NEW YORK -- Barry Bonds is back home in Los Angeles, unemployed and unwanted in the sport he dominated for two decades. Baseball is throwing itself a party here, a coming-out party for a new wave of stars, a huge and happy step away from the steroid shadows that dogged the sport last year.
Bonds could still hit, if someone would let him. But, after an off-season in which he was indicted on felony charges and the Mitchell Report detailed the rampant use of steroids in baseball, his absence from this summer's All-Star game enables the sport to look ahead rather than look back.
"You've got great stories -- Josh Hamilton, Ryan Braun -- going into their first All-Star experience," New York Mets third baseman David Wright said. "I see the new generation of players coming through as pretty special.
"There's no negatives surrounding the All-Star game. All the stories are positive. The baseball purists can just sit down and enjoy the baseball."
The Mitchell Report linked 21 active players with the use of performance-enhancing substances. The rosters for tonight's All-Star game at Yankee Stadium include just one of those 21 -- Miguel Tejada of the Houston Astros.
An All-Star game with rosters dotted with Mitchell Report alumni would be "like when Amy Winehouse won the Grammys after getting arrested," Hall of Famer Paul Molitor said.
In fan voting for the final spot on the American League roster, rookie Evan Longoria of the Tampa Bay Rays -- two years removed from Long Beach State -- beat out three veterans cited in the Mitchell Report: Jason Giambi of the hometown Yankees, Brian Roberts of the Baltimore Orioles and Jose Guillen of the Kansas City Royals.
The rosters include 25 first-time All-Stars, and the starting lineups include three starters at age 24: Braun, Hanley Ramirez of the Florida Marlins and Dustin Pedroia of the Boston Red Sox.
The list of All-Star perennials not here includes Bonds and Roger Clemens, each unemployed and prominently cited in the Mitchell Report, and Sammy Sosa and Mike Piazza, each of whom could not find a job and retired after the season started.
Ivan Rodriguez, a 14-time All-Star, did not make the team. Neither did Ken Griffey Jr., a 13-time All-Star. The rosters also do not include 10-time All-Stars Tom Glavine and Randy Johnson and eight-time All-Stars Greg Maddux and John Smoltz.
"There's been different times you felt a transition, groups of perennials moving on. This year is certainly that case," Molitor said.
