MLB All-Star Game

Nobody appreciates being an MLB All-Star Game more than a first-timer, and Pablo Sandoval and Ryan Vogelsong of the Giants and Oakland's Gio Gonzalez demonstrated that Monday.

Long after the National League finished batting practice at Chase Field, Vogelsong remained on the field. Sixteen players, including no-show Derek Jeter, have bowed out of tonight's All-Star Game, but Sandoval, Vogelsong and Gonzalez wouldn't dare miss it. Vogelsong was told by NL manager Bruce Bochy that he'd pitch only in extra innings, and AL manager Ron Washington said Gonzalez at most could be a situational lefty and face one batter.

The AL's utility guy is Young.

The Giants have four pitchers here, but perhaps only Brian Wilson - Bochy's closer of choice - will get into the game. Bochy will counter with a 3-4-5 alignment of Matt Kemp, Prince Fielder and Brian McCann, whose three-run double in last year's game gave the NL its first victory since 1996 and granted the Giants home-field advantage in the World Series.

It is the All-Star break, 2010, and these are hard days. Vogelsong has been with wife Nicole at the hospital, after his father-in-law suffers a heart attack. Then, his minor league team releases him.

In September, Salt Lake, the Los Angeles Angels' Class AAA team, would cut him, too.

One year later, Ryan Vogelsong sits in a hotel ballroom during a press session. He is an All-Star pitcher for the San Francisco Giants. So Vogelsong's a rare bird. Surely, there were moments in those 1,760 days without a major league job when he wondered if he was finished.

Ryan Vogelsong? I was ready to talk about (quitting). The Japanese media crowded around Vogelsong Monday to find out how someone gets from Orix to the National League All-Star roster.

Several players passed on this event for one reason or another, but it'd be a hard sell getting Ryan Vogelsong to take the All-Star Game for granted. Nicole Vogelsong, even harder.