Mike Modano is a double threat with a hockey stick and a baseball bat. A few years ago, he won the Home Run Derby at the annual Celebrity Heroes Baseball Game at Dr Pepper Ballpark in Frisco. But when this year's game is played June 28, there will be some new power hitters in the derby.

The pregame home run contest is a staple of the fundraiser for inner-city kids. Sex and the City hunk Jason Lewis and entrepreneur Todd Wagner are also previous derby winners. Not that the competition is stiff.

"It's more like a Ground Ball Derby," Mr. Modano joked last year.

No more.

Former major leaguers Orestes Destrade, Kevin Bass, Brian McRae and Wade Boggs will be swinging for the fences alongside celebrities such as Mr. Modano, Mark Cuban, Jason Terry, Michael Irvin, DeMarcus Ware and Donnie Nelson as well as Friday Night Lights and Speed Racer star Scott Porter, October Road star Geoff Stults and others.

The Celebrity Heroes Baseball Game will benefit the Heroes Foundation and the Mike Modano Foundation. Tickets ($5 to $15) are available through Ticketmaster or at the Dr Pepper Ballpark box office.

I just read D magazine's July editor's page, written by my nemesis, Tim Rogers (Snidely Whiplash to my Dudley Do-Right). While citing the Lakeside Drive mansion of Ron Unkefer as prima facie evidence supporting his utopian property-tax ideal (let homeowners make their own appraisals), Tim does a masterful job of describing the hole and missing the doughnut.

That's what I'm here for – the doughnuts.

On the market for pennies under $15 million, the Unkefer house is hallowed ground in Highland Park. It's the former home of Highland Park Village's 93-year-old owner Henry S. Miller Jr. and his late wife, Juanita. Among the many famous folk they entertained was opera diva Maria Callas.

Later, when they turned ownership of the home over to their daughter Patsy Donosky and her husband, David, I had a literal brush with fame in the living room. Hemmed in by admirers, Cher kept backing up and backing up until her bottom had an unintentional close encounter with my palm. (I just hummed "I Got You Babe" and tried to act casual.)

When the Donoskys moved out, the house was purchased by Maryann and Frank Mihalopoulos, who spent millions revamping and expanding it. They then moved two blocks away after buying the house of real estate scion Trammell S. Crow after his divorce from wife Barbara, daughter of oilman Herbert Hunt. (Are you following this?)

The Lakeside mansion next became the property of Mr. Unkefer and his wife, Terry, who only want a measly $14.995 million to vacate.

You see, Tim? Doughnuts.

"When we remember that we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands explained." Mark Twain