Zito Experience Is Another Black Eye

By Ross New

July 15, 2003 12 AM PT

CHICAGO —

So, Roger Clemens is in, Barry Zito is out, and Bret Boone says that what baseball needs most is a truly unbiased commissioner, prompting Bud Selig’s top lieutenant to call the remarks ignorant.

Ho hum.

Just when you thought the concept of having home-field advantage in the World Series determined by the outcome of an exhibition game is about as crazy, controversial and convoluted as it can get, Major League Baseball was left to sort out another embarrassing development on the very eve of tonight’s 74th All-Star game.

Or how loony is it when Zito, the Oakland Athletics’ left-hander and the American League’s reigning Cy Young Award winner, learns from a reporter that he is no longer an active member of the AL team?

“It’s like you’re with a girl and one of her friends comes up and says she doesn’t want to date you anymore,” a stunned and perturbed Zito said.

Reacting to this unorthodox kiss off, an MLB official sighed and said: “It doesn’t look good, does it?”

It looked as if baseball had hired Oliver Stone as an advisor.

It looked as if this were one large 11th-hour conspiracy to get Clemens on the AL team, a late and awkward concession to the critics who felt he should have been there to start with considering he is ending his spectacular career at the end of the season.

AL Manager Mike Scioscia didn’t exactly dilute this theory when he said:

“The league strongly wanted to give a guy with Roger’s accomplishments a last chance in the All-Star game. I didn’t know about it until I got here [Sunday night] and was told Barry was out and Roger was in.”

The apparent alternative was Angel closer Troy Percival, but while there had been a general discussion about possible candidates if a late change had to be made for some reason, Percival’s manager didn’t get the last word.

MLB executive Sandy Alderson, involved in the selection process from start to this confusing finish, made the decision for him and dismissed the idea of a conspiracy or that baseball should be embarrassed.

“I don’t know if it’s necessary to reach that conclusion,” Alderson said.

“It’s unfortunate if there was some ambiguous communication [between the A’s and Zito and MLB and Zito], but the process worked the way it should and wasn’t manipulated.

“It’s important to start with the end result, which is that Roger Clemens is both a deserving and important addition to the team. It came down to which of the available candidates fit a criteria of an outstanding first half or an outstanding first half with fan appeal beyond the statistics.

“Roger fit the criteria on all counts.”

Although the notion of a conspiracy may fit the cynical view that it’s impossible to put anything beyond the people who gave us collusion and contraction, this was probably nothing more than one large failure to communicate.

Alderson said he had no choice but to make a change in the AL’s 12-man staff when the A’s called him Sunday night, after Zito had made 106 pitches in an eight-inning stint against Baltimore, and said they didn’t want him used in the All-Star game.

The word, however, never reached Zito until a reporter informed him he was off the team during Monday’s media session.

“I just want to know the reason,” a mystified Zito said.

“Is it because I don’t deserve to be here or they don’t have confidence in me pitching on one day’s rest?”

Amid the ensuing confusion, A’s Manager Ken Macha, speaking from Oakland, said the club didn’t deem it prudent for Zito, scheduled to pitch in Minnesota on Friday, to risk pitching so soon.

Macha noted that two Oakland pitchers, Mark Mulder and Keith Foulke, remain on the AL staff and said, “My feeling was that if Mulder pitches two innings and Foulke one, three innings [by Oakland pitchers] is adequate.”

In acting on the A’s wishes, MLB undoubtedly thought about the embarrassment of last year’s 11-inning tie in which both teams ran out of players and Zito’s one-batter stint after again pitching on the Sunday before the game was the shortest of any All-Star pitcher and played into the outcome, not to mention the expansion of this year’s rosters.

Well, by the time that the AL team worked out late Monday afternoon, Zito had cooled down enough to participate. He will be introduced with the rest of the team tonight.

“Physically I’m fine,” he said. “I could pitch to more than one batter. Ken Macha and [pitching coach] Rick Peterson had talked to me after Sunday’s start and said they were reluctant to have me pitch in the All-Star game, but I didn’t realize it was the final word.

“I mean, I didn’t want to just come here and freeload. I want to help the American League get home-field advantage, but I have to answer to my manager, and I know my primary responsibility is with the A’s. I also think it’s a beautiful thing for Roger to be part of this in his final year.

“I’m honored to be here and excited to meet him. I’ve only pitched against him before.”

So, Cy Young yielded to Cy Old amid the kind of confusion that baseball produces so well and often. Underscoring the mixed feelings about the new All-Star concept was the opinionated Boone saying that the home-field advantage in the World Series should be based on the best record in the regular season, that Selig has made a lot of bad decisions (“including this new format”) and that baseball needs a truly unbiased commissioner who isn’t a club owner (or has been one) and doesn’t favor either the owners or players.

“Someone like my grandmother,” Boone said, “because I know she’d do a good job.”

Robert DuPuy, of course, may not know Boone’s grandmother, but baseball’s chief operating officer said the comments about Selig could only be categorized as ignorant, which prompted Boone to say that he didn’t know how to respond to a man “who doesn’t know me” and that he wasn’t being personal about Selig, simply expressing the view that the Milwaukee Brewer owner -- OK, it’s being held in trust -- is perpetuating a conflict of interest.

It was all a swell addition to baseball’s image on the eve of a game designed to help enhance it.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Rocket Climb

Roger Clemens moves into a tie for seventh place among pitchers by being selected for his ninth All-Star game. A look:

17 ... Warren Spahn

12 ... Tom Seaver

10 ... Steve Carlton

10 ... Don Drysdale

10 ... Whitey Ford

10 ... Juan Marichal

9 ... Jim Bunning

9 ... ROGER CLEMENS