Bo Is Center of Show : Baseball: Jackson’s star power overshadows all else in Angels’ 4-1 victory over Twins.

It’s like having a lounge act interrupted by Pavarotti. Or playing a pickup basketball game with Michael showing up. Or appearing in a Broadway play with Pacino as your stand-in.

The Angels can win as many games as they desire this season, turn in an array of magnificent performances, but there always will be Bo.

Bo Jackson did not pitch seven shutout innings Wednesday in the Angels’ 4-1 victory over the Minnesota Twins; that was starter John Dopson, who gave up four hits, winning for the first time in nine months, spanning 17 games.

Bo did not hit a homer over the left-field fence in the fourth inning; that was Damion Easley, who hit his first homer in 51 weeks.

Bo did not earn a save by pitching the final two innings; that was Joe Grahe establishing himself as the Angels’ primary closer.

But that was Bo sending a ball into orbit, stopped only by the auxiliary light standard 190 feet above the field, for an infield double. That was Bo breaking his bat over his knee as if it were a brittle twig. And that was Bo glaring at the Twins’ ball boy as if he were Brian Bosworth.

“The guy is unbelievable, isn’t he?” Angel shortstop Gary DiSarcina said. “He brings a personality to this team that we didn’t have before. I can’t tell you how much he has meant to us.

“He’s confident, he’s cocky and he’s arrogant, but it’s not a bad arrogance by any means. He can back his words up. He’s such a huge talent that he takes the attention off all of us.

“You just want to stop what you’re doing and watch.”

The Bo show started in earnest in the fourth inning, when he struck out on three pitches, stranding runners on first and second. He screamed at himself, and then violently snapped the bat over his knee before stalking to the bench.

“If I had a gun, I probably would have shot everybody,” Jackson said, laughing. “So feel lucky.”

Said Angel Manager Buck Rodgers: “I didn’t think it was the time to get into any discussions or say, ‘How’s your knee?’ I just let him wander by. My mother didn’t raise any dumb kids.”

Said DiSarcina: “I thought, wow, at least limp or something. If I had done that, I would have broken my femur.”

Act II was presented in the bottom of the fourth, when Twin catcher Matt Walbeck hit a foul ball toward the Twin bullpen. Jackson ran toward the ball before stopping when the ball boy jumped out of his bullpen seat and tried to catch it himself. Jackson stared at him as the crowd erupted into laughter.

“I just stopped and looked at him and asked him if he wanted to play left field,” Jackson said.

For an encore, Jackson silenced the crowd in the sixth by swinging with all his might and hitting a towering fly ball toward right field. He immediately lost sight of the ball, as did everyone else in the stadium.

He rounded first base, peeked at right fielder Kirby Puckett, and realized Puckett had absolutely no idea where the ball went. Puckett looked at center fielder Rich Becker. Becker looked at second baseman Chuck Knoblauch. And they all stared at one another in confusion.

“I saw it hit and knew it was out toward Puck,” Knoblauch said. “The next thing I knew, I looked and said, ‘That ball ain’t coming down.’

“The ball could have come down and hit me in the head, and I wouldn’t have known it until it hit me.”

If this were his earlier years, Jackson might have been sprinting toward home by the time the ball landed. But these days, he’s running with an artificial left hip. Knoblauch picked up the ball, noticed that Jackson had barely rounded second, and threw him out at third.

“I lost it like everybody else,” said Jackson, a former Heisman Trophy winner who was wearing a T-shirt from the Downtown Athletic Club. “I hit the speaker in left-center about four or five years ago too.

“But you don’t get any points for that.”

Said Rodgers: “Most of us would have to take a fungo bat to hit that SOB. He flicks his wrists and hits it. You talk about power.”

And you talk about a man stealing the show, completely overshadowing Dopson’s performance. Dopson didn’t allow a runner to reach third base, struck out seven and permitted only three fly balls during his entire stint.

“That was the old John Dopson right there,” Rodgers said.

It was also the old Bo Jackson.