The stars are shining.

• Author: Barrett, Wayne M.

When Contemporary sports events are a turn-off (and what's there to like about the boring baseball industry these days?), solace always can be found in the recesses of ones memory and the history books. July being the month that the National Pastime stages its annual Mid-Summer Classic, what better time to assemble a personal all-time All-Star team? The only prerequisite for the members of this mighty lineup is that your rapidly aging columnist had to have seen them play in person.

Willie Mays, center field. Arguably the greatest player of all time, the Say Hey Kid could do it all: hit for average and power, throw, run, and field. His signature basket catch and trailing cap remain indelible images of baseball lore. Had he not been forced to switch home parks - from the cozy Polo Grounds to wind-swept Candlestick Park - Mays, not Henry Aaron, most likely would be remembered as the man atop the home run chart. His most memorable moment: the still impossible-to-believe catch on Cleveland's Vic Wertz that helped the Giants sweep the Indians in the 1954 World Series.

Pete Rose, second base. Charlie Hustle was a better outfielder and first and third baseman than he was a second sacker, but how do you keep major league baseball's all-time hits leader out of the lineup? Most memorable moment: Rose barreling around third and flattening American League catcher Ray Fosse to win the 1970 All-Star Game.

Roberto Clemente, right field. Always go with the team's best all-around hitter in the third slot. Clementes splendid skills - offensively and defensively - as well as his passion for the game make him the most deserving member of this lineup. Most memorable moment: the temptation is to cite all his superb plays and clutch hits in the 1971 World Series, but, from a purely personal perspective, it has to be those countless times Clemente flashed into the right field corner and, whirling and throwing in one motion, gunned down yet another foolish baserunner who dared to test his arm.

Willie McCovey, first base. The great Yankee teams of the early 1960s had the M&M Boys (Mantle and Maris), but so did the Giants. Mays and McCovey arguably were the most powerful one-two punch in baseball history. Most memorable moment: the linedrive last out of the 1962 World Series is the obvious choice.

Mike Schmidt, third base. It's hard not to say Brooks Robinson here. However, Schmidt was the most prolific home run hitter of his time, and his fielding also was...