult to do. To get to that we would have done something wrong.”

Thankfully for Francona he’s been through this process in 2005 and this time around it was a little bit easier.

“We tried to be very organized,” said Francona. “I think the thing that did help is the familiarity with the people and I knew more questions to ask earlier on. Our communication was easier. Ultimately decisions, hard decisions, have to be made. They’re not supposed to be easy. I’m not even sure it’s supposed to be fair, it just can’t work that way. You try to do the best that you can.”

Of course the biggest aspect of the All-Star game is the winner gets home-field advantage during the World Series. It proved crucial for the Red Sox last October and it will again for the winning league this season.

“We have an obligation to try to win the game, treat it with respect and try to get as many players in the game as we can,” said Francona. “Ultimately, hopefully we can do all of that. But we do have an obligation to try to win the game. If we win I will love it. I understand they are trying to make the All-Star game more than an exhibition-type atmosphere, and this certainly does that. We understand the importance of winning. We (Red Sox) probably understand that more so than anybody else in the league.”

jmcdonal@projo.com