DOWN THE LINE

Hall of Fame keeps things fresh

As baseball takes up again after the All-Star break, the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is taking a few artifacts from the first half of the season.

While the Hall of Fame primarily is about the game’s greatest players over time -- Barry Larkin, a 12-time All-Star with the Cincinnati Reds, and the late Ron Santo of the Chicago Cubs are being inducted this year -- it also has a “Today’s Game” exhibit.

That’s where the Hall, in its words, celebrates the game’s “newest heroes and freshest moments,” and this year that includes the jersey and a game ball used by Angels ace Jered Weaver when he threw his no-hitter May 2 against the Minnesota Twins.

Also on display are the cap and spikes worn by the San Francisco Giants’ Matt Cain when he tossed his perfect game against the Houston Astros a month ago, and the bat Josh Hamilton of the Texas Rangers used to hit four home runs in a game May 8.

Several items from last week’s All-Star game also were donated to the Hall of Fame.

They included the bat the Giants’ Pablo Sandoval used to hit his first-inning triple, the first bases-loaded triple in All-Star game history, along with the bat and cap of Atlanta Braves slugger Chipper Jones, who is retiring after this season.

Larkin and Santo will be inducted into the Hall on July 22, along with broadcaster and former big league catcher Tim McCarver and sportswriter Bob Elliott of the Toronto Sun.

Jersey sales

The All-Star break also prompted one vendor of big league apparel knockoffs to look at which players led its jersey sales, and there too the popularity of rookies Mike Trout of the Angels and Bryce Harper of the Washington Nationals was evident.

Derek Jeter of the New York Yankees was the American League leader in jersey sales through the first half of the season at Fanatics.com, with Hamilton second. (The jerseys sell for about $100 to $115 each.)

Trout was seventh, outselling the Detroit Tigers’ Prince Fielder and David Ortiz of the Boston Red Sox, the firm said.

In the National League, David Freese of the St. Louis Cardinals -- last year’s World Series most valuable player -- led jersey sales, followed by Jones. The 19-year-old Harper was third, ahead of the Cardinals’ Yadier Molina and the Dodgers’ Matt Kemp in fifth, Fanatics.com said.

The No. 1 seller overall? Jeter.

Philly fall

The wheels officially have come off for the once-mighty Philadelphia Phillies.

After winning the NL East for five consecutive years, the Phillies were 14 games below .500 through Friday (37-51) after losing nine of 10 games.

Philadelphia, which had been without Ryan Howard and Chase Utley for most of the season, was last in the division, 15 games behind the first-place Nationals.

--Jim Peltz