All-Star game features new kids on the block

Derrek Lee knows the All-Star game has a whole new look this year.

Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa and Ken Griffey Jr. are nowhere to be seen. Derek Jeter and Jason Giambi aren't around, either.

Instead, there's a whole bunch of new kids on the block for Tuesday night's game at Comerica Park. There's Lee and Brian Roberts, who lead their leagues in batting average. And there's Chris Carpenter and Mark Buehrle, the starting pitchers.

Thirteen of the 20 players in the lineup have never started an All-Star game before, including seven in the American League.

"It could be the next wave," Lee said before Monday's workout. "It has to happen at some point. Guys can't play forever."

Of course, there are some exceptions. Roger Clemens, a month shy of his 43rd birthday, was picked for the 11th time. Given permission to arrive Tuesday, Clemens played in his first All-Star game in 1986, when Lee was just 10.

And then there's 40-year-old Kenny Rogers, who received the most attention at the All-Star media availability, held at the hotel in suburban Dearborn where the players are staying. He was suspended July 1 for 20 games and fined $50,000 for an outburst that sent a television cameraman to the hospital and prompted a police investigation. Because the players' association appealed, Rogers can't be penalized until after a hearing and a decision by commissioner Bud Selig.

He spent 45 minutes answering and avoiding questions.

"I figured everyone would be at this table. I'm sure the rest of the guys love this, because they don't have to worry about it," he said. "I'll take whatever shots people give me, and at the end, I'll still be standing."

So is Tiger Stadium, about two miles away. The site of the famous 1971 All-Star game, where Reggie Jackson hit the light tower, is shuttered these days, with no determination made on what the future will hold for the corner of Michigan and Trumbull.

Comerica Park, which replaced hitter-friendly Tiger Stadium in 2000, is one of the few pitchers' parks to open in the bandbox era. Still, Philadelphia's Bobby Abreu hit a 517-foot shot onto the porch above the back row of right-field bleachers during Monday night's Home Run Derby and had a record 24 homers during the first round.

NL manager Tony La Russa looked forward to seeing how the young studs would do.