All Star Players

As is the case with most major sporting events these days, there will be more than the traditional television coverage of today's All-Star game. At 2 p.m., there will be a two-hour webcast of batting practice, available for free via Foxsports.com and MLB.com. Fox's Chris Rose and MLB.com's Harold Reynolds will serve as co-hosts. At 4 p.m.

The John Anson Ford Amphitheatre opened its 2001 season Saturday night with a stirring tribute to composer Kurt Weill. Appropriately--given the eclecticism of the Ford's overall programming--the production stretched from the big band jazz of pianist-composer Roger Kellaway to the blues guitar of Robben Ford and the Broadway-based cabaret style of singer Ann Kerry Ford. Kellaway chose to open each half of the program with a surprisingly envelope-stretching rendering of "My Ship."

The saga of a group of Little League ballplayers banned from postseason play for participating in a series of charity games will move from the ball field to the courtroom today when lawyers ask a judge to halt further competition in the District 16 all-star tournament. Phillip R. Marrone, a Burbank attorney representing the parents of players in the Verdugo and Vaquero leagues, said he will ask Superior Court Judge S.

Danny Reed of Laguna Niguel is the favorite in the men's field Monday at the Flo-Jo Memorial Half Marathon near Laguna Hills Mall. Reed, 40, finished 37th overall and fifth in the masters division last month at the Boston Marathon. He won the 5K at this event last year and won the 10K at the Laguna Classic in Laguna Beach three weeks ago in 32 minutes 22 seconds.

Palmdale Knight High, which will open in the fall with only freshmen, has begun to build its coaching staff by selecting Jim Bauer as athletic director and football coach. Bauer, who is athletic director and football coach at Littlerock, which he helped open in 1989, will bring along three coaches from the school: Del King, wrestling; Tammie Furman, swimming, and Tammy Zimmardi, softball.

A team of Ventura County all-star baseball players outslugged a similar team from the Westside, 13-10, Sunday at UCLA's Jackie Robinson Stadium. Ventura County had 15 hits, including three by Buena's Tom Lunsford, who hit a two-run home run in the first inning and finished with four runs batted in. Rio Mesa's Steve Soliz delivered a key blow in the fifth inning, blasting a three-run double to give Ventura County a 6-4 lead. Ventura County snapped a 7-7 tie with six runs in the eighth.

TEMPE, Ariz. - Mike Scioscia has “no doubt” that former shortstop Omar Vizquel, a 24-year big-league veteran, has the potential to be a major league manager. But for Vizquel to be successful in his first step toward that goal, as the Angels' roving minor league infield instructor, he'll have to adjust his perspective when it comes to player evaluation. Scioscia, the former Dodgers catcher, made a similar transition from major league player to minor league coach when, after his 15-year playing career, he became the Dodgers' minor league catching coordinator in 1995.

While Mike Scioscia called the Angels' recent White House visit "one final victory lap," the benefits of a World Series title continue to pop up in new and perhaps unexpected ways. Troy Glaus leads American League third basemen in All-Star voting, and while he is certainly putting up deserving numbers, there is no telling how many votes are attributable to his nationwide exposure as World Series MVP.

Nobody is going to believe this. The Clippers, with the worst record in the NBA, beat the defending champion Houston Rockets, 122-107, Thursday night before 7,178 at the Sports Arena. Playing their final game before the All-Star break, the Clippers built a 19-point third-quarter lead and ended the game with a 16-5 spurt after the Rockets cut the advantage to four points.

Some of the best football players in the Valley area said aloha twice Thursday night at Pierce College's John Shepard Stadium. Goodby high school. Hello college. The players in the Daily News All-Star game--especially those on the East team--drowned their high school memories in wide-open, junior college-style action. Consider it an entrance exam. Then give the players headed for local community colleges a passing grade. The all-stars didn't approach the usual high scores of JC games.