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THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.D8 Tuesday, July 14, 2009

SPORTS

Teen Golf PhenomTo Tee Off With Tiger

The youngest-ever winner onthe Japan Golf Tour will try thisweek to become the youngest towin the British Open since 1868.Ryo Ishikawa, 17, is the rising starof golf in Japan. He was the secon-d-youngest player ever to competein the Masters—he missed the cut,shooting 6-over par—and has an in-vite to next month’s PGA Champi-onship. And though Mr. Ishikawa al-ready has a constant mediafollowing, it’ll be more intense thisweek. He’s in a trio with TigerWoods for the first two days of theOpen Championship.

— David Biderman

Lesser-Known NamesIn New Halls of Fame

Sports enthusiasts devoted toniche events can add two new hallsof fame to their bucket list. TheBMX Hall of Fame will open in Sep-tember in Chula Vista, Calif., insidethe U.S. Olympic Training Center. Inthe Midwest, the 16-Inch SoftballHall of Fame opens on Sunday inForest Park, Ill. Both shrines willhave plaques and individual displaysthat highlight their respective stars,including Dave Clinton in BMX andBenny Holt, the Babe Ruth of 16-inch softball.

—David Biderman

For All-Star Beltran,Pay and No Play

New York Mets outfielder CarlosBeltran will make about $33,000 anhour Tuesday night during the MLBAll-Star Game, but he won’t be init. As part of his contract, Mr. Bel-tran received a $100,000 bonus forbeing voted to the All-Star team,even though he hasn’t played sinceJune 21 because of a knee injury. Inthe 20 games he’s missed sincethen, he’s made about $2.3 million.The Los Angeles Angels’ ToriiHunter will also pocket $100,000without leaving the dugout—hewent on the disabled list last weekwith a groin injury.

—David Biderman

( Read daily analysis of sports statistics by Numbers Guy Carl Bialik on WSJ.com/Sports

All-Star Game Predictions, by AccuScore*

EVERY TEAM, EVERY SCORE, EVERY STAT at WSJ.com/Sports

Forget Home Runs, Which All-Stars Rule eBay?By every common statistical

measure Cardinals first baseman Al-bert Pujols is superior to Yankeesshortstop Derek Jeter. But not oneBay, where popularity and pin-stripes trump production.

From June 5 to July 5, the mer-chandise of the 64 players originallyvoted to the 2009 All-Star Gamerepresented nearly $850,000 insales on eBay, with an average of$13,267 per player. But the popular-ity of the Yankee captain is evident,as his merchandise (which countseverything from autographs to aDerek Jeter tote bag) totaled$199,176, nearly 2 ½ times morethan Mr. Pujols, who ranked thirdwith $83,646 in sales. Last year’sAmerican League Rookie of theYear, Evan Longoria, came in secondat $86,182. Joe Mauer and IchiroSuzuki rounded out the top five. At$5,000, Mr. Suzuki’s autographedJapanese World Baseball Classic jer-sey (which was also signed by therest of his team) was the priciestitem sold.

To little surprise, the Red Sox andYankees rule the eBay sales standings.The nine All-Stars from these twoclubs averaged $39,921 of sold mer-chandise. It also doesn’t pay to be areliever—they held four of the bottomfive spots in eBay sales, includingReds’ reliever Francisco Cordero, whosename garnered the lowest ranking ofany All-Star over this time period with

$42 in total sales.Clearly, name cachet is vital. Ken

Griffey Jr. didn’t get voted in, but hisname brought in $173,417. Likewise,Alex Rodriguez merchandise went for$157,911. Still, Mr. Jeter and the currentYankee stars can’t hold a candle to thelegends. During these 30 days, MickeyMantle represented $745,436 worth ofeBay sales. — David Biderman

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Game Winner Game DetailsAmerican League 4.9 (47%) % Extra Innings 8.2%National League 5 (53%) 1-8 Total Runs 41.2%AL by one run 8.8% 9+ Total Runs 58.8%NL by one run 12.8% Projected MVP Albert PujolsAL by 3+ runs 30%NL by 3+ runs 32%*Scores and results are based on the average of a 10,000 game computer simulation

Selling the StarsOf all the players who were originally picked for the All-Star Game, here is how they rank in terms of how theirmerchandise sold on eBay from June 5 to July 5.

PLAYER/TEAM

# OFITEMSSOLD

HIGHESTPRICE OFITEM SOLD

TOTAL $FOR ALLITEMS

1) Derek Jeter, NYY 6,505 $2,024 $199,1762) Evan Longoria,TB 2,518 $1,075 $86,1823) Albert Pujols, STL 1,502 $3,315 $83,6464) Joe Mauer, MIN 2,111 $998 $53,1475) Ichiro Suzuki, SEA 1,095 $5,000 $49,685

63) Ryan Franklin, STL 6 $22.50 $4364) Francisco Cordero, CIN 13 $16.05 $42Source: eBay

HEARD ONTHE FIELD ...

MLB ALL-STARSFantasy vs. Reality

� �

T he All Star break: thattime of year when base-ball fans ignore the ad-vice to “root, root, rootfor the home team” and

instead celebrate the greatest play-ers in the game today. Also taking abreak are fantasy-team owners, thetightly wrapped, obsessive-compul-sive sorts (you know who you are)

who draft imaginary teams andcompete based on real-life stats.

Falling at the season’s midwaypoint, the All Star Game provides achance to see how fantasy teams

stack up. Can the owners of 38.2million fantasy baseball teams out-perform the guys in real life? Here’sa snapshot of how close fantasy isto reality. —Nando Di Fino

Albert Pujols (ADP* of 2.13)At the halfway point, he is onpace to threaten for the TripleCrown, sporting a .332 average,and leading the majors in bothhome runs (32) and RBI (87).

Miguel Cabrera (ADP of 6.21)The Tigers first baseman haslived up to his lofty potential,giving his owners 18 HR, 50 RBIand a solid .321 batting averagein the first half of the year.

Russell Martin (ADP of 41.39)He was the first catcher takenin most drafts but hits thehalfway mark with just twohome runs in 283 at-bats and a.258 average.

Garrett Atkins (ADP of 72.76)Mr. Atkins’s .230 at the halfwaypoint wouldn’t be so terrible ifhe would only contribute somepower (just six home runs in239 at-bats) to make up for it.

Hanley Ramirez (ADP of 1.26)More often than not the No. 1 overallpick in drafts this year, Mr. Ramirezhas delighted his owners with a NL-leading .349 average to go along with14 HR, 61 RBI and 13 steals.

Alfonso Soriano (ADP 24.37) A .233batting average and just seven stealshave made Mr. Soriano one of themore glaring busts; many teams spenta second-round pick on the Cubsoutfielder.

THREE FANTASY SUPERSTARS THREE FANTASY BUSTS

1. Los Angeles Dodgers (MP 3, OD 4)2. Boston Red Sox (MP 1, OD 2)3. New York Yankees (MP 2, OD 1)4. Los Angeles Angels (MP 6, OD 6)5. Texas Rangers (MP 12, OD 13)6. San Francisco Giants (MP 24, OD 24)7. Detroit Tigers (MP 15, OD 14)8. St. Louis Cardinals (MP 14, OD 18)9. Tampa Bay Rays (MP 5, OD 5)10. Philadelphia Phillies (MP 10, OD 8)

11. Colorado Rockies (MP 9, OD 17)12. Chicago White Sox (MP 7, OD 11)13. Seattle Mariners (MP 25, OD 27)14. Milwaukee Brewers (MP 23, OD 15)15. Minnesota Twins (MP 13, OD 19)16. Toronto Blue Jays (MP 11, OD 28)17. Florida Marlins (MP 16, OD 22)18. Chicago Cubs (MP 4, OD 3)19. Cincinnati Reds (MP 17, OD 10)20. Houston Astros (MP 22, OD 21)

21. Atlanta Braves (MP 8, OD 16)22. New York Mets (MP 19, OD 12)23. Pittsburgh Pirates (MP 28, OD 29)24. Baltimore Orioles (MP 20, OD 20)25. Kansas City Royals (MP 26, OD 23)26. Oakland Athletics (MP 27, OD 26)27. San Diego Padres (MP 30, OD 30)28. Arizona Diamondbacks (MP 18, OD 9)29. Cleveland Indians (MP 21, OD 7)30. Washington Nationals (MP 29, OD 25)

REALITY VS. FANTASY STANDINGS

Major League Baseball rankings (based on win% at the season’s midpoint) as compared to the fantasy-team rankings, which represent the percentage of allballplayers owned in fantasy leagues who play for each team. Fantasy-team rankings are broken down by season’s midpoint (MP) and on opening day (OD).

*Average Draft Position (ADP), which is where a player was selected in online fantasy drafts before the season (provided by MockDraftCentral.com)

Baseball10.4

Professionalfootball20.4

Basketball5.5

Nascar5.5

College football3.7Hockey

3.2Golf2.9

Soccer1.4

Number of fantasy players by sport, in millions:

Source: Fantasy Sports Trade Association

Even though an overwhelming number of fantasy players have triedtheir hand at football, the smaller sports are catching up. Theaverage fantasy player owns 3.8 teams—here are the estimatednumber of participants who have created a team in each sport:

The top five most-tradedplayers on CBSSports.com:1. Alfonso Soriano, traded698 times this season2. Johan Santana, 6103. Matt Holliday, 5804. Jimmy Rollins, 5705. Manny Ramirez, 559

Based on fantasy-team rankings, here’s what teamswould make the postseason.In the American League:The Red Sox, Yankees, Angels, and White Sox(The Rays would have made it had they played inanother division.)In the National League:The Dodgers, Cubs, Braves, and Rockies

FANTASY PLAYOFF PREDICTIONS

WORLD SERIES MATCHUP5VS.

(l-r) Reuters; Associated Press

C M Y K Composite

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