All Star Game

The most important thing you need to know about All-Star FanFest is that it's a cool place for kids.Cool as in neat. Cool as in air-conditioned, which is an important consideration during a sizzling All-Star Week at Camden Yards. Cool as in lots of great stuff about baseball history and technology -- more than 300,000 square feet of attractions and exhibits at the Baltimore Convention Center and Festival Hall.The FanFest concept is not brand-new. It is a combination carnival and convention that has been part of the All-Star Week festivities for the past couple of years.

TORONTO -- Baltimore Orioles shortstop Cal Ripken is having a season to remember, even if the rest of his team is not.He certainly had a blast last night, highlighting the best first-half performance of his career with a towering three-run home run to lead the American League to a 4-2 victory in the 62nd All-Star Game.Ripken rocked SkyDome for two straight days. He stole most of the thunder in Monday's home run derby, sending 12 shots to the outer limits of Toronto's space-age stadium. Last night, he brought the American League from behind with a third-inning shot off former teammate Dennis Martinez to send the National League to its fourth straight All-Star defeat.

SAN FRANCISCO -- While attending All-Star Game proceedings with several of his top clients yesterday, superagent Scott Boras said he hasn't had any discussions with Orioles owner Peter Angelos about Matt Wieters, the club's 2007 top draft pick. But negotiating with Angelos isn't a problem now and won't be in the future, according to Boras. "With Peter, whenever he has called me I've returned his calls and whenever I've called him he's returned mine," Boras said. "He's a hard-working guy. We're both Greek.

The uniform number says a lot about Gilbert Arenas. Zero. That was how many minutes some recruiters told him he'd play for a major program. And he never wanted to forget, so he slapped it on his chest as a freshman at Arizona. But these days, the number is a big part of his "superhero" identity. He's Agent Zero, the phenomenon who bursts past the fastest guards, floats shots over the fingertips of the tallest centers and swishes three-pointers from the remotest environs of a basketball court.

SAN FRANCISCO -- For an hour, while small groups filtered around the platforms of the other National League All-Stars in the Westin's grand ballroom, only one dais held steady with an overflowing push of reporters lofting question after question at the man of the week, the man of the season. It has officially been billed as Major League Baseball's 78th All-Star Game, but, judging from the crowd that wouldn't go away during yesterday's annual media session, tonight's contest at AT&T Park is the Barry Bonds All-Star Game.

Quote: "There was probably 30 people in the stadium who wanted me up in that situation. And they were all wearing Seattle uniforms." -- Indians' Chris Turner, looking for his first major-league RBI since 1997, who was batting Monday night when Jose Mesa's wild pitch allowed the winning run to score in the 12thIt's a fact: The Devils Rays were 5-0 in Chuck Finley's first five starts, but are 0-9 in his last nine.Who's hot: Jacque Jones of the Twins, called up June 9, has hit safely in eight of the first 11 games he's been in the major leagues.

PHILADELPHIA -- For once it was a beautiful night in Ray Miller's neighborhood, even if the setting was inside humid, smelly Veterans Stadium.When Miller pencils Mike Mussina as his starting pitcher, Arthur Rhodes and Mike Timlin providing him two innings of perfect relief and Will Clark backing up his insistence for playing time with an angry bat, the self-destructive Philadelphia Phillies have little chance. At least that's how it looked during the Orioles' 8-4 win before 32,300.Mussina (11-4)

BOSTON -- The 70th All-Star Game should offer something for everyone. The traditionalists will love the 1912 aura of historic Fenway Park. New-age fans will surely enjoy watching the pumped-up, high-tech stars of the coming millennium showcase their skills in baseball's version of the Time Tunnel.The midsummer classic has come back to Boston to celebrate the game's storied past before one of the oldest ballparks in the major leagues falls victim to baseball's search for a better economic future.

BOSTON -- The 70th All-Star Game did not deliver the fireworks that normally are associated with Fenway Park, but that didn't keep the midseason classic from becoming one enchanted evening.The emotional pre-game ceremony involving dozens of baseball's all-time greats and a heartwarming appearance by Red Sox icon Ted Williams was worth the price of admission. The American League's 4-1 victory before a sellout crowd of 34,187 seemed more like an encore.Maybe it would have been different if the sport's most famous bandbox had lived up to its billing, but the game featured only two extra-base hits and not a single ball in the vicinity of the famous Green Monster.

PHILADELPHIA -- Out of the lineup for a third consecutive day, designated hitter Harold Baines arrived at Veterans Stadium yesterday anticipating three days off on the Eastern Shore. But about an hour before the Orioles' first-half finale against the Philadelphia Phillies, Baines learned that he was being named as the team's fourth representative to tomorrow night's All-Star Game in Boston.A back injury to Tampa Bay DH Jose Canseco forced manager Joe Torre and American League officials into scramble mode.

BOSTON - - Adam Jones' breakthrough season officially ended Wednesday when the Orioles transferred the center fielder to the 60-day disabled list to open a spot on their 40-man roster for left-handed reliever Sean Henn, who was acquired from the Minnesota Twins. Jones severely sprained his left ankle Sept. 1 against the New York Yankees, when he landed awkwardly on first base. "I'm never OK with going on the DL, but there's four weeks left in the season and I don't think I'm going to be ready in four weeks," Jones said in a phone interview with The Baltimore Sun. "There's nothing I can do but respect the decision.

CHICAGO - - Adam Jones is back with his teammates, back for the second half of the Orioles' season, but his All-Star Game experience will linger in his mind for a while. "It was fun," said Jones, who made his All-Star debut Tuesday. "Words can't even describe it. My eyes are still in amazement from the things that I've seen." Jones played five innings in right field and went 0-for-1 at the plate with a sacrifice fly that drove in the American League's game-winning run. According to Elias Sports Bureau, the 23-year-old was the third-youngest player with a game-winning RBI in the eighth inning or later, joining the Texas Rangers' Hank Blalock (2003)

ST. LOUIS - -Driving in a go-ahead run is nothing new for Adam Jones. But the Orioles' lone representative in the All-Star Game did have a first-time experience Tuesday. Jones came off the American League bench and played right field, which he had never done in his two years with the Orioles. American League manager Joe Maddon essentially had three center fielders in the game, with the Tampa Bay Rays' Carl Crawford in left and the Detroit Tigers' Curtis Granderson in center. Jones' sacrifice fly in the eighth inning scored Granderson, who had tripled.

All-Star Game 8 p.m. [Chs. 45, 5] Tonight's parlor game: How many times does the camera catch the Orioles' Adam Jones blowing a bubble?

Lakers@Warriors 10:30 p.m. [ESPN] After the All-Star Game, Los Angeles' Kobe Bryant (left) is back to not having to share the spotlight - or even the ball that much - with anyone else. Will he go for 61 again? Maybe if Golden State puts up an unexpectedly big fight.

Shaq danced, Kobe dazzled. And just like old times, they won again. Bryant led all scorers with 27 points, O'Neal partied his way back onto the All-Star stage with 17 in just 11 minutes, and the Western Conference beat the East, 146-119, last night in Phoenix. Back on the same team for the first time in nearly five years, the three-time champions shared the game Most Valuable Player award. They helped the West get untracked after an awful start, then teamed up for a few buckets that helped blow open the game in the third quarter.

Coach upset Ovechkin won't start All-Star Game nhl The Washington Capitals' Alex Ovechkin, the NHL's reigning Most Valuable Player and second this season in goals and points entering yesterday, finished only sixth among Eastern Conference forwards in voting for the All-Star Game - which mystified his coach. "It's dumb," Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau said, adding, "It's not right the best player in the game is not a starter." The NHL announced the starting lineups for the midseason classic, and the host Canadiens filled four of the six slots for the Eastern Conference.

After using reliever George Sherrill for 2 1/3 innings at last month's All-Star Game when a shortage of pitchers left him with few other options, Boston Red Sox and American League All-Star team manager Terry Francona called Orioles president Andy MacPhail and pitching coach Rick Kranitz to explain the situation. Francona made another call to an Oriole yesterday, contacting Sherrill after learning that he went on the 15-day disabled list with left shoulder inflammation. "I don't think we were disrespectful or ignorant of him. I do understand that now he's on the DL, so I called him," Francona said.

The question looms over Camden Yards like the big, antiseptic convention hotel that has blocked out the best part of the Baltimore skyline: What will Andy do now? The Orioles' two-week downturn heading into the All-Star break has given club president Andy MacPhail new license to steer the team in the direction he originally intended, but that question oversimplifies the situation that faces the front office as the O's open the titular second half of the season against the Detroit Tigers tonight at Oriole Park.

All right, everybody, let's say it together. Bud Selig, we are so, so sorry. Maybe ties in the All-Star Game aren't so bad, after all. Now, six years after what we all were so obnoxiously certain was the "debacle" of 2002 in Milwaukee, we have something to compare it to. Both teams run out of pitchers and we call it a night? Give me that over what we were forced to endure at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday. A closer - the Orioles' closer, to be specific - pitching 2 1/3 innings. Starters coming out of the bullpen in the 14th and 15th innings two days after throwing more than 100 pitches for their own teams.