Major league baseball down the line

The 2011 All-Star Game, which has been awarded to Arizona, continues to be a flashpoint for activists opposed to that state’s harsh new immigration law.

Congressman Jose Serrano (D-N.Y.) was among the first to call on Commissioner Bud Selig to move the game if the law is allowed to stand. And while both players and their union have also spoken out, Selig has so far remained silent.

“Bud Selig should show some leadership instead of waiting for things to happen around him. Baseball’s silence on this has been deafening,” said Doug Gordon, a vice president at Fenton Communications, the nation’s largest public-interest communications firm, which last week collected 50,000 signatures on a petition asking Selig to relocate next summer’s exhibition.

Selig is in a tough spot. If he leaves the game in Arizona, he runs the risk of boycotts and demonstrations, some of which are already being planned for this summer’s All-Star Game in Anaheim. If he moves the game, critics will say he bowed to pressure from civil rights activists. And if he makes no statement at all, he will look unprincipled and indecisive.

But Gordon said there’s precedent for moving the game since the NFL pulled the 1993 Super Bowl from Tempe after the state declined to recognize the federal holiday honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

“That’s the kind of leadership we need from Bud Selig right now,” he said.

No buyer’s regretover Mauer deal

When the Twins signed catcher Joe Mauer to a $184-million contract extension in March, the fourth-largest contract in history and one that will keep Mauer in Minnesota through 2018, it looked like a smart move for both sides. And it may prove to be just that.

But when the three-time American League batting champ went down with a heel injury last month, it raised questions over whether Mauer, at 27, is durable enough to remain both productive and behind the plate for another eight seasons.

Mauer missed at least a month in two of the last three seasons and was limited to 107 at-bats in his rookie year, which ended in surgery on his left knee.

However, with the Twins in first place and with their coffers flush thanks to a new stadium, no one in Minnesota is focusing on the negative.

“This is where I want to be. I’m happy here. And I feel like we can win here,” Mauer said. “So those are pretty important things in my decision.”

Firing blanksin San Diego

The surprising Padres, who weren’t supposed to be a factor in the National League West this season, entered the weekend a half-game off the division lead thanks to a young pitching staff that has been astonishingly good.

Three of the Padres’ 20-something starters — Clayton Richard, Mat Latos and Wade LeBlanc — had only 19 big-league wins combined entering the season. But as a staff, San Diego has a 2.89 earned-run average this spring — fourth-best in baseball — and almost as many shutouts (a baseball-best six) as saves (seven).

That’s not necessarily a good thing, though, because the longer the Padres stay in contention the longer they’ll be forced to hang on to slugger Adrian Gonzalez and closer Heath Bell, both of whom could bring the rebuilding Padres important pieces in a midseason trade.

However there are signs that the Padres soon could be returning to Earth — and the trading table — since they opened May by losing three of their first five games.

— Kevin Baxter