All Star Teams

When the talk around the Dodgers is not that they are in last place, but whether Andre Ethier makes the All-Star team, it's time to start rooting for the first-place Angels. Marc Popkin Los Angeles :: Congratulations to Frank McCourt for filling the stadium by giving away $5 tickets and Ethier bobbleheads. Here is an even better idea for you, Frank. How about charging $100 a ticket and giving away Frank McCourt voodoo dolls and bags of pins? I think you could easily fill up the stadium every night for the rest of the season and make a ton of money to use for payroll, lawyers, psychics and haircuts.

Anticipating that Andre Ethier would be selected for the All-Star game Tuesday in Arizona, many of his friends and family members in his hometown of Phoenix purchased tickets ahead of time. "Most people were disappointed when they found out I wasn't in and texted me saying, 'Can you help me sell the tickets?'" Ethier said. If they sold them, Ethier might have to buy them new ones, as he was selected by San Francisco Giants Manager Bruce Bochy on Friday to replace the sidelined Shane Victorino on the National League roster.

President Obama personally kicks off his re-election effort with a set of events in his home town of Chicago Thursday, and he's lined up A-list talent to help him get things started. According to a Democratic source, Bulls point guard Derrick Rose, All-Pro Pittsburgh Steeler and University of Illinois alum Rashard Mendenhall, and none other than Mr. Cub himself, Ernie Banks, will be on hand for the biggest of the three fundraisers, a low-dollar event targeting Obama's younger supporters at the city's Navy Pier.

2011 Times' high school girls' basketball all-star team: Ariya Crook-Williams, Long Beach Poly, 5-7, Sr. — Averaged 11.7 points in helping the Jackrabbits reach the Southern Section Division 1AA quarterfinals. Reshanda Gray, L.A. Washington, 6-3, Sr. — Averaged 19.2 points and 17.1 rebounds to lead her team to the state playoffs and earn a scholarship to California. Justine Hartman, Brea Olinda, 6-2, Sr. — The UCLA-bound center averaged 11.4 points to help the Ladycats reach the Division I regional semifinals.

The Angels saw an awful lot of Dan Haren during his three seasons in Oakland ? enough to know that, one day, he would be the kind of pitcher they'd want at the top of their rotation. Yet the team hardly seemed surprised when Haren wheeled his white Maserati into the players' parking lot for the opening of spring training and proclaimed he's not that guy anymore. "I'm a completely different pitcher than I was in Oakland," he says. "When I was over there, I threw much harder.

A Sunday drive in his vintage Ford Galaxie can't help but remind Adrian Smith of the 1966 NBA All-Star game. Smith, an unlikely star among stars, won the gas-guzzling convertible as the game's most valuable player. Forty-five years later, it's still parked in his garage. "I was going to take it out today," Smith says from his home in Cincinnati, "but we're expecting bad weather. " The former guard, whose All-Star appearance in 1966 was his first and last in 11 pro seasons, still climbs behind the wheel for occasional freeway jaunts, gunning the powerful engine.

Blake Griffin and Kevin Love , All-Stars. . . . Duh. Fittingly, if surprisingly, Griffin made it as a rookie and a Clipper . . . if one capable of averaging 27-14-4 last month . . . over Love, LaMarcus Aldridge , Lamar Odom , Zach Randolph and Rudy Gay . That left Love, who may be the first 20-15 player since Moses Malone in 1983, as the best non-All-Star ever, until the NBA named him to replace Yao Ming ...

Blake Griffin had some last-minute campaigning to do, after all, considering the polls happen to be closing in a few hours. Polls? Actually, that would be voting for the All-Star reserves by NBA coaches, the ballots due Tuesday. Clippers Coach Vinny Del Negro already made his list for the Western Conference reserves and didn't need to check it twice. You might say Griffin's cause was helped by the Clippers' win against Milwaukee. The Clippers beat the Bucks, 105-98, on Monday night at Staples Center, extending their winning streak at home to nine games behind 32 points and a showy windmill dunk from Griffin.

Offense OL: Marcus Martin, Crenshaw, 6-4, 310, senior -- The top offensive lineman in the City Section helped the Cougars win their second consecutive Division I championship. He played offensive guard and is committed to USC. OL: Max Tuerk, Santa Margarita, 6-6, 255, junior -- His play at left tackle and occasional action on the defensive line helped the Eagles go from 3-7 to 9-3 and advance to a Pac-5 quarterfinal. He was co-lineman of the year in the Trinity League.