Some of the National League veterans were quite happy to end an AL unbeaten string that stretched 13 years at 12-0-1. Atlanta Braves Brian McCann won Most Valuable Player honors by hitting a two-out, bases-clearing double in the seventh inning that drove in all of the NL’s runs. “This is my fifth time, and every time we have to answer, ‘Why do you keep losing?’” said McCann, pictured here. “You want to put an end to that, and tonight we did.”One key swing by McCann and a heads-up play by right fielder Marion Byrd ended an inexplicable all-star funk.

Following a leadoff single, AL’s David Ortiz was on first with one out when John Buck hit a blooper that Byrd scooped up and threw to second for a force-out on the slow-moving Boston DH.

Set-up men and utility players might be the new wave of All-Stars, but the NL went back to a traditional formula to win. NL manager Charlie Manuel stuck pretty much to a parade of stud starters until the late innings and turned the game over to flame-throwing closers to wrap up the win in which the potent AL lineup managed six hits. “When you get down to it, I think it was the pitching,” said Manuel. “That’s what held up at the end.”

Starting pitcher Ubaldo Jimenez, Colorado’s 15-game winner, pitched two scoreless innings, and the AL’s starter, David Price of the Tampa Bay Rays, matched that. Then came the Florida Marlins ace Josh Johnson. Adam Wainwright of the St. Louis Cardinals, pictured here earned the hold.

Once the NL had the lead, it was an adrenaline rush of closers pouring out of the bullpen and pouring heat over the plate. “I told myself I was pitching in the ninth inning of a one-run game,” said Wainwright, who wriggled through the tightest spot while pitching the seventh. “I made it interesting,” said Wainwright, a starter these days but the closer who made the final pitch when the Cardinals won the 2006 World Series. “I sort of have a flair for the dramatic.” And Los Angeles Dodgers closer Jonathan Broxton, who got the save, said, “It’s pretty awesome. Now we have home-field advantage for somebody in this room.”

"It's a big deal. I think home teams play better at home," said Manuel, whose Phillies have reached the last two World Series and won in 2008. "It feels real good. I talked to our guys before the game and told them how important home-field advantage was." “It felt awesome for us to get the win and break the streak,” said Broxton who sealed the victory in the ninth inning. “You dream of moments like this as a kid,” said McCann. “It was amazing.”

The contributions from a player whose team is out of the pennant race wound up as huge for the NL. Chicago Cubs outfielder Marion Byrd fought back from a 0-2 count to work an eight-pitch walk off Matt Thornton in the seventh inning before McCann delivered his game-winner. Pictured below, Byrd slides into home, beating the throw to the catcher to score the third run after the three run double by McCann.

In the ninth, with the AL threatening a comeback, Byrd chased a soft liner to right by Buck and, when he failed to catch it on a fly, quickly grabbed the short hop and fired to second to nab Ortiz running from first for a rare 9-6 putout. Broxton then got Ian Kinsler to fly out to deep center to end the long dry spell. “That was a huge play,” said shortstop Rafael Furcal, who took the throw from Byrd.

The National League had plenty of chances to break through in recent years, dropping the last four All-Star Games and five of seven by one run. Often, a bullpen meltdown, the lack of a timely hit or a key late-inning play doomed its efforts. Last year in St. Louis, game MVP Carl Crawford robbed Brad Hawpe of a home run and preserved a 3-3 tie in the seventh inning with a leaping catch at the left-field fence. The next inning, the AL scored the game winner on a sacrifice fly.

The year before at old Yankee Stadium, the NL had a 2-0 lead after six innings but failed to hold it. The teams went into extra innings tied 3-3 and ended up going back and forth for a record-tying 15 innings until Justin Mornea barely scored the game-winner on a sacrifice fly.

In 2007 in San Francisco, the NL rallied for two runs in the ninth and had the bases loaded with two outs, but Francisco Rodriguez got Aaron Rowand to fly out to seal the 5-4 win.

It’s also the biggest reason, the Twins believe, that Morneau watched the last month of last season from the bench from the bench because of a back injury. Team officials have told him he’s wearing himself out with the early mornings and late nights taking swings, watching video and lifting weights.

After ignoring requests to take it a little easier, Morneau has found a compromise, and it appears to be paying off. He is off to a sizzling start in 2010, with a .362 batting average, 13 homers, and 43 RBIs early in June for the first-place Twins. “My preparation’s been a little different,” Morneau said. “I obviously realized how much I miss the game when I wasn’t playing.”

The Canadian slugger’s back started bothering him in August, and his production steadily declined until he was shelved on September 12. He watched the rest of the season from the bench, rejoicing when the Twins rallied to win the AL Central in a playoff and then smoldering helplessly as they were swept by the New York Yankees in the first round of the postseason.

Morneau rested for much of the offseason to let the injury heal. Then he curtailed the work he did in spring training in hopes of returning to full strength by the start of the regular season. Pictured here, Morneau celebrates with teammate Joe Mauer after hitting a two-run homer against the Kansas City Royals.

Playing on natural grass every day at new Target Field has been a welcome change from the body ache-inducing artificial turf at the Metrodome. He doesn’t take quite as many swings before games these days and has worked with veteran Jim Thome to make sure his body can absorb the pounding of a long season.

“I think he’s learned a little about not killing himself now, taking all these swings,” manager Ron Gardenhire said. “Anytime we have an optional BP, he normally hits in the cage lightly rather than going out and taking 8 million swings. He has learned to make adjustments as he goes and that’s part of growing up in this league.”

In 2006, Morneau paced the Twins to the Central Division title with a .321 batting average, 37 doubles, 34 homers and 130 RBI. In 2008, the 2006 AL MVP signed a six-year, $80 million deal and responded with a big 2008 season, batting .300 with 23 home runs and 129 RBI. He finished second behind Boston’s Dustin Pedroia in AL MVP voting.

Twins pitcher Joe Nathan said Morneau’s value comes not just from batting in the clean-up spot every day but also from his defense at first base. “That’s something he’s worked very hard on,” Nathan said. “He has developed into playing Gold Glove-caliber defense.”

Harwell belonged to what is now a nearly extinct generation of announcers who started calling baseball on radio before television’s ascent – broadcasters like Mel Allen, Red Barber, Harry Caray and Jack Buck. They became as familiar as players to fans listening through crystal sets, car speakers or boom boxes. “Thank you for sneaking your transistors under the pillow as you grew up loving the Tigers,” Harwell said in his sign-off as the full-time voice of the Tigers in 2002. “Now, God has a new adventure for me. I’ve had so many,” said Harwell, pictured here in this August 2007 photo. “It’s been a terrific life.”

Harwell conveyed warmth through a relaxed and humorous style that mixed the precise details of the game, player anecdotes, tales about his wife, Lulu, and idiosyncratic phrases that defined him to millions of listeners. A player retired on a called third strike “stood there like the house by the side of the road” or was “called out for excessive shopping.” A double play was “two for the price of one.” A foul ball that reached the stands was caught by “a man from Saginaw” or any other city or town that came to mind at the moment. “From the sandy shores of Lake Michigan to the rugged streets in Flint, they listened to Ernie Harwell tell the Tigers’ tales for more than 40 years,” wrote The Associated Press.

“His Southern voice – rich and authoritative but not overbearing – became as distinctive to Michigan listeners as baseball itself,” wrote John Lowe in The Detroit Free Press. “Unlike some announcers in recent decades, Harwell didn’t litter his broadcasts with shouting, excessive talking or all-knowing pronouncements about players and managers.” Josh Lewn, former Tigers broadcaster now with the Texas Rangers, said, “Ernie’s a master craftsman. He’s always kept it simple, which I think is part of his charm and staying power.”

“Listening to him was as pleasant as being at Tiger Stadium in the summertime,” said Lowe. “As he fell silent between pitches, listeners got to hear the sounds of the game. Harwell thus became an ideal companion for a listener anywhere: the coach, the yard, the car or the boat. Beyond his consummate broadcasting skills, Harwell’s cheerfulness and friendliness made him a local treasure.”

William Earnest Harwell was born Jan. 25, 1918, in tiny Washington, Georgia, the youngest of Gray and Helen Harwell’s three sons. The family moved 100 miles west to Atlanta, but Gray Harwell’s paralysis after brain surgery pushed his sons and wife to earn a living. Ernie delivered a newspaper, The Atlanta Georgian, for 10 cents a week on a route that included the apartment building where Ms. Mitchell, the author of “Gone with the Wind,” lived.

Gray Harwell called baseball a “talkin’ game,” and Ernie grew up listening to minor league Atlanta Crackers games on the radio. But he was tongue-tied and lisped until he received elocution lessons that had him read works like “In Flanders Fields” and the Gettysburg Address aloud.

Harwell was on a track to become a sportswriter (his first published work was in The Sporting News when he was 16) but detoured into broadcasting, briefly calling Crackers games while in the Marines and then becoming their full-time announcer in 1946. Midway through the 1948 season, the Brooklyn Dodgers swapped a minor league catcher for Harwell to fill in for the critically ill Red Barber. Harwell stayed through the 1949 season, and then moved on to call New York Giants games with a Tennessean, Russ Hodges.

Harwell was on NBC television on Oct. 3, 1951, believing he had the prime coast-to-coast assignment, when the Giants’ Bobby Thompson hit the dramatic home run to win the final game of a playoff series against Brooklyn. Harwell’s simpler version, “It’s gone,” is remembered by few, and preserved, apparently, by no one. After his quick, declarative call, Harwell said, “I just let the picture take over. But immediately, as Andy Pafko backed up against the wall, I had misgivings,” he said. “It was unusual for a home run to go into the lower deck.”

Harwell’s contract was not renewed by the Giants after four seasons, and he spent the next six years calling Baltimore Orioles games. He moved to Detroit in 1960 and was there for 42 of the next 43 years, a period that coincided with the Tigers’ winning the 1968 and 1984 World Series.

Harwell’s popularity in Detroit and beyond was underestimated when, in 1990, WJR radio decided that the 1991 season would be his last. Bumper stickers, T-shirts and billboards carried messages of protest. Detroit Red Wings fans chanted, “We want Ernie!” at a hockey game.

“I was flabbergasted by the reaction that it caused,” Harwell told Salon.com. “I thought there’d be a little ripple, maybe somebody’d call the ballpark, say, ‘Who was that guy who used to do the game?’”

Harwell called games for CBS Radio and the California Angels in 1992. But when a new owner bought the Tigers, he returned. He did not have to retire. Even when he did, at 84, he remained excited to mingle with players and fans. He stayed healthy by jumping rope 300 times a day and avoiding elevators for stairs, and he returned for guest appearances with the Tigers and with Fox’s and ESPN’s national games.

“I could go on for another four or five years,” Harwell said before his final official game. But, he said, “Lulu and I talked it over, and we thought it’s better to leave too early than too late.”

In 2005, author and historian Curt Smith ranked Harwell as the third-greatest baseball announcer ever, placing Harwell behind Dodgers legend Vin Scully and Yankees stalwart Mel Allen. Smith, a student of baseball broadcasting, had 10 criteria for his rankings, ranging from longevity and acclaim to voice and personality.

In addition to his wife, Lulu, Harwell is survived by his sons, Bill and Ray, and his twin daughters, Carolyn and Julie.

“Definitely that was a pretty controversial move, especially with me having thrown so many pitches,” Jackson said on the Diamondbacks’ postgame show, referring to Manager A.J. Hinch’s decision to leave him in. “But I just told him, ‘I’m not coming out.’” Hinch said, “We talked every inning after about the sixth because I was checking on him. It’s such a complicated situation with the game in the balance and him chasing a no-hitter,” Hinch said.

“Edwin kept saying he was fine and, ‘I’m not coming out,’ said Hinch. “As the momentum built and the situation grew, it was pretty evident he had an extra gear. It’s something to celebrate.”

Jackson said, “It’s one of those moments where I tell him I’m not coming out until I give up a hit or a home run. You want to skip my next start, that’s fine. Give me an extra day, that’s fine. It’s one of those opportunities that doesn’t come every day. And for me to come out of that game without giving up a hit, it would have been what if. What if I would have stayed in? I’m glad it didn’t have to be a what if situation.”

The last pitcher to throw as many pitches in a game was Livan Hernandez, who threw 150 for Washington on June 3, 2005. The only other pitcher in the last 10 years to throw 149 pitches in a game was Arizona’s Randy Johnson in 2002.

Jackson showed little sign of fatigue, pumping his fastball at 96 miles an hour in the ninth inning. He issued his eighth walk with two out in the ninth but then retired Jason Bartlett on a grounder to short to end the game. “It’s one of the crazier games that I’ve had, especially starting out like it did – not being able to find the strike zone with the fast ball. Good thing I could throw the slider for strikes at any count. That just saved me and resurrected my game.”

In Chicago last July, Bartlett made the last out of Mark Buehrle’s perfect game, also by bouncing to short. Oakland’s Dallas Braden pitched another perfect game against the Rays on May 9, and Philadelphia’s Roy Halladay matched the feat 20 days later against Florida. Detroit’s Armando Galarraga lost a perfect game with two out in the ninth inning on June 2 when the first-base umpire, Jim Joyce, missed a call. Colorado’s Ubaldo Jimenez threw the season’s first no-hitter, in Atlanta on April 17. The record for no-hitters in a season is seven, set in 1990 and matched in 1991.

Jackson made the All-Star team for Detroit last season, but he has been erratic with the Diamondbacks, allowing 11 hits in consecutive starts early this season. When asked in spring training about his success with the Tigers, Jackson talked about improving his control. “Just making them put the ball in play, being aggressive and staying aggressive,” he said. “That just helped cut down my walks and everything, staying around the plate. It just came with experience.”

But Jackson had trouble finding the plate on Friday, walking two in the first inning, two in the second and three in the third. He also hit a batter and threw a wild pitch. The last pitcher to allow eight walks in a no-hitter was A.J. Burnett, who walked nine for Florida at San Diego in 2001.

Two years ago, the 26-year-old right-hander matched a Tampa Bay franchise record with 14 wins to help the Rays make an improbable run to the World Series. “It’s one of those bittersweet moments. You throw a no-hitter and it’s against your old team. At least it’s with a crowd that you’ve had accomplishment with,” said Jackson.

The crowd of 18,918 stood and applauded the first no-hitter at Tropicana Field in the relatively short history of the Rays, who like the Diamondbacks began play in 1998. “He’s a great athlete and a great kid,” Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon said, noting Jackson’s ability to continue to pitch well despite a high pitch count.

“We had so many guys on base,” Rays center fielder B.J. Upton said. “Nobody knew it was a no-hitter until the seventh. Edwin was a big part of our success and a great guy in the clubhouse,” adding Jackson seemed as strong at the end as he did in the beginning. “For him to have thrown that many pitches and still have 95 (mph) in the tank at the end says a lot about him.”

Jackson (5-6) walked the bases loaded in the third but was bailed out by a stellar play by third baseman Mark Reynolds, who spun around to throw out Ben Zobrist at home plate. Hank Blalock then grounded out to end the inning. Reynolds made another big play on a sharp line drive by Bartlett in the seventh.

In the ninth, Jackson struck out B.J. Upton on three pitches. After Blalock flied to left, Jackson walked pinch hitter Willy Aybar before getting the final out for his 149th pitch.

Now relegated to part-time duty with little pop left in his perfect swing, Griffey unexpectedly decided Wednesday, June 2, to retire after 22 mostly brilliant seasons. The Kid that once saved baseball in the Pacific Northwest with his backward hat, giddy teenage smile and unrivaled talent, had become a shell of the player who dominated the 1990s.

The 40-year-old Griffey wasn’t at Safeco Field on Wednesday. He simply released a statement through the Seattle Mariners; the franchise he helped saved in the 90s and returned to the conclusion of his career, that he was done playing.

Griffey said goodbye before Seattle played the Minnesota Twins after 13 All-Star appearances, 630 homers, fifth on the career list, behind Barry Bonds (762), Hank Aaron (755), Babe Ruth (714) and Willie Mays (660), and 1,836 RBIs. He’s an almost certain first-ballot Hall of Famer.

“While I feel I am still able to make a contribution on the field and nobody in the Mariners front office has asked me to retire. I told the Mariners when I met with them prior to the 2009 season and was invited back that I will never allow myself to become a distraction,” Griffey said.

“I feel that without enough occasional starts to be sharper coming off the bench, my continued presence as a player would be an unfair distraction to my teammates and their success as a team is what the ultimate goal should be,” he said.

Griffey called Mariners’ team president Chuck Armstrong and said he was done playing. Mariners’ manager Don Wakamatsu pulled his players together before the start of batting practice to inform them of Griffey’s decision.

A star from the time he was the overall No. 1 pick in the 1987 draft, Griffey also played with his hometown Cincinnati Reds and the Chicago White Sox. He finished with a .284 batting average, and his 1,836 runs batted in rank 14th on the career list.

But his greatest seasons, by far, came in Seattle. Griffey played in 1,685 games with the Mariners and hit .292 with 417 homers, most coming in the homer-friendly Kingdome, and 1,216 RBIs. He won the AL MVP in 1997 and practically saved a franchise that was in danger of relocating when he first came up.

Griffey returned to the Mariners in 2009 and almost single-handedly transformed what had been a fractured, bickering clubhouse with his leadership, energy and constant pranks. Griffey signed a one-year deal last November for one more season in Seattle after he was carried off the field by his teammates after the final game of 2009. Last season, he hit .214, with 19 homers as a part-time DH. He was limited by a swollen left knee that required an operation in the offseason.

But the bat never came alive in 2010. Griffey was hitting only .184 with no homers and seven RBIs and recently went a week without playing. The swing that hit as many as 56 homers in a season had lost its punch and Griffey seemed to understand his time was coming to a close.

His career is littered with highlights, from hitting homers in eight straight games to tie a major league record in 1993, to furiously rounding third and sliding home safe on Edgar Martinez’s double to beat the New York Yankees in the AL Division Series in 1995. His first major league at-bat was a double and Griffey homered the first time he stepped to the plate at home.

A year after making his big league debut, Griffey enjoyed one of his greatest highlights. Playing with his All-Star dad, Ken Griffey, they hit back-to-back home runs in a game for the Mariners.

“Junior was one of the finest young men I’ve ever had the opportunity to manage,” said Cubs’ manager Lou Piniella. “When we were together in Seattle, I believe he was the best player in baseball and it was truly an honor to be his manager.”

The team put his number 24 in the dirt behind second base and showed a 5-minute video tribute to a standing ovation before the game. The players said after winning their first extra-inning game of the season that winning Wednesday night for Griffey was a must. “It’s sad day for the Mariners, our fans, for all the people in the community that have loved Ken, admired him as a tremendous baseball players and a great human being,” Mariners CEO Howard Lincoln said. “It’s always tough for great superstars like Ken or anyone else to make a decision to retire. This has been his life for so many years, but he has made his decision and we will support it. We will honor him in every way possible.”

Nava connected on a fastball from Joe Blanton in the second inning, shortly after being called up from Triple-A Pawtucket. Kevin Kouzmanoff hit a slam on the first pitch he saw September 2, 2006, for Cleveland against Texas.

With his parents watching from the stands – and father operating a video camera – Nava came to bat with the Red Sox trailing 2-1. “It’s funny. They really hadn’t seen me play in the last two years,” he said. “They were in Indianapolis to watch me play on Friday and I told them I might be playing up here.”

His parents overcame a bit of travel trauma to get to Fenway Park in time for their son’s debut. His mom said that when the luggage was slow to arrive at the airport, they left it there and headed straight to the ballpark.

Nava often was regarded as too little to play during his career at all levels. Undrafted out of college, he was the MVP of the independent Golden League in 2007, and signed with Boston.

Only four players in big league history have hit grand slams in their first at-bat. Nava became the 10th player to homer in his first at-bat for the Red Sox, and just the second to hit a grand slam – veteran Rip Repulski did it on May 10, 1960.

The 27-year-old Nava tried to approach his first plate appearance like another other one. “I wanted to treat it like I normally do,” he said. “I just said, ‘How are you guys doing (to umpire Bill Hohn and catcher Brian Schneider)? They didn’t say anything.” As he rounded second base, it began to hit him, what he’d accomplished. Nava “started to scream. I was pumped.”

Batting last in the order, Nava pulled the first pitch he saw into the Boston bullpen in right-center field, where reliever Manny Delcarmen made a leaping catch.

Nava got an enthusiastic greeting in the dugout, with Kevin Youkilis among those pounding him on the batting helmet. Encouraged by his teammates, Nava took a curtain call. “I knew it was his first at-bat, but I tried to throw him a sinker away,” Blanton said. “I threw it right down the middle and it didn’t sink.”

As luck would have it, Nava came up the next inning and again the bases were loaded. With the crowd on its feet, Nava struck out on a check swing against Blanton.

Nava later hit a line-drive double into the left-center gap, and finished 2-for-4. Not a bad debut, considering it began on a shaky note – he had a little trouble corralling Schneider’s double down the left-field line in the top of the second.

The Red Sox pounded Blanton (1-5) for nine runs and 13 hits in four innings. J.D. Drew homered and had three hits for the Red Sox, who beat the Phillies 12-2 on the opener of a three-game series on Friday night. Nava also doubled as Boston amassed 16 hits.

“Baseball was just natural,” said Kamenshek, who is often called the best female baseball player ever. “I didn’t have to work at it too hard.” She was 17 when Chicago Cubs owner Philip K. Wrigley founded the All-American Girls Professional Baseball league in 1943 as a potential alternative to the men’s teams, which were threatened by the military draft.

Kamencheck was born December 21, 1925 in Norwood, Ohio. She played for the Rockford (Ill.) Peaches from 1943 to 1951 and again in 1953. She played first base and was named among the top 100 female athletes of the century by Sports Illustrated, partly for winning batting titles in 1946 and 1947. During her decade spanning career, she was selected to seven All-Star teams. She struck out only 81 times in 3,736 at bats and had the highest lifetime batting average in the league.

“She was the greatest first baseman in the league,” Jeneane Lesko, a former player for the Grand Rapids Chicks of Michigan and the vice president of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League Players Association, told The Associated Press. “She’s been an inspiration to all the members in the association.”

Former New York Yankee Wally Pipp deemed Kamenshek “the fanciest fielding first baseman I’ve ever seen, man or woman.” Apparently he wasn’t alone in this belief: a men’s minor league team offered her a contract. She refused. “I thought it was a publicity stunt,” Kamenshek told the baseball historian John Holay in 1983, adding that she thought her 5-foot-6, 135-pound frame would have been no match for “those big guys.”

Kamenshek also touched on the issue of playing baseball while wearing skirts, especially since she stole 109 bases in 1946. “We got used to it,” she said. “In the spring, we’re always hoping we’d develop calluses. If you got your skin toughened up, you were pretty lucky most of the year.”

She, along with her fellow players, had to put up with the league’s short-skirted uniforms and charm school classes, details captured in the 1992 movie A League of Their Own.

Kamenshek went by her nicknames, Kammie and Dottie, and was one of the players who formed the basis for the composite character Dottie Hinson in the 1992 movie “A League of Their Own,” the Penny Marshall-directed film about women’s professional baseball in the 1940s and 1950s. She was one of the inspirations for Dottie, the lead character played by Geena Davis. In the movie, she is a crackerjack catcher and a dependable hitter.

Kamenshek retired in 1953, just a year before the league folded. She went on to graduate from Marquette University, practice physical therapy and become chief of the Los Angeles Crippled Children’s Services Department. Success, for Kammie, wasn’t limited to one field.