This wasn't another alleged conspiracy, the equivalent of the fastball that Chan Ho Park supposedly grooved to Cal Ripken Jr. in 2001, enabling Ripken to hit a home run in his final All-Star Game.

Let the record show that Rangers second baseman Ian Kinsler actually did try to field the slow, five-hopper by the Braves' Chipper Jones through the first-base hole on Tuesday night.

Kinsler . . . just . . . couldn't . . . get . . . there.

"I felt like I had cement blocks on my feet," Kinsler would say later. "I wasn't the quickest and most nimble on my feet at that moment."

Jones, 40, took his final All-Star at-bat with one out in the top of the sixth inning, pinch-hitting for the Cardinals' Matt Holliday with the National League leading, 8-0.

Kinsler had just entered the game for the AL, but wasn't quite loose. In the tunnels underneath Kaufmann Stadium, Kinsler said, there wasn't much room to run.

Jones swung at the first pitch, a low fastball from White Sox left-hander Chris Sale. Kinsler leaned toward his right when the ball was struck, then broke back to his left.

Too late.

Jones busted down the line, then broke into a wide grin as he reached first, knowing the ball probably should not have rolled through the hole and into right field.

"I was thinking beat it out all the way," Jones joked. "Forty years old, an infield hit in the All-Star Game. It's actually the way I scripted it."

What did he think was so funny?

"I knew that when I turned around I was going to see (Derek) Jeter and Adam Dunn on the top step laughing at me for busting down the line trying to beat that out," Jones said. "True to form, they were giving me guff."

One of the Braves' beat writers remarked to Jones that Kinsler did not appear to give his best effort on the ball.