NOTEBOOK All-Star Game

Bonds got only walk, of course: The American League used nine pitchers in the All-Star game. Just one of them, Esteban Loaiza, allowed a walk, and it was the only one. Anybody surprised that it was to Barry Bonds? The funny thing is, Bonds' walk came in the most harmless situation of his three plate appearances. There were two outs and none on in the third inning, with the NL trailing 6-1. As promised, AL manager Joe Torre had his pitchers go after Bonds, even though first base was open and Albert Pujols was on second in both of his other two at-bats. Starter Mark Mulder got Bonds to fly out to right field the first time. "I'm very happy about that," said Mulder, the winning pitcher. The NL was within 7-4 with two outs in the bottom of the fourth. With Pujols on second, walking Bonds would've meant letting big-league RBIs leader Scott Rolen come to the plate as the potential tying run. Cleveland's C.C. Sabathia started with a ball away, then came over the plate. Bonds jumped on it and sent it high in the air to shallow center field, where shortstop Derek Jeter caught it easily. "The fans come to see Barry Bonds," said NL manager Jack McKeon. "But he's no different than any other player, and especially in the game tonight where there was nobody worrying about whether you pitch to him or you didn't pitch to him. It wasn't going to change the strategy of the game."
Million-dollar arm: The first five strikes of the All-Star game were thrown by fan Tom Gray, earning him $1 million. In a pregame event, Gray had 30 seconds to fire pitches through a 24-inch-by-24-inch target at home plate. One would've gotten him free food at Taco Bell for a year and three would've been worth $10,000. With Nolan Ryan standing beside him on the mound, Gray quickly sailed all five throws in perfectly through.
Associated Press