WORK STOPPAGE SELIG CALLS IT A DRAW FOR LACK OF PITCHERS AMERICAN 7, NATIONAL 7.

Byline: Brian Dohn Staff Writer

MILWAUKEE - Talk of greed and strikes and even cryonics ceased for a few hours Tuesday evening at Miller Park so baseball finally could show its best face.

Then, wouldn't you know it? The sport's summer gala, the 73rd All-Star Game, turned disappointingly controversial.

Before the bottom of the 11th inning, with the score tied 7-7, baseball commissioner Bud Selig, American League manager Joe Torre, National League manager Bob Brenly and several umpires held a summit next to the first-base dugout that lasted at least five minutes.

Selig had made his decision. Play resumed, the NL failed to score and the game was declared a tie, perhaps one of the most unsatisfying conclusions to any game in the history of the sport and one greeted by jeers from 41,871 red-faced fans.

It was only the second time the game failed to produce a winner, the first the result of rain in 1961.

Afterward, a melancholy Selig called it ``a very regrettable situation.''

``I want to take this opportunity to apologize to the fans that are here, and obviously their unhappiness was understood by all of us,'' Selig said. ``But in the middle of the (11th) inning, both Joe Torre and Bob Brenly came to me and said they were out of players.

``The decision was made because there were no players left and no pitching left.''

Brenly used 10 pitchers, Torre nine. Brenly informed Selig the NL's last remaining pitcher, Vicente Padilla, was done after throwing two innings while Torre said his final pitcher, Seattle's Freddy Garcia, could pitch only one more.

And that was that: no more arms, no more game.

Selig said baseball would look into expanding All-Star rosters even though each club used a record 30 players. Atlanta closer John Smoltz, who pitched the ninth inning, said each roster should have at least 35 players on it.

``I feel bad for Bud, especially here,'' said Torre, the Yankees manager. ``The down side is when you get them all in and it's the ninth inning or 10th inning, you can't have it both ways. Something like this can happen and the last thing I want to do is get a pitcher hurt.''

An announcement that the game would end in a tie after 11 innings was made after Florida's Luis Castillo flied out to center for the first out in the bottom of the 11th.

The fans began to boo Selig, whose hometown he shares. Some of the fans closest to the former Milwaukee owner pointed and screamed at him.

The fans even recreated the infamous chant from one of the Bad News Bears sequels of ``Let them play! Let them play!'' throughout the bottom of the 11th. At one point, nearly everyone in the ballpark was standing and chanting.

``It's wild,'' said Dodgers right fielder Shawn Green, who went 1 for 3. ``It's something you don't ever expect to happen, but the way the All-Star Game is approached, it was bound to happen sometime. The goal of the manager is let everyone get in there and put on a good show, so you don't play for those late innings.''

There was one more indignity. It was announced Monday that the MVP award would be named after the late Ted Williams - the former Boston Red Sox great whose No. 9 was emblazoned on the grass in his familiar left-field position during a stirring ceremony - but no MVP was named.

When San Francisco's Benito Santiago was called out on strikes to end the 11th inning, fans littered the right- and left-field corners with debris in protest.

``I know the fans are disappointed, but we gave them a good show the last couple of days so they've got to be pleased,'' Santiago said. ``I've got no explanation for this one. We just have to go home thinking we gave them what they wanted for a couple of days and just be happy.''

The events ruined what began as a nostalgic evening with appearances by such players as Warren Spahn, Willie Mays, Cal Ripken, Reggie Jackson and former Milwaukee Brewer Robin Yount, the Hall of Famer from Taft High in Woodland Hills.

And the game had its moments. Most notably, Minnesota's Torii Hunter soared over the fence to rob San Francisco's Barry Bonds of a homer in the first inning but Bonds blasted a 385-foot homer in his next at-bat.

However, the game will be remembered for Selig's decision.

``I think it's highly improper to place blame on anyone for this,'' Brenly said. ``You got everything you could ask for in an All-Star Game - except for a winner.''

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5 photos

Photo:

(1 -- 5 -- color) Counterclockwise from upper left, Barry Bonds manhandles Torrii Hunter after Hunter stole a home run from the slugger; Robin Yount is greeted by fans; players unveil a tribute to Ted Williams; the Dodgers' Shaw Green blows a bubble during batting practice; and Commissioner Bud Selig discusses his All-Star dilemma.

Associated Press