A Star Is Born: His Name Is Terry Steinbach : .217 Hitter Delivers as the American League Wins All-Star Game, 2-1

Every All-Star Game, even when offense is scarce, has to be remembered for something. This one was more transitional than traditional, what with a record number of first-time players supplanting many familiar names and faces.

So it was Tuesday night at Riverfront Stadium, as baseball’s 59th All-Star game unexpectedly belonged to the lesser known as well as the American League, which eked out a 2-1 win over the National League led by several players who are used to spending the midseason hiatus watching the game on television.

Oakland catcher Terry Steinbach, who definitely needs an introduction, was the only slugger, hitting a third-inning home run off Dwight Gooden for the game’s first run and bringing in the second with a deep sacrifice fly.

Minnesota’s Frank Viola was the dominating starting pitcher, retiring the six batters he faced for the win. And recycled reliever Dennis Eckersley, another Oakland Athletic, once again warmed to the stopper role in the ninth inning for the save.

This wasn’t totally a night for the new and reborn. Yankee outfielder Dave Winfield represented the Old Guard quite well, slashing his seventh career All-Star double in the fourth inning--a record--and later scoring what proved to be the winning run. And the 36-year-old Winfield didn’t even need a walker to get around the bases.

“There’s a lot of good new talent out there, and we can play,” Viola said. “We’re the new breed. It shows that if you work hard enough and long enough, your time will come.”

Had it not been for Steinbach and the impressive work of seven pitchers, the American League might not have won the All-Star Game for the third time in the last six meetings after losing 19 of the previous 20.

A few of the players involved--there was a record 30 first-timers--weren’t even born when the NL’s streak of dominance began.

If the American League is considered the underdog, then Steinbach could be their mascot. Wearing a protective shield that covers the left side of his face after suffering a broken bone near his left eye, Steinbach could go to Broadway as “The Phantom of the Ballpark.”

Steinbach’s .217 batting average, augmented by 5 home runs and 19 RBIs in an injury-shortened first half, had many wondering how he could appear at a showcase for, presumably, baseball’s best. After a good rookie season in 1987, Steinbach was voted in by the fans ahead of veteran Angel catcher Bob Boone and the Twins’ Tim Laudner.

“Terry just didn’t have the numbers this year, maybe because of the injury, but he’s capable of being one of the best catchers in the league,” Eckersley said. “He showed that last year. He’s one of these young guys. You see them now, more than ever. Teams are going with younger players, and the old guys are starting to fade out.”

Eckersley, at 33, is six years older than the average-aged player on the American League team. It has been six years since he last appeared in an All-Star game, and that was as a starter. And Viola, the World Series’ MVP, is a late-blooming star at 28.

Comparatively, though, Steinbach was the surprising story of this All-Star game.

Facing a rehabilitated and recharged Gooden of the New York Mets in the third inning of a scoreless and bland affair, Steinbach saw a fastball whiz by him for a strike. But on the second pitch, Steinbach struggled with an inside fastball and sent what Gooden later described as a dressed-up “pop-up” to right field.

The Mets’ Darryl Strawberry, in right field, stayed in front of the ball as it traveled nearer the wall. Strawberry was a few feet from the warning track when he leaped and reached his glove over the wall. The ball apparently hit the top of the fence, then glanced off Strawberry’s glove before disappearing into the crevice between the wall and the bleachers.

Steinbach rounded the bases to the shocked and subdued applause of the crowd of 55,837. Gooden, who had no problem handling the likes of Winfield, Cal Ripken and Mark McGwire the previous inning, simply looked at the ground.

Strawberry said he was not sure whether the ball hit the fence. But he did say it hit the side of his glove. Had he not played Steinbach so shallow in right field, Strawberry said, he might have been able to time his leap and catch the ball.

“It was kind of a routine fly ball,” Strawberry said. “The ball carries (well) here, and it just kept going and going and going. I was playing him kind of shallow. I didn’t know much about the guy. All you know is the home run hitters. Does this guy hit a lot of home runs?”

Told that Steinbach had 5 home runs this season and 18 in 406 major league at-bats, Strawberry laughed.

Steinbach and his teammates had the laughs after the third-inning home run, which gave them a 1-0 lead. The AL made it 2-0 an inning later against Houston pitcher Bob Knepper.

With one out, Winfield slashed a double into the left-center field gap. In addition to being a record seventh All-Star double, it tied Winfield with Mickey Mantle and Joe Morgan for most consecutive games hitting safely with seven. After Ripken walked and McGwire singled to load the bases, Steinbach launched a fly to the warning track in left, scoring Winfield.

In a way, it was a more prodigious shot than his home run. Either way, it gave the American League a two-run lead it needed, because the National League rallied in the fourth in the swift fashion of its manager, St. Louis’ Whitey Herzog.

With Kansas City’s Mark Gubicza pitching, Vince Coleman singled to center, stole second base and went to third when Steinbach’s throw bounced into center field. Gubicza struck out Ryne Sandberg and, with Andre Dawson up, he threw a wild pitch that Steinbach had no chance to stop. That enabled Coleman to score and make it 2-1.

That’s the way it ended, as the drought of runs in recent All-Star games continued almost unabated against Toronto’s Dave Stieb, Texas’ Jeff Russell, Cleveland’s Doug Jones, Milwaukee’s Dan Plesac and Eckersley, who had 26 saves in the first half and notched his first as an All-Star. Viola got the win in his first All-Star appearance.

In the last five games, a total of 20 runs have scored. In the last nine games, the winning team has scored only five runs twice.

On Tuesday night, excellent defensive plays were turned in the Yankees’ Don Mattingly in the seventh inning, diving for a grounder and making an inning-ending force play in seventh with two runners on base; Ripken on a hard-hit grounder in the second, Seattle’s Harold Reynolds on a running catch in shallow right field in the eighth and, for the NL, Andy Van Slyke’s diving catch in left field in the seventh.

This, indeed, was a night on which the biggest offensive blast, by the most unlikely slugging candidate, was called a pop-up by the pitcher.

“I didn’t crush the ball, I admit that,” Steinbach said.

In this All-Star era, he didn’t have to.