Ortiz considers surgery

Red Sox DH David Ortiz privately mentioned last weekend the possibility he might require a surgical procedure on his right knee, but because of the uncertainty surrounding his condition, he said he didn't want to say anything publicly until he knew more.

But yesterday, when asked specifically about his condition by the Boston Herald, Ortiz admitted he "probably" would need a procedure after the season.

Ortiz had said in Detroit over the weekend that the knee began to bother him last season after he twisted it while fielding bunts in batting practice at Yankee Stadium, a routine hitters follow before taking their cuts.

He said he got the knee tangled in some netting and twisted it, which was the cause of his problems.

"Some days it's good, some days it isn't," Ortiz said.

Ortiz entered the All-Star break batting .314 with 14 home runs and 52 RBIs, fine numbers but well off the 31 home runs and 87 RBIs he had at the break last season.

He did not attribute the decline in his performance to injuries, including hamstring and quadriceps problems.

"It's the way I'm being pitched," he said. "You just don't get anything to hit anymore."

Ortiz has hit just three home runs in Fenway Park, the last April 21.

It was a delicious fantasy while it lasted, that Ichiro Suzuki might be tempted to come across the country and play with his friend Daisuke Matsuzaka on the Red Sox.

But evidently, it will not be anything except a fantasy.

Larry Stone of the Seattle Times reported yesterday that Suzuki, a prospective free agent, is on the verge of signing a contract extension with the Mariners.

The Times is reporting the deal, which may be announced Friday, is for five years and may be worth as much as $100 million to the seven-time All-Star.

"In this business, there are some things you can't say or are not allowed to say. At the same time, you don't want to lie, either," Suzuki told the Times before he became the first player to hit an inside-the-park home run in an All-Star Game and was named MVP last night. His two-run shot in the fifth inning gave the American League a 2-1 lead on the way to a 5-4 victory, and it was his third hit of the game.

Suzuki came to the Mariners after the 2000 season through the same posting system in which the Sox acquired Matsuzaka, but at a considerably smaller cost. The Mariners paid a $13.1 million posting fee for Suzuki compared to the $51.1 million John W. Henry ponied up for Matsuzaka. Then Seattle signed him to a three-year, $14 million deal, a fraction of the six-year, $52 million deal the Sox gave Matsuzaka six years later.

Suzuki won the first of his two batting titles and was named the AL's Rookie of the Year and MVP in 2001. Before the 2004 season, he signed a four-year, $41 million deal that is paying him $11 million this season.

Matsuzaka and Ichiro were teammates on the Japan team that won the World Baseball Classic in 2006. They've been friends for some time, and Matsuzaka mentioned in spring training how much he'd love to play again with Ichiro. "If I could be on the same team with him, there would be nobody I could count on more," Matsuzaka said.

Ichiro came into the break with a .359 average, second in the majors to Magglio Ordonez's .367. He's hitting .402 at Safeco Field, .400 with runners in scoring position, and .411 in his last 28 games.

Red Sox chairman Tom Werner passed along this little-known nugget regarding the part he played in saving baseball for San Francisco, which 15 years ago was in danger of losing the Giants to Tampa-St. Petersburg.

"At some point around 1992, the owner of the Giants got frustrated with his inability to get a referendum in San Francisco to build a new stadium instead of playing at Candlestick," Werner wrote in an e-mail. "I think the referendum had lost a couple of times. So Bob Lurie, the owner, decides to sell the team to a consortium in Tampa, and he made the deal. There was a lot of love in baseball for Lurie and sympathy for an owner to move if his options had failed [remember in those days the Commissioner, Fay Vincent, wasn't strong]. But the sale depended on the vote of the National League owners, most of whom were fine about the move.

"Not me, though. I thought there was a need to keep the team in San Francisco and as a West Coast owner [Padres], I didn't want one less team on the West Coast for both travel and rivalry purposes. I single-handedly organized the opposition. Lurie was furious at me as the ringleader and screamed at me in a National League meeting. But I prevailed after some backroom cajoling over weeks, and kept the Dodgers in line. [Peter ] O'Malley was on my side, but it wasn't easy because . . . he hated conflict. In the end, I was instrumental in killing the deal and Lurie, in frustration, sold to a group that promised to keep the team in San Francisco."

It did not have the spontaneity of the demonstration of love for Ted Williams at the '99 festivities in Boston, but Major League Baseball staged a touching tribute to Hall of Famer Willie Mays, the great Giants center fielder of whom Williams once said, "The All-Star Game was made for Willie Mays."

Mays is one of three players to have played in the game 24 times, the others Hall of Famers Hank Aaron and Stan Musial. Mays, 76, emerged from behind the center-field fence and, escorted by his godson, Barry Bonds, and Derek Jeter of the Yankees, made his way through a gantlet of Stars, who then folded in behind Mays as he passed by. Mays threw a ceremonial first pitch to Mets shortstop Jose Reyes. He then took a spin around the field in a 1958 pink Cadillac Eldorado.

St. Louis star Albert Pujols was angry about being left on the bench and took aim at the NL manager -- who just happened to be Tony La Russa of his own Cardinals. "It's the All-Star Game. He can do what he wants," Pujols said. "He does whatever he wants. If I wasn't expecting to play, I wouldn't have come up here." Pujols said La Russa didn't talk to him the entire game. The manager said, "If he wants to get upset, he can get upset. Whatever he wants to do he can do. It's America. That wasn't the most important thing tonight." Pujols and Texas shortstop Michael Young were the only position players who didn't get into the game . . . Ortiz was caught in an embarrassing moment on his first at-bat. With two outs and nobody on after Ichiro singled and was erased on a double-play ball by Jeter, Ortiz hit a grounder to second and jogged down the line, conceding the out. But first baseman Prince Fielder missed Chase Utley's low throw, and Ortiz had to speed up to reach the bag. Fielder was charged with the error . . . Among the hoped-for highlights by San Francisco Chronicle columnist Ray Ratto was this: "For Jose Reyes to line a ball into Mirabelli Alley [also known by the unimaginative proles in Giants marketing as Triples Alley] and racing for the plate." The reference is to Red Sox catcher Doug Mirabelli, the former Giants catcher who in 1,416 career at-bats has two triples, both of which came here during the 2000 season. He hit the first triple in the ballpark's history . . . Television ratings for the Home Run Derby dropped slightly from last year. Monday night's contest, won by Vladimir Guerrero, received a 5.1 rating on ESPN, the network said. That was down from the 5.4 rating for last year.

Gordon Edes can be reached at edes@globe.com; material from the Associated Press was used.