It started 14 years ago with a few emails answered in his office. Like the All-Star Game itself, it has grown by leaps and bounds. Commissioner Bud Selig conducted his annual Town Hall Chat at FanFest in the Minneapolis Convention Center on Tuesday, fielding questions culled from thousands that were submitted on MLB.com, as well as some live from the audience.

Both Commissioner Bud Selig and Tony Clark, the executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association, voiced the hope that the use of smokeless tobacco among professional baseball players disappears.

One year after Major League Baseball issued a policy prohibiting players from harassing and discriminating against others players based on their sexual orientation, Commissioner Bud Selig appointed former outfielder Billy Bean to be MLB’s first Ambassador for Inclusion.

Inclusion was the theme of two major announcements that came from Major League Baseball on Tuesday as it took another dramatic step with its ongoing efforts to wipe out discrimination of all types in the sport.

Bud Selig said Tuesday that his proudest achievement as Commissioner of Baseball was reforming baseball’s economic structure and thus bringing increased competitive balance to the game.

The Gillette Home Run Derby resulted in $465,000 for charities on Monday night at Target Field, and repeat winner Yoenis Cespedes contributed $160,000 of that himself.

In 2013, Yoenis Cespedes won the Home Run Derby, but he wasn’t an All-Star. This year, in addition to repeating as Derby champ on Monday, Cespedes will play in the Midsummer Classic on Tuesday. Now Cespedes truly feels like an All-Star.

As baseball returns to its natural state — a game in which pitching is once again dominant — you take the home runs where you find them.
The 2014 Gillette Home Run Derby on Monday would be a logical place to look. And, yes indeed, home runs could be found here.

Yoenis Cespedes joined Ken Griffey Jr. as the only back-to-back Home Run Derby champions by defeating Todd Frazier in the final round at Target Field.

For the Frazier brothers, Monday night’s Gillette Home Run Derby was, in the words of the incomparable Yogi Berra, “déjà vu all over again.” That’s because Todd, the youngest Frazier son and starting third baseman for the Reds, was tapped by National League captain Troy Tulowitzki to represent the NL — and Frazier’s oldest brother, Charlie, was on the mound.

Luken Baker hit seven home runs over two rounds to best Josh Naylor of St. Joan of Arc Catholic Secondary School (Mississauga, Ont.) and take home the Junior Home Run Derby title at Target Field on Monday.

National League manager Mike Matheny admits he never did give much thought to achieving the career accolade of All-Star. It wasn’t until Monday that Matheny realized how meaningful it would be to be labeled an All-Star player.

Minnesota Twins RBI, the host of this week’s Jr. RBI Classic, has been lauded by Major League Baseball officials as a model program for RBI, which works to bring opportunities to play baseball and softball to underserved kids.

In his first season with Seattle, Robinson Cano leads the Mariners’ contingent of four All-Stars into the Midsummer Classic. The moment hasn’t been lost on Cano, who reunites with Derek Jeter in the American League All-Star starting lineup Tuesday night.

The T-Mobile All-Star FanFest spans 400,000 square feet at the Minneapolis Convention Center, and right in the heart of the bonanza is a makeshift room dubbed the “All-Star Clubhouse.”

For Giancarlo Stanton, the trade rumors are just part of his existence — kind of like the tape-measure home runs he hits. But unlike the power, which Stanton has worked hard to maintain, the trade talk — which has started to pop up again in recent days — is completely out of his control. So as he was asked about it again and again and again during his All-Star media availability, Stanton was completely unfazed.

Along the way to leading the Major Leagues at the All-Star break with 29 home runs, Jose Abreu has cleared the fences of 11 different big league ballparks and victimized four former Cy Young Award winners and a trio of fellow 2014 All-Stars.