Major League Notebook

Associated Press

The baseball notebook ...

BROWNWOOD, Texas — The widow of the firefighter who fell to his death at a Texas Rangers game says the team, baseball and Josh Hamilton remain precious to her and her 6-year-old son.

In a statement released Tuesday, Jenny Stone also thanked everyone who has reached out to help her family since her husband, 39-year-old Shannon Stone, died Thursday night.

Among those mentioned were team president Nolan Ryan and a man who helped care for young Cooper the night his father died, and then visited the grieving family on Sunday.

“We are also thankful for Nolan Ryan, Josh Hamilton, the Texas Rangers, the Rangers fans, and all baseball fans, which have showed such concern and compassion,” Jenny Stone wrote in her first public comments. “While I was certainly surprised to hear Nolan Ryan on my phone on Friday morning, I was not surprised that he would act just like we all see him, as a true Texas gentleman. Josh Hamilton remains Cooper’s favorite baseball player, the Texas Rangers will always be our team, and baseball will always be our favorite game. ... Shannon loved going to watch the Rangers and he loved Cooper. And, at the very end, he lived life to its fullest, doing something he loved.”

Stone lost his balance reaching for a ball thrown by Hamilton — Cooper’s favorite player — and fell headfirst 20 feet onto concrete. He died an hour later.

Hamilton, in Phoenix for the All-Star Game, said he plans to reach out to the Stone family at some point.

“Obviously, I want it to be personal, face to face,” he said Monday. “I’d love to know what kind of man Mr. Stone was and just meet his wife and his little boy and see where it goes from there. .. Nothing we can do is going to bring him back. But the organization can take care of the family and see that everything is going in the right direction.”

Two nights after Stone’s death, Hamilton hit a game-winning, ninth-inning home run for the Rangers, a release of sorts for a man who was once addicted to drugs and lives with an abundance of Christian faith. He was simply tossing the ball toward a fan who had a young boy with him.

“Just a random act of kindness turned tragic,” Hamilton said. “It just lets you know how quickly life can change, just in a blink of an eye, that quick.”

BAUTISTA

PHOENIX — If this is another Year of the Pitcher in another Era of the Pitcher, it hasn't made a difference to the Toronto Blue Jays' Jose Bautista, the most feared hitter in Tuesday night's All-Star Game -- and never mind he didn't make it out of Home Run Derby's first round Monday night.

"There's no denying it," Bautista said of baseball's turn from beefed-up hitters to dominant pitchers. "Look at the stats all over, and you come to the conclusion the game has changed from the late '90s and early 2000s to now. It's not that we think that. It's what the statistics say. There's no denying it.

"All I know is, I feel comfortable coming to the plate, and I've been successful with my game plan the last 21/2 years and hope I can remain with that consistency."

Bautista is posting numbers that haven't been seen since big leaguers rampantly used performance-enhancing drugs without fear of penalties. Despite missing eight games, he's hitting .334 with 31 homers and 65 RBIs.

Since last year's All-Star break, he has homered 61 times.

IMMIGRATION PROTESTERS

PHOENIX — Critics of a polarizing immigration law in Arizona protested the legislation Tuesday in triple-digit heat outside Major League Baseball's All-Star Game in downtown Phoenix, drawing sideways glances from fans who were more interested in getting to the game.

Two separate pro-immigrant groups protested outside of Chase Field before the game, with one quietly passing out white ribbons that symbolized peace and unity and the other loudly chanting in bullhorns and marching in circles with signs that read "Boycott hate" and "Stand with us."

SB1070, signed by Gov. Jan Brewer in April, requires all immigrants to obtain or carry immigration registration papers and requires police, while enforcing other laws, to question people's immigration status if there is a reasonable suspicion they're in the country illegally.