Rogers Makes His Appearance

One of 64 players and not a starter, just a regular guy with a thing about video equipment, Kenny Rogers sat at the place beneath his name card Monday, the 76th All-Star game beginning to stir.

While in corners of a hotel ballroom the batting orders were picked over, the starting pitchers -- Chris Carpenter for the National League, Mark Buehrle for the American League -- were knocked around, and Jeff Kent sought to smother another Dodger conflict, Rogers bobbed around in a swell of pregame criticism.

His 20-game suspension for shoving two cameramen in abeyance, Rogers honored the player vote and arrived Sunday night, then trudged into a media session that was to be largely about him, and his curious temper.

He is one of 12 pitchers, between Rivera and Ryan on the American League’s pitching roster, a 10-game winner on a second-place ballclub. These games generally are for thick-bodied hitters (becoming less thick) and the occasional hissing fastball, neither of which applies to Rogers.

Having little option, Rogers mumbled through an apology last week, found his blue jersey Monday, and possibly will pitch tonight at Comerica Park. It is all a prelude to the appeal process, and probably every bit of that suspension and four or five games in which the Texas Rangers will start someone other than their left-handed ace.

“Things happen for a reason,” said Rogers, his posture and message still vaguely contrite. “I’m hoping this, in the longer route, will make me better.... Humility is never a bad thing. I thought I had plenty of it, but I got a little bit more.”

Rogers’ presence here should not overrun the game, and did not entirely cloud the day before. The crowd might boo before the game, then never see Rogers again. On the record, no players challenged Rogers’ will -- or right -- to attend, and the manager -- Boston’s Terry Francona -- spoke to Rogers last week, then left the decision to him.

In fact, Rogers said with a wry smile, “Guys are probably really happy that you’re all here wearing me out and not them.

“I figured everybody would be here at this table. I don’t care for publicity. I don’t need it. Whether that’s a good or bad thing, that’s not something I crave.

“But, I understand there’s a part I have to play, there’s certain things that people want to see and hear, but one of my biggest hopes is that it should be about what players do on the field.... It just never seems to work out that way.”

Actually, the baseball-writing press was just getting around to that when Rogers interrupted the selection process.

As it was, it eventually arrived here, with a stacked American League lineup looking superior to its counterpart, the National League, which last won an All-Star game in 1996. Kent will bat eighth and play second base for the NL, and Dodger shortstop Cesar Izturis, chosen by players, will rest his ailing hamstring.

Angel slugger Vladimir Guerrero, the reigning AL MVP, will start in right field and bat sixth. Outfielder Garret Anderson was named as a reserve and right-hander Bartolo Colon was chosen as part of Francona’s pitching staff.

Despite a slew of first-timers, and the absence of such notables as Barry Bonds, last year’s NL MVP; Sammy Sosa, Derek Jeter, Randy Johnson and, at the last minute, Pedro Martinez, the game has its fill of big names. Albert Pujols bats third for the NL and Mike Piazza seventh, and Tony La Russa’s bullpen includes Roger Clemens, Dontrelle Willis and John Smoltz.

Francona is better stocked; Alex Rodriguez, David Ortiz, Manny Ramirez and Miguel Tejada second through fifth in his order, Ichiro Suzuki on his bench, Mariano Rivera in his bullpen.

The last time this many baseball stars were together in one place, they were under oath before the House Government Reform Committee. Six major leaguers and 77 minor leaguers have since been suspended under the joint drug policy, home runs have leveled off, Bonds hasn’t played a game and, on the eve of the All-Star game, there was hardly any mention of baseball’s steroid era.

There were just Rogers, a few other ballplayers, and a tidy venue on a muggy day alongside Lake St. Clair. It remains interesting, and of some concern among the game’s elite teams, that a hit by Felipe Lopez off Danys Baez could determine home-field advantage in the World Series. Lopez’s Reds are done, Baez’s Devil Rays are dead, and the managers of last season’s World Series participants have their teams leading in their divisions.

It isn’t likely to come down to decisions by Francona or La Russa, but it made for entertaining banter.

Philadelphia Phillie chairman Bill Giles, honorary NL president, noted, “I really feel good because we’re going to out-manage the other guy; he worked for me for three years.”

Francona, once fired by the Phillies, grinned. And when it was La Russa’s turn, the Cardinal manager said, “Thank you. I’ll try to out-manage Terry like we did in October.”

The Cardinals, of course, were swept by Francona’s Red Sox.

Their news conference proceeded seamlessly into Rogers’, which wasn’t nearly as lively.

“It’s the only way to get past it,” he said. “It’s the only way I can. I’m here to take whatever shots people are going to give me and when it’s all over I’ll still be standing. Whatever happens. I know that.

“I reacted poorly. This time I acted inappropriately.”