The All-Star Game has had memorable moments: Pete Rose's crunching, game-winning collision at home plate in 1970; Reggie Jackson's moon shot in 1971; and Fred McGriff's tying, pinch-hit, two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth at Three Rivers Stadium in 1994.

Yet, perhaps because of its nature as a midsummer exhibition, there is no Mr. July the way there is a Mr. October. With more than one modern ballplayer finding excuses to duck the contest, we might never have one.

As Yogi Berra might have put it, this game is usually a letdown except when it isn't. So here is a long list of candidates for Mr. July.

The starting shortstop for the American League, Yankee Derek Jeter, is off to a great start. Jeter is batting .700 in his first 10 at-bats in six All-Star games. His big game came in 2000 in Atlanta, when he went 3 for 3 with a double, two singles, two RBIs and a run scored and won the Most Valuable Player Award. The following summer, Jeter homered in Seattle, and the American League won both games.

Atlanta Brave Andruw Jones, a reserve outfielder for the National League, is 4 for 8 with 5 runs scored, 2 home runs and 6 RBIs, but has yet to play for a winner in his four games.

Among those with at least 20 at-bats in All-Star play, Detroit Tigers Hall of Famer Charlie Gehringer, who played in the first All-Star Game in Chicago in 1933, hit .500 in 20 AB, with a couple of doubles but just two runs scored and one RBI. Billy Herman, a steady choice as a National League second baseman in the 1930s and '40s, went 13 for 30 for a .433 average but no home runs or RBIs and just three runs scored in 10 All-Star games.

Checking the all-time records for All-Star play, no player drops your jaw. Willie Mays has the most hits (23) and runs (20), and hit a solid .307 across 24 games. Those are great numbers, considering the pitching All-Stars face, but his three home runs and nine RBIs, while putting Mays fourth in those categories, are less than we would expect from him in 75 AB.

Ted Williams hit a modest (for him) .304 with four home runs, but is the all-time leader with 12 RBIs in 18 games. Fred Lynn batted .300 in his nine games in the 1970s and '80s with four home runs and 10 RBIs.

Hall of Fame catcher Gary Carter, who Sunday night was named MVP of one of the dullest celebrity softball games in the history of humankind, is also a two-time All-Star MVP, taking the trophy in 1981 and '84. Carter hit .300 with three HRs and five RBIs in his 10 All-Star games.

I'm nonetheless going with Stan Musial as my Mr. July. Donora's favorite son had 20 hits for a .317 average and 10 RBIs in 24 All-Star games, and Musial is the top home run hitter with six.

On the pitching side, there's also a healthy argument. Don Drysdale pitched the most innings, 19¹/₃, and he dominated in his 10 games, with 19 strikeouts, two wins and an earned run average of 1.40. But what about these guys?

Drysdale, Marichal, Feller and Bunning are in the Hall of Fame, and Johnson will be. But you can't do much better than Harder, who is largely forgotten outside of Cleveland, where he pitched for all of his 20 seasons. A four-time All-Star in the mid-1930s, Harder didn't blow opponents away, but the National League never scored on him in four games.

I'll go with Johnson. I still remember the 1997 game in Cleveland when Larry Walker turned his helmet around and batted right-handed against Johnson for one pitch. He did that because The Big Unit had just thrown a fastball over Walker's head that hit the backstop on the fly. In his prime, even when Johnson was fooling around, nobody was more intimidating.

Those moments are the reason people watch All-Star games. Each is a unique event, and so there is no clear Mr. July. The amount of play is so small so you have to leave the statistics for the narrative.

Maybe tonight two pitchers will strike out six in a row the way Dwight Gooden, then a 19-year-old rookie, and Fernando Valenzuela, 23, did in the San Francisco twilight of 1984. Or maybe Miguel Tejada or Jones, who homered in last year's game, will take another step on the path of Ralph Kiner, who homered in three consecutive All-Star games from 1949 to 1951.

Maybe we'll see a ball hit into a river. You know none of these guys managed that.