All-star Cano gets an earful in K.C.

New York Yankees second baseman Robinson Cano went 1 for 2 in the All Star Game on Tuesday, fouling out to third in the first inning and singling in the fourth - and setting a record for consecutive days, and volume, of being booed.

Seems the fans in Kansas City were unhappy with Cano leaving hometown hero Billy Butler of the Royals off the American League team for the home-run derby, and didn't think it was enough to let him know, often, how displeased they were during the slugging display on Monday. They kept it up during Tuesday night's festivities.

While fans cheered every other player during pregame introductions - including Yankees Derek Jeter and Curtis Granderson - they still jeered Cano when he trotted out from the home dugout.

The relentless booing drew strong criticism from some commentators - who called the fans everything from "jerks" to "classless" - along with union chief Michael Weiner and commissioner Bud Selig.

Selig is even considering a new rule to include at least one hometown slugger in future derbies, reports our idol, ESPN's Jayson Stark.

We reserve judgment on the K.C. fans, but we do have advice for them: Boo Yankees, but never, ever, boo Santa.

Second to making a tough catch on a long fly-ball foul and having a big-league manager say "Sign that guy up!", this has to be the most common fan dream: finding a cache of valuable old baseball cards.

It happened to Karl Kissner of Defiance, Ohio. He was cleaning out his late grandfather's attic in February and found a soot-covered cardboard box under a wooden dollhouse. Inside were some oddly shaped baseball cards, smaller than he was used to seeing, but with some famous names: Ty Cobb, Cy Young, Honus Wagner, Christy Mathewson, Connie Mack.

A couple of weeks later, Kissner consulted some sports collectibles mavens, who told him he had a once-in-a-lifetime discovery worth up to $3 million.

Turns out the cards are from the extremely rare E98 series issued around 1910, of which only a few are known to exist - and those are in rough shape, faded and worn.

The ones from the attic, about 700 in all, are pristine.

"Every future find will ultimately be compared to this," said expert Joe Orlando.

Our collection, alas, is long gone - and was pretty beat up from being put in bicycle spokes. Of course, we mostly had doubles of the likes of Don Mossi, Claude Raymond, and John Boccabella.

New York Mets pitcher Dillon Gee has undergone surgery to remove a blood clot from an artery in his throwing shoulder. . . . Yankees reliever Joba Chamberlain struck out two and allowed an unearned run in one inning of work against the Gulf Coast League Pirates, his first game since injuring his right ankle in one of those spring-training trampoline mishaps.