stars at the all-star...

this is houston...the place of mlb's 75th all-star game.

but before the all-stars' clash, boxing legend muhammad ali threw the ceremonial pitch, actually, he did'nt throw, just handed the balls, one from each hand to the two kids who will actually do the pitching.

while going to the mound, ali showed some boxing moves -- combination punches, even gave derek jeter few play punches later in the mound, trying to display one of his elegant moves and unshakable stances during his reign.

after the opening pitches, american idol 3rd-season winner fantasia barrino sung in her own rendition of the us national anthem, which was not pitchy for me :-), i just don't know how the fans and the judges reacted :-). i don't know either how irish would have commented if she was able to watch it.

not to be overshadowed by the powerful voice of fantasia, american idol second-season winner ruben studdard sung "God Bless America" in the seventh inning stretch.

the game's highlight started early in the first inning, when the american league all-stars drove 6 runs from starting pitcher roger clemens, who received an achievement award during the game. the national league all-stars came back and rallied in the 4th inning by scoring 3 runs but it was not enough, losing the game 4-9 and the american league rolled to their 7th consecutive wins since 1997, not including the tied-game in 2002.

with bunches of stars in the field, alfonso soriano emerged as the biggest star of them all by hitting a 3-run homerun in the 1st and eventually winning his first all-star game MVP award.