BALTIMORE — Terry Francona was managing the American League All-Star team last July at Yankee Stadium when the game went into extra innings.

The A.L. eventually won in the bottom of the 15th inning, but in the 14th, the Red Sox manager walked down to the end of the dugout and told Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter he wished the Braves' Nate McLouth had hit a home run instead of flying out to deep right field.

Jeter was stunned that Francona would make such a statement, especially given the fact the winner of the game gets home-field advantage in the World Series.

"We're good enough to win without home-field advantage," Francona joked to Jeter.

Francona just wanted the game to be over without causing harm to any of the players. In fact, he doesn't think that's a good way to decide home-field advantage.

"I don't agree with it," he said. "I understand their point because they want this game to be [important and entertaining] and they've accomplished that. I just think you can't do both."

Rosters for the 80th Major League Baseball All-Star Game will be announced on Sunday as fan balloting ends Thursday at midnight.

Currently three Red Sox players are in the mix — Kevin Youkilis, Jason Bay and Dustin Pedroia. Youkilis (1,915,303 votes) reclaimed the lead for A.L. first basemen over the Yankees' Mark Teixeira (1,875,256). Pedroia (2,163,270) narrowly trails the Rangers' Ian Kinsler (2,170,100) for second base. Bay (2,609,913) leads all A.L. outfielders and is set to make his first midsummer classic appearance.

Fans vote for the starting lineups in each league. Backup are decided by players votes. Starting pitchers and relievers are also voted on by the players. The All-Star managers — Tampa's Joe Maddon for the A.L. and Philadelphia's Charlie Manuel for the N.L. — select the remaining players. Every MLB team must have a representative. This year's game will be held July 14 in St. Louis.

Francona has managed the All-Star game twice, in 2005 and 2008, since the Red Sox won the previous year's World Series. He knows Maddon and Manuel will have their hands full, trying to keep everyone happy with playing time, while also attempting to win the game.

Francona believes there should be changes made to selection process by adding more players in order to protect the health of players, especially pitchers in case the game goes extra innings like it did last year. The game is important because of what's at stake, but if a player were to get hurt, the respective organization would not be happy.

Also, there are sometimes special cases where a player deserves to be selected for the game, but can't due to number restrictions. Case in point: Former Yankees pitcher Mike Mussina was having a strong season in 2008 and deserved to be on the team, especially with the game being played at Yankee Stadium.

"We had no chance to put him on the team," said Francona. "I had no chance to put him on the team because of the rules in place. I had no way to do it. I thought he would have been a great selection. He also could have covered for playing 15 innings."

Francona thinks a separate category for pitchers to work as setup guys in the game could be a solution.

"There are ways to have extra pitching and market it so the manager can be expected to be competitive," he said. "You're trying to compete, and you're also trying to get guys in the game. It's not fair to the manager to be put in that position."

For the last decade it's become a tradition for the All-Star managers to get every All-Star player into the game because it's such an honor to be selected. For some it could be their only All-Star game.

"We try to [win and get everybody in the game," Francona said. "We did it both times [I managed] and we won. We told the team before the game what I was going to try to do -- play everybody and win. Everyone was very cooperative and we managed to do it. I was very thankful because it wasn't easy. It took a lot of fun out of it."

Francona hopes to manage the game again because that means his club won another World Series. That would really make Jeter look at Francona with a different look.

jmcdonal@projo.com