John Zant

Now that would have been a chilling waste of time.

The estuary next to Pac-Bell – excuse me, AT&T Park – was a dinger-free zone during the All-Star Game and even during the Home Run Derby. ESPN and Fox both planted correspondents in the flotilla beyond the right-field wall, but they might as well have been waiting for the Loch Ness Monster to appear.

Nothing happened out there.

Inside the park, it was another story. Almost as unusual as the bayside location of the stadium is the angular configuration of the wall in right-center field. Nobody paid much attention to it until Ichiro Suzuki walloped the ball into that gap, and it ricocheted out of Ken Griffey Jr’s reach. Ichiro did not stop running until he had crossed home plate. It was the first inside-the-park homer in All-Star history.

I watched the game at the Bus Stop, a venerable watering hole in the Cow Hollow area. Local residents were glum about the way the Giants have been playing this year, but we enjoyed the game together. It was cool that it came down to the last pitch.

Dodger fans didn’t have much to gloat over, although catcher Russell Martin made a fine play to short-hop a throw from the outfield and put the tag on Alex Rodriguez, trying to score from second on a single to right. A-Rod just shrunk up and came to a stop when Martin confronted him. He didn’t try to slide or take the catcher on. Moments before, he had made a head-first slide while stealing second. Maybe his contract calls for one slide per game.

Aside from Ichiro’s magnificent hit-and-sprint, Vladimir Guerrero provided the most excitement by a batter when he won the Home Run Derby with a late barrage, including a 500-foot blast. Vlad, the free-swinging Angel, is more fun to watch than Barry Bonds. I said my piece about Bonds two weeks ago.

That column is in the Santa Barbara Newsroom archive, and this one will join it. Today’s is the last edition of the Web site. Thank you to all who made an effort to read my stuff on-line. We’ll meet again in some fashion.