Times change. Affections fade. And even icons have bad seasons.

We understand.

Yet still, it will feel as if something is amiss on Tuesday night. If it isn't disorienting enough that Major League Baseball is holding an All-Star Game at a ballpark that the White Sox, have recently begun calling U.S. Cellular Field -- doesn't quite carry the sentimental value of the Comiskey name, does it? -- it becomes even more unsettling doing it without Sammy Sosa and Frank Thomas.

	This will be the first year Sammy Sosa won't play in the All-Star Game since 1998.

If they were going to do that, they might as well have gone ahead and put players in gentrified league uniforms, because an All-Star Game is not going to seem like an All-Star game without Thomas and, especially Sosa.

At least fans of the host Sox can root for those two longtime fan favorites, Esteban Loaiza and Carl Everett.

It wouldn't seem so weird to have Loaiza and Everett if there was also a Thomas or a Sosa. One or the other of the two Chicago icons has been in every All-Star Game since 1993.

How long has that been?

Well, the last time an All-Star Game featured neither Thomas nor Sosa, the commissioner was Fay Vincent and the average salary had just crept over the $1 million mark. The Big Hurt was a shy 24-year-old with bright eyes and an almost surreal patience at the plate and Sammy was a wildly exuberant 23-year-old in the first of his 12 seasons with the Cubs.

It's fair to say both know a whole lot more now than they knew then.

As jaded as they have become about the business of baseball, the media inspection of their skills and their personal lives and the fickle nature of public adoration, both Sosa and Thomas would love to have been invited to the 74th All-Star Game.

Thomas, who has played his entire career based on one side or the other of the intersection of 35th and Shields on Chicago's south side, deserves to have made the American League team.

He's batting .272 with 20 homers and 48 RBI. Those are borderline numbers for a one-dimensional player, but they don't truly reflect his value. Thomas has once again mastered the strike zone, taking 62 walks (second in the American League) to elevate his on-base percentage to .411. He's tied for fourth among AL qualifiers with a .969 OPS.

Yet Thomas has been bypassed five different ways for a spot. He wasn't elected by the fans (who had him third at DH, behind Edgar Martinez and Everett) or the players (who also put Erubiel Durazo ahead of him) and then was left off by AL manager Mike Scioscia, who used his five picks on Detroit's Dmitri Young and four pitchers. He lost out to Boston catcher Jason Varitek in online voting for the 32nd spot, then got bruised again when Scioscia selected the Yankees' Jason Giambi to replace injured Kansas City first baseman Mike Sweeney.

Thomas criticizes the process for taking too many hot players and not enough established stars, but has shown a lack of outrage about his own omission.

The last time an All-Star Game featured neither (Frank) Thomas nor (Sammy) Sosa, the commissioner was Fay Vincent and the average salary had just crept over the $1 million mark. The Big Hurt was a shy 24-year-old with bright eyes and an almost surreal patience at the plate and Sammy was a wildly exuberant 23-year-old in the first of his 12 seasons with the Cubs.

"I've had better numbers at the break before and gotten snubbed,'' Thomas said. "That's why I don't make an issue of it. It's more of a sentimental thing this year with the game being played at Comiskey Park.''

Thomas, who agonized through a divorce in 1998-99, will spend the break in Las Vegas, hunting for a new house. He's spent recent offseasons in the Los Angeles area, but is on the move again.

"I'll enjoy my three days off,'' Thomas said. "I have things that have to get done anyway, so it could be a blessing.''

Thomas, meanwhile, isn't a fan of the new format to select All-Stars.

"There are just too many great players not in that game -- Pedro (Martinez), Giambi, Sammy,'' Thomas said. "And Roger Clemens should be there in his last go-around ... The league has to get back to the old-school way of doing it. You know the stars in the league, guys who you know do it on a day-to-day basis. Those are your All-Stars, not guys who go out and have two good months. I don't know why the league is leaning that way.''

Thomas also believes Sosa should be playing in the game.

"I don't care what type of first half Sammy had,'' he said. "We all know about the suspension for the corked-bat thing, but he still has (good numbers). For him not to be in the All-Star Game in Chicago, that's a major problem.''

In Thomas' strongest words, he challenged the last-minute rush of votes for Albert Pujols, saying it raised questions about the validity of the process.

"C'mon,'' Thomas told the Chicago Tribune's Teddy Greenstein. "They said Pujols got a million and a half votes in four days. Where the hell did a million and a half votes comes from in four days? I don't trust the voting. Now, nobody trusts it.''

Missing 24 games due to a toe injury and the seven-game suspension for using a corked bat, Sosa had his least productive first half. Yet, he is hitting .296 with 15 homers and 46 RBI.

Sosa would have been a target for fans at U.S. Cellular, as he was during the three-game series against the Sox two weeks ago, but there's no denying the All-Star Game lost a lot of its sizzle when Sosa was bumped off the team by that late surge of votes for Pujols and Gary Sheffield.

The home run contest certainly won't be the same. His enthusiasm could have made up for the ambivalence of so many superstars. Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez and Manny Ramirez are among those who have said they don't want any part of the Monday night production.

Sosa took his fall with grace.

	Frank Thomas has spent his entire 14-year career with the White Sox, but hasn't played in an All-Star Game since 1995.

"Too bad I missed too many games and didn't have the numbers I'm used to having,'' Sosa said. "You have to understand, those guys have some good numbers, no question. It's something I'm going to miss, but I will be back next year. I probably motivated a lot of those youngsters who are coming up and having unbelievable years.''

Sosa says this will make him fresher for the stretch in 2003 and more hungry in 2004.

"Sometimes when those kind of situations happen, they happen for a reason,'' he told the Tribune's Paul Sullivan. "I believe I need to take a couple days off and relax and get ready for the second half, because the second half is going to be big for our team. I need to be there every minute.''

Baker agrees that Sosa will benefit from time off. "It might be a good idea for Sammy to use this break to go underground,'' he said.

Kerry Wood says it's no disgrace to be bumped by Pujols. "Pujols is obviously just out of this world this year, hitting everything in sight,'' said Wood, who along with Mark Prior will represent the Cubs. "I don't think Sammy's feelings will get hurt too bad. Albert has had a great year.''

But ESPN's Harold Reynolds is among those who thinks Sosa is being shunned because of the damage done to his reputation by using a corked bat.

"It's a direct result of the corked bat incident, in my mind,'' Reynolds said. "If (players) really think the guy is cheating, why are they going to elect him? This is really the players saying we don't believe you.''

As difficult as it is to believe Sosa didn't know he was using a corked bat in that game against Tampa Bay on June 3, it's just as hard to believe they're playing an All-Star Game in Chicago without Sosa and Thomas. Might as well take away the deep-dish pizza, too.

Phil Rogers is the national baseball writer for the Chicago Tribune, which has a Web site at www.chicagosports.com.