Dear Mr. Baseball:Who is going to manage the teams in the...

Dear Mr. Baseball:

Who is going to manage the teams in the All-Star Game, if they have one? Normally, it would be the managers from the teams in the prior World Series. As we all know, we didn't have a World Series last year.

ichael C. Ross

Laurel

Dear Michael C. Ross:

Like you, Mr. Baseball does vaguely recall a void last fall, when the World Series usually is played. If memory serves, the games hurriedly were called off when commissioner Bud Selig underwent exploratory surgery. The operation failed: Doctors were unable to locate Selig's wit.

According to a Major League Baseball official, there will be an All-Star Game, and the managers will be Buck Showalter of the New York Yankees and Felipe Alou of the Montreal Expos. They get the nod because their teams posted the best records in the their respective leagues during the strike-shortened season.

Not that you asked, but Mr. Baseball's personal choices for All-Star managers would be entertainer Kitty Carlisle (National League) and chef Paul Prudhomme (American League).

Dear Mr. Baseball:

What is the record for the most consecutive seasons a baseball player (American or National) has been employed by the same ballclub?

Tom Yingling

Westminster

P.S. -- Could Cal Ripken break this one, too?

Dear Tom Yingling:

Mr. Baseball has great admiration for people who blindly do the same thing over and over again, explaining why this column continues to overstay its welcome.

The policy around here is to respond to the question, ideally with the correct answer. In that vein, Mr. Baseball can report that Cal Ripken has miles to go before he approaches the record for playing the most games in a career for a single team.

Heading into tonight's Orioles game, Ripken stands at 2,092 games in an Orioles uniform. Though a laudable feat, that puts him well behind all-time leader Carl Yastrzemski of the Boston Red Sox (3,308).

Ripken does not hold the Orioles record for most games with a single big-league team. That belongs to Brooks Robinson, 2,896.