All Star Teams

The Times' 1998 Football All-Star teams and the winner of the Glenn Davis Award will be published Dec. 24. The Glenn Davis Award, named for the 1946 Heisman Trophy winner who attended Bonita High in La Verne, is presented annually to the top prep football player in Southern California. Last year's winner was Tustin running back DeShaun Foster, who now plays for UCLA.

First baseman Cecil Fielder of the Detroit Tigers wasn't named to the American League All-Star team and thought he should have been. And Angel left-hander Mark Langston was picked but thought he shouldn't have been among the pitchers and reserves added by Manager Tom Kelly for Tuesday's game at San Diego.

Jon Looney, who led Brea-Olinda High School to its first league football championship in 10 years, has been selected to coach the North team in the 32nd Orange County All-Star football game scheduled July 12 in Orange Coast College's LeBard Stadium. Eric Patton, who led Capistrano Valley High School to the Division II football championship last fall, has been selected to coach the South team.

BOYS Aaron Atkinson Senior Lincoln 6-6 Forward Robert Avery Senior Jefferson 6-3 Forward Joe Bertrand Senior Verbum Dei 6-6 Center Tim Cage Senior Dorsey 6-0 Guard Marcell Capers Senior Manual Arts 6-2 Guard Curtis Cathy Senior Jordan 6-2 Forward William Celestine Senior Manual Arts 6-5 Center Chris Ford Junior Fremont 6-2 Forward Eric Jones Senior Loyola 6-2 Guard Kevin Ollie Junior Crenshaw 6-2 Guard GIRLS Amanda Daniels Junior Jordan 5-9 Forward Andrea Hayes Senior Fremont 6-0 Forward

As campaigns go, the Clippers' effort on behalf of Elton Brand's All-Star candidacy rivaled the big boys. Not the big boys like George W. Bush and Karl Rove. With Brand running sixth among West forwards, it was more like Al Gore and John Kerry. Happily for the Clippers, their anxiety is just one more leftover from their grisly past, when they might not have been able to get Michael Jordan on the All-Star team. Brand is a lock.

Skywriting, because of the 11 letters in G-A-R-C-I-A-P-A-R-R-A, would have been useless. "The clouds would have been clear by the time they got to P," Nomar Garciaparra joked. "Nobody would have read it." So the Dodgers used other methods to promote their first baseman in his bid to land the final spot on the National League All-Star team. They flashed his picture on the big screen during each at-bat, encouraging fans to vote by Internet in Major League Baseball's "Final Man" contest.

Alfonso Soriano, only 30 years old, is a five-time All-Star for three teams at two positions. He never wanted to leave the New York Yankees, never wanted to leave second base, but here he is, young, capable and -- if we're to believe the bracelets, necklace and earring -- rich, and several months from playing wherever he wants. "I'm very close to that point," he said. "Now I don't have the control. I have the control only to play the game, every day to play the game."

Cecil Travis, 93, a hard-hitting All-Star infielder whose baseball career was interrupted by service in World War II, died Saturday at his home in Riverdale, Ga. The New York Times reported the cause of death as congestive heart failure. Travis, a shortstop for the Washington Senators, batted .314 for his career and had a major league-leading 218 hits in 1941 -- the same season Boston's Ted Williams batted .406 and the New York Yankees' Joe DiMaggio got a hit in 56 consecutive games.

Vladimir Guerrero, Garret Anderson and Bartolo Colon are bound for Detroit, as are Jeff Kent and Cesar Izturis, all of them All-Stars in the 76th playing of a game that will hold six St. Louis Cardinals, four Boston Red Sox and, perhaps, Kenny Rogers. The Angels, who will arrive at the All-Star break in first place in the American League West, had Guerrero voted in by fans as a starter, Anderson as a reserve by fellow players, and Colon added by AL Manager Terry Francona.

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.