Mad hatter
When pitcher Mark Buehrle of the Chicago White Sox reached into his locker and opened his box of baseball caps, he thought somebody was playing a trick on him.

They were all Minnesota Twins hats, Chicago’s biggest rival in the AL Central.

“I kind of laughed. I wanted to look around and see if someone was messing with me,” Buehrle said.

Moments later, the left-hander called over to Twins catcher Joe Mauer and asked, “Hey, Joe, you hear about this?”

Mauer smiled and chuckled.

Buehrle laughed off the temporary mix-up, too. But he chose not to tempt fate.

“I didn’t put one on,” Buehrle said.

Easy chair
Tony La Russa anticipated a relaxing All-Star game as a member of the supporting cast in his own stadium. The Cardinals manager was on the coaching staff at the All-Star game, even relinquishing his office to the Phillies’ Charlie Manuel.

La Russa and Dodgers manager Joe Torre had adjacent lockers in the more cramped coaches locker room, swapping stories earlier in the day. La Russa’s plan: Stay in the background as much as possible.

“I guarantee you, the coaches enjoy it more than the manager,” La Russa said. “Charlie’s got a lot to do, a lot of decisions to make.”

La Russa wasn’t even sure where he’d position himself in the dugout. Usually he stands near the dugout steps, as close to home plate as possible, but planned to let Manuel stake out his territory first.

“I’m going to look where Charlie is,” he said.

How ’bout a T-shirt?
Perhaps the busiest places at Busch Stadium in the hours leading up to the All-Star game were the portable souvenir stands conveniently set up outside each clubhouse for the AL and NL staffs.

Hats, shirts and other memorabilia — at regular prices — were on sale, and there were plenty of customers.

Yankees closer Mariano Rivera carefully combed through the racks of jerseys and sized up the caps, ordering a half-dozen of some items and a half-dozen of others. White Sox pitcher Mark Buehrle excused himself from a couple of interviews so he could raid the stand before it closed.

Kansas City manager Trey Hillman, an AL coach, spent his share of time and money. He particularly was interested in gold commemorative coins.

“I feel it’s my responsibility to take care of my staff,” he said. “It’s part of what it means to be here, to reward people for their hard work.”

Long balls, lots of eyes
Monday night’s Home Run Derby received a 6.0 cable rating on ESPN, which translate to 5,855,000 households and 8.25 million viewers. It was the network’s No. 3 rating this year, topping only by Game 5 (6.5) and Game 4 (6.9) of the NBA’s Western Conference finals between the Los Angeles Lakers and Denver). It was down slightly from the 6.4 rating (6.2 million) households for last year’s derby at Yankee Stadium. This year’s derby also got a 2.0 rating on ESPN Deportes, its highest for MLB since it began being rated in May 2008.

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