ALL-STAR GAME Bonds, Blalock added to Home Run Derby

The New York Yankees have eight players on the AL roster.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK -- Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants and Hank Blalock of the Texas Rangers were added to next week's All-Star Home Run Derby, filling out the field of eight competitors.
Bonds joins Philadelphia's Jim Thome, Cincinnati's Ken Griffey Jr. and the Chicago Cubs' Sammy Sosa in representing the National League on Monday night in Houston.
The AL players participating are Blalock, New York's Jason Giambi, Boston's David Ortiz and Baltimore's Rafael Palmeiro.
All four active players with 500 homers will compete: Bonds (681), Sosa (553), Palmeiro (540) and Griffey (501). Thome, who hit his 400th home run last month, connected for his major league-leading 28th of the season Thursday night.
Replacements
New York Yankees pitcher Javier Vazquez and Los Angeles Dodgers catcher Paul Lo Duca were added to the All-Star teams Thursday as replacements for injured players.
Vazquez takes the spot of Oakland Athletics right-hander Tim Hudson, giving New York eight players on the 32-man AL squad.
The last team to have eight All-Stars was the 2001 Seattle Mariners. Before that, no club had eight All-Stars since the 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates.
Hudson is on the 15-day disabled list with a strained left oblique muscle.
Lo Duca replaces Cincinnati Reds first baseman Sean Casey, on the DL with a strained right calf.
It will be Vazquez's first trip to the All-Star game. He is 9-5 with a 3.50 ERA in his first year with the Yankees after being acquired from Montreal in a trade last off-season.
He joins New York teammates Jason Giambi, Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Mariano Rivera, Tom Gordon, Gary Sheffield and Hideki Matsui on the AL team. Giambi, Jeter and Rodriguez were elected by fans to starting infield spots.
Also, New York's Joe Torre will manage the AL team.
Lo Duca earns his second NL All-Star appearance after also being selected last season. He entered Thursday hitting .308 with six homers and 35 RBIs.
"It's exciting to go back and to be in the same clubhouse with those guys," Lo Duca said. "There's a lot of guys who are more deserving and probably should have gone [before] me, but I'm still happy to go."