All Star

SEATTLE -- The Safeco Field crowd stood at 6:19 p.m., almost too late to force Cal Ripken from the batter's box to acknowledge its welcome as he led off the third inning of a scoreless All-Star Game. A tip of his helmet, a wave of the bat. Then a swing. On the first All-Star pitch by Los Angeles Dodgers right-hander Chan Ho Park a fastball that drifted toward the middle of the plate 40-year-old Ripken turned on the mistake with a 22-year-old's hands. And suddenly a balding man who slipped into the game with the least impressive numbers of any All-Star was running and watching while his line drive hooked toward the spectacularly improbable.

Ty Whittaker was sitting on his couch, perusing the Internet on his iPad last month when he saw the horrifying news: an EF5 tornado had ravaged Moore, Okla., and the surrounding area. Whittaker, an assistant coach for the Team Maryland, and his players were supposed to stay in the area during the all-star baseball team's upcoming trip for the Heartland Classic tournament from June 18-22. He immediately contacted host families in the devastated area and learned that all of the families' houses were safe.

What baseball was originally reluctant to even try, the All-Star Game, the creation of a sportswriter, has become a momentous vehicle for pleasing crowds, selling merchandise and generating profit. The event will be celebrating its 60th anniversary in Baltimore this summer. It will be like tapping into a gold mine on the shores of the Chesapeake.Tickets for the game itself and even the day-before practice session have not even been placed on sale, but the early demand is like nothing Baltimore has ever experienced.

Orioles right fielder Nick Markakis moved into third-place among American League outfielders in the All-Star Game fan voting as of Saturday's update , putting the team in position to have four starters in the July 16 exhibition. The top three outfielders in the voting will start the game at Citi Field in New York. Markakis has never made an All-Star team. Center fielder Adam Jones, first baseman Chris Davis and shortstop J.J. Hardy each still lead the voting at their respective positions.

Three Baltimore natives have been selected to play in the Jordan Brand Classic all-star basketball game. Lake Clifton point guard Josh Selby, Brewster (N.H.) Academy small forward Will Barton and Oak Hill (Va.) Academy forward Roscoe Smith were all chosen to participate, Jordan Brand -- a division of Nike -- announced Thursday. The game is scheduled for April 17 at 8 p.m. at Madison Square Garden in New York. It will be televised live on ESPN2. Selby, the No. 7 senior in the country according to ESPN.

Because of a computer error made by the company tabulating ballots for Major League Baseball, American League All-Star balloting results will not be announced until today.

TODAY11 a.m.-9 p.m.: Upper Deck All-Star FanFest, a baseball theme park. Baltimore Convention Center and Festival Hall. Admission is $12 for adults, $8 for seniors 62 and older, children 12 and younger and military.11 a.m.-9 p.m.: Baltimore's All-Star StreetFest Workout Day, Camden Street, south of Festival Hall. Features exercise and aerobic activities. (410) 837-4636.4 p.m.: StreetFest Step Competition, Camden Street. African-American fraternities and sororities perform rhythmic steps and cheers.

July 13, 1993 Oriole Park at Camden Yards In 1959, at the request of the players to raise money for the players' pension fund, the owners agreed to an arrangement of two All-Star Games a year to speed payment of pension fund indebtedness. However, after playing two games each in 1959 to 1962, the players approved a return to one game in December 1962.

At age 9, Ty Wigginton was playing Little League baseball under his father's tutelage when a manager from an advanced level asked whether the boy could be moved up. About halfway through the season, after seeing his son handle his age group with ease, Don Wigginton relented, and young Ty joined the 11- and 12-year-olds. The following season, Don Wigginton decided to manage one of the older teams, but Ty was already on a roster, so he had to trade two 12-year-old All-Stars to get his son onto his team.

One of Randy Edsall's goals in his final year at Susquehannock High School in Glen Rock, Pa., was to be named to the Pennsylvania roster for the Big 33 Football Classic. Although he wasn't selected for the 1976 game despite being an all-state quarterback, the Maryland football coach was ecstatic last October when he learned the state of Maryland would return to the high school football all-star game this year. The Maryland Football Coaches Association signed a five-year agreement with the Big 33 Scholarship Foundation, Inc., last fall to renew the state's participation in the game after a 21-year hiatus.

It wasn't so long ago that the big question heading into the All-Star break around here was not who would represent the Orioles in the midsummer classic, but whether anybody was deserving enough to get in without the help of the rule that requires at least one representative from each major league team. In 2010, for instance, the team's All-Star was Ty Wigginton, a great guy who would not have been a starter on a lot of other teams. There was usually one obvious standout like Brian Roberts or Miguel Tejada, but until the Orioles placed three guys on last year's American League squad, they had been represented by the one-player minimum in 10 of the previous 11 seasons.

It appears the Midsummer Classic is finally back to being must-watch television for baseball fans in Baltimore. Gone are the dark days when the Orioles sent one (sometimes deserving) player to the All-Star Game. From 2006 to 2011, the Orioles had just one All-Star each year. And in the cases of George Sherrill (2008) and Ty Wigginton (2010), the Orioles were only represented because the league mandated they sent somebody, anybody. The Orioles sent three players to the All-Star Game last season, just the second time since 2000 that they had multiple representatives.

Orioles shortstop J.J. Hardy couldn't quite explain his sudden spike in the most-recent All-Star Game fan balloting, in which he became the leading votegetter among American League shortstops. Other than providing his usual exceptional defense, Hardy has been on an offensive tear, hitting .341 (44-for-129) with 10 doubles, 10 homers, 24 RBIs and 13 multi-hit games since May 4. He currently leads all AL shortstops in homers (13) and RBIs (39). “It just says that the fans are out there voting, people out in Baltimore,” Hardy said.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- Orioles shortstop J.J. Hardy took the lead in the most recent round of All-Star Game fan balloting among American League shortstops, giving the Orioles leaders at three different positions. Chris Davis maintained his lead among AL first basemen and center fielder Adam Jones leaped over Angels center fielder Mike Trout for the top spot among AL outfielders. A week ago, Hardy trailed Texas' Elvis Andrus by more than 10,000 votes, but in the most-recent votes released Saturday night by major league baseball, Hardy (1,231,843 votes)

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Orioles second baseman Brian Roberts, who has spent most of this season at the team's spring training facility in Sarasota, Fla., rehabbing a right hamstring injury, visited with the club Friday and hopes he can complete his rehabilitation with the team. Roberts had surgery May 9 in Dallas and was given an estimated recovery time of at least six weeks. Roberts said he's been doing some light jogging, playing catch, hitting off a tee and has progressed to hitting off coaches over the past few days.

As Tom Hanks' character famously says in "A League of Their Own," there is no crying in baseball. But there is, apparently, tying in baseball. At least there was Tuesday afternoon in the 32nd annual Brooks Robinson All-Star Game at Camden Yards. The North and South teams, each comprised of 15 of the state's top high school seniors, played to a 3-3 tie in the showcase game. The game was rescheduled for Tuesday after being stopped in the third inning Sunday evening because of thunderstorms.

Orioles first baseman Chris Davis and center fielder Adam Jones are among the leading American League votegetters at their positions through the first reporting of All-Star Game fan balloting figures, which were released Monday by Major League Baseball . Davis, who leads the majors with 20 homers, leads all AL first basemen with 1,176,016 votes, well ahead of second-place Prince Fielder of the Tigers. If he is voted in by the fans, he would become the first Orioles first baseman to earn a starting spot in the All-Star Game since Eddie Murray in 1985.