ALL-STAR GAME : Bo’s Show Gets a Go at Leadoff : Manager La Russa Saves His Best for First in AL Lineup

You know Bo. He hits home runs. He scores touchdowns. And in a new television commercial, he trades body checks with Wayne Gretzky.

But in tonight’s 60th baseball All-Star game at Anaheim Stadium, you’ll get to know Bo as you’ve never known Bo before.

Tonight, Bo Jackson bats leadoff.

Tony La Russa, manager of the American League All-Stars, made this revelation during a pre-workout news conference on Monday and by the time word drifted back to the AL clubhouse, the AL All-Stars could scarcely believe their All-Star ears.

“ No ,” said a shocked Kirby Puckett. “Oh my God . . . I don’t know what to say to that. . . . I guess Tony La Russa wants to throw him in there and give the people their money’s worth.”

Doug Rader, the AL third base coach, smiled broadly when told the news.

“Sweeeet,” was Rader’s first response.

Then, Rader’s face went blank. If this had been a cartoon, a light bulb would have blinked above Rader’s head.

“The only thing I have to ask myself is: If Bo’s batting leadoff, who the hell’s batting fourth?”

Bo is someone who, in the words of Angel coach Jimmie Reese, “can hit a ball eight miles.” Bo is a 225-pound outfielder who moonlights as a fullback and, in the words of National League outfielder Tony Gwynn, “looks like he’s been cut out of rock.”

Bo Jackson leads the American League in home runs. But leading off? Even for the multidimensional Bo, that’s breaking new ground.

Then again, this is what All-Star games are for. And if La Russa wouldn’t give the people everything they wanted--he had the chance to name Nolan Ryan, the old Angel Express, as his starting pitcher, but went instead with Dave Stewart--he could at least give them something to buzz about.

The rationale behind the move, La Russa explained, came from personal experience.

“Here’s one great example--well, it wasn’t so great for me,” said La Russa, manager of the Oakland Athletics. “We were playing Kansas City last week, we were up by one run in the ninth and Bo leads off.

“He chops a ball into the hole and beats it out easily. Then, we caught him leaning off first base and he beats the throw to second base. He ended scoring to tie it.

“Then he led off in the 11th with a single to right field, promptly stole second against a left-hander with the best move to first on our club, and scored the winning run. A couple days before that, he hit a three-run home run in the first inning.

“I think with him batting leadoff, it gives us a great chance to get on the board fast--and, hopefully, often.”

So, someone asked La Russa, does this mean Kansas City Manager John Wathan has been batting Bo in the wrong spot all along?

La Russa smiled.

“If John had the eight guys I have batting behind Bo, he’d consider it,” he said.

Then La Russa looked across the dais and spotted San Francisco’s Rick Reuschel, the National League’s starting pitcher.

“You want to make that starting pitcher uncomfortable right away,” La Russa said. “And if you have to face Bo Jackson and Wade Boggs and Kirby Puckett in the first inning, I don’t think Rick’s going to be that comfortable.”

Kansas City pitcher Mark Gubicza, the other half of the Royals’ All-Star contingent, thinks it’s a great idea.

“Amazing,” Gubicza said. “That gives him an extra at-bat and makes him that much more dangerous. Any time you can combine that power and that speed . . . he’s like a Rickey Henderson. Once he gets moving, no one is as quick as him.”

And what does Bo think about it?

“It doesn’t matter,” he said, dismissing the commotion in typical Bo style. “I think you guys make more of an issue out of it than anybody.”

Not that Bo doesn’t think he’s up to the task.

Bo Jackson, as Bo Jackson likes to call himself, is capable of many things.

“People in general, they don’t know Bo,” Bo said. “I’ve been knowin’ Bo for 26 years. I know what Bo can do. I know what Bo can’t do.

“Bo can play football. Bo can play baseball. Bo don’t know a damn thing about basketball.”

And about hockey, the sport he recently took up for the benefit of a sportswear company?

“Bo knows how to skate,” he confirmed.

Monday was an interesting day for Bo. He began it at the morning press conference, where NL president Bill White introduced him as “Bo Jackson of the Los Angeles Raiders.” Then, as the AL’s featured attraction in the home run hitting competition, he managed only one run in six swings of the bats, which drew some heavy teasing from Puckett.

“One home run, Bo,” Puckett said. “I can’t believe that. One home run .

But what a home run it was--a blast over the wall in left-center field estimated at 450 feet, the longest of the afternoon.

He also hit a ball off the left-field wall that nearly penetrated the wall, a line drive that ultimately did nothing to help the AL’s cause in the all-or-nothing home run derby. The National Leaguers, led by Cincinnati’s Eric Davis, won the exhibition, 9-5.

Kevin Mitchell of the San Francisco Giants, the major leagues’ home run leader with 31, watched this display and could only shake his head.

“He’s incredible,” Mitchell said. “It’s unbelievable how hard he hits the ball. I wish I could talk to him, just to communicate. I think we would have things to say. Maybe I could have my picture with him.”

Back to Rader’s question: If no Bo, who is going to bat cleanup for the American League?

Answer: Harold Baines of the Chicago White Sox.

This is noteworthy for one other reason. Baines, along with St. Louis’ Pedro Guerrero, will be the first designated hitter ever deployed in the All-Star game. Before 1989, pitchers always had to hit for themselves in these things.

Lasorda, who had taken a lot of heat for some of his reserve selections--Dodger Willie Randolph over San Francisco’s Robby Thompson or Houston’s Bill Doran--had his starting-pitcher decision simplified by Mike Scott’s hamstring injury. With Scott, the only 14-game winner in baseball unavailable tonight, Lasorda handed the assignment to Reuschel, who’s 12-3 with a 2.12 earned-run average.

More speculation surrounded La Russa’s selection. When it came down to the final cut, La Russa said he considered three names--Texas’ Ryan, who had some of his finest moments in Anaheim Stadium; the Angels’ Chuck Finley, another hometown favorite; and Oakland’s Stewart, the AL leader in wins at 13-4.

Finley was asked what it meant to have made the Final Three?

“It means Dave’s starting,” he said followed by a grin.

La Russa said there was more to the decision than simply the time-honored practice of going with your own guy.

“I definitely thought long and hard about Nolan,” La Russa said. “Considering his career, he would’ve been a real good choice. But I feel good about going with Stew.”

So does Stewart.

“I just happen to be selected starting pitcher by my own manager,” Stewart said. “That’s not fishy. That’s real. . . .

“They can criticize, but when you look at the numbers, there aren’t many guys who’ve led the league in wins who haven’t started.”

Ryan, when asked about it, was diplomatic.

“You know,” he drawled, “I think they made the right choice. . . . Every pitcher here would like to start. No one’s more deserving than Stewart.”

Besides, Ryan said, his moment in the Anaheim sun came last Thursday, when he shut out his old team in his first Anaheim Stadium appearance since 1979.

“That game was the really special one,” Ryan said. “(Tonight’s crowd) is more of a national crowd. That one was an Angel crowd. That game was one of the highlights of my career.”

Stewart has one more thing going in his favor as tonight’s AL starter.

He’s pumped.

The motivation came during Monday’s press conference, when Lasorda was rhapsodizing about the many virtues of his National League lineup.

“I know one thing,” Lasorda said. “When (Stewart) went to sleep last night, thinking about the National League hitters he’ll be facing, I’m sure he tossed and turned.”

The comment drew laughter from the assembled media, but only a forced smile from Stewart.

“Lasorda has a way of saying things,” Stewart said later. “Somehow, he brings stuff out of you. He makes that statement about me dreaming about his lineup, like I’m the only one (worrying) and they’re going to knock me all over the park. That’s the way I interpreted that.

“Let me tell you, they’ve got some things to think about over there, too.”

And Stewart considers himself one of them. Another goes by the name Bo Jackson, who, for one night, will go by the title leadoff hitter.

Rick Reuschel, the next move is yours.