A POWERFUL CHAMPIONSHIP TEAM
The All Star Game Break

July 9, 2007 ... No game scheduled ... Vladi Guerrero of the Angels won a Home Run Derby that was short both on star power and home runs. Bonds passed, saying he's too old for such things, a decision Giants owner Peter Magowan publicly questioned while San Francisco Chronicle columnist Scott Ostler wrote: "Bonds skipping the home run derby in San Francisco is like Santa Claus blowing off the sleigh race at the North Pole Winter Olympics."

Other stars who passed included Alex Rodriguez (sore hamstring), Ken Griffey Jr., and Ortiz, who cited the derby format as the reason he wasn't coming back for a third try, saying it was too long. New big boppers Prince Fielder, Justin Morneau, and Ryan Howard all washed out in the first round. Guerrero did hit one 503 feet, but after Alex Rios of the Blue Jays hit just two homers in the last round, Guerrero needed just three to win. A modest proposal for getting some sizzle back: Offer $1 million to the winner (with a matching $1 million to the winner's charity). Just a guess, but we suspect fewer sluggers would pass on the event.

Mike Lowell is one of six players in this game who have represented both leagues in the All-Star Game. He made it with the Marlins three times, from 2002-04. He agreed the game doesn't mean as much now as when he was a kid.
 

July 10, 2007 ... The All Star Game ... Josh Beckett kept Bonds in the house and the American League made it 10 straight wins (tie not included) over the National League surviving the Nationals' two-run rally in the bottom of the ninth last night to win the 78th All-Star Game, 5-4, on Bonds' home turf, AT&T Park.

It wasn't quite as strange as pitcher Stu Miller being blown off the mound in Candlestick Park when the game was held here in 1961, but a wacky carom off the padded wall in right-center field was the catalyst to the first inside-the-park home run in All-Star history, by Ichiro Suzuki of the Seattle Mariners in the fifth. Suzuki circled the bases after the ball bounced past right fielder Ken Griffey Jr., who overthrew the cutoff man, allowing Suzuki to score standing up.

Suzuki's homer, which came with Brian Roberts aboard on a walk, gave the AL a 3-1 lead and was his third hit of the game, making him a landslide choice as the game's Most Valuable Player and belying his image as a singles hitter. The NL cut the lead to 3-2 in the bottom of the sixth when Carlos Beltran of the Mets tripled and scored on a sacrifice fly by Griffey, who also knocked in the NL's first run in the first, singling home Mets shortstop Jose Reyes, who had singled and stolen second.

But Red Sox third baseman Mike Lowell, who had entered the game as a defensive replacement in the sixth, opened the eighth with a single off Mets lefthander Billy Wagner, and scored ahead of a home run by Indians catcher Victor Martinez, added to the team by Leyland independent of the fans' or players' balloting.

Martinez's homer proved the difference-maker, as Dmitri Young of the Nationals scratched a two-out infield hit and Alfonso Soriano of the Cubs lined a two-run homer off Mariners closer J.J. Putz, Leyland's choice to close out the NL in the ninth, to draw the NL within a run. Soriano's homer was his third as an All-Star. He joins Hall of Famer Frank Robinson, who managed him last season in Washington, as the only players to homer for each league, and Soriano became the first player to hit an All-Star home run while wearing the uniform of three different teams, the Yankees, Rangers, and Cubs.

When Putz walked the next batter, J.J.Hardy of the Brewers, Leyland reluctantly summoned Angels closer Francisco Rodriguez, who had the crowd of 43,965 roaring when he walked Derrek Lee of the Cubs and Orlando Hudson of the Diamondbacks to load the bases.

Bonds, had he gone nine, would have been the next batter. But he came out after lining to the warning track in left against Beckett in the third. In his place was Aaron Rowand of the Phillies, a first-time All-Star and a somewhat controversial choice by NL manager Tony La Russa. Rowand took a 95-mile-per-hour fastball for a strike, then hit the next pitch in the air to right, where Alex Rios of the Blue Jays caught it for the final out

Bonds, who escorted his godfather, Hall of Famer Willie Mays, onto the field in a moving pregame ceremony, batted twice before calling it a night. He flied to right against AL starter Dan Haren, then faced Beckett, who had started the third by giving up a weird double to Reyes, whose ball went bizarro on third baseman Alex Rodriguez, taking a sharp left turn as Rodriguez prepared to glove it.

Bonds, who had high-fived fans lined up along the players' red-carpeted route into the ballpark, was the next batter, a classic matchup of power vs. power. Bonds hit it on a line to left, where Magglio Ordonez drifted back and caught the ball on the track.

Jonathan Papelbon became the fifth Sox player to appear in the game when he entered in the eighth. He gave up a bloop single to the first batter he faced, Lee, but set down the next three in order, Hudson and Rowand on strikes and Freddy Sanchez of the Pirates on a fly to center.

The only Sox player not to see action was Japanese lefthander Hideki Okajima, who was here as the AL's 32d man on the strength of Internet balloting. Beckett got the win with his two scoreless innings, Ortiz reached on an error and lined out, and Manny Ramirez pinch hit and flied to right.

Bonds, who came out of the game in the top of the fourth, to the chagrin of the numerous Bonds partisans who gave him repeated ovations, claimed his initial thought was to bunt Reyes to third, which would have confounded 63 other All-Stars had he done so.