CINCINNATI
— As he was growing up in Dublin, Calif., little Ned Yost would thwack rocks with a bat for hours by himself in a lot near his home.
In the soundtrack of his mind — and maybe he blurted it out loud a time or two that way that kids announce their lives — he was Willie Mays, Orlando Cepeda, Tom Haller or another San Francisco Giants star.
Even amid those fantasies, though, he never brought himself to consider what it would be like to be an All-Star.
"Never. Never thought about the All-Star Game.