Interleague Play Hasn’t Tarnished This ‘Showcase’

Is it now just another interleague game, or does it remain something special?

Has baseball’s changing landscape changed the character of the All-Star game, which has its 68th renewal at Jacobs Field tonight?

Does the introduction of interleague play as part of the regular season detract from this meeting of American and National leaguers?

Not according to some of the people involved.

“I think interleague takes a little away from the World Series, but even in the World Series you don’t have the best players in the world on the field, and that’s what you have here,” said American League and New York Yankee Manager Joe Torre. “It’s still a showcase.”

National League and Atlanta Brave Manager Bobby Cox agreed, saying he’d like to be able to say interleague play detracted from the All-Star game because he’s a traditionalist.

“But it hasn’t taken away from anything, only added to it,” he said. “The fans love [interleague play], and it breaks up the season for all of us--new parks, new cities.”

Said Dodger catcher Mike Piazza: “I love interleague play, and I think it makes the All-Star game a lot more interesting. We get to see some of the same matchups we saw in interleague, and we get to see some we didn’t. I mean, this will never ever get old for me.”

Piazza, the National League’s top vote-getter this year and the most valuable player in last year’s game, will bat cleanup for Cox, who picked his own Greg Maddux, baseball’s premier stylist, to start against baseball’s premier power pitcher, Randy Johnson of the Seattle Mariners.

Neither pitcher likely will go more than an inning or two, and Cox said he put together his lineup hoping that Piazza and Jeff Bagwell, who bats fifth, might get a crack at Johnson in the first inning, which means that Craig Biggio, Tony Gwynn and Barry Bonds will have to keep it alive.

“I just hope he hits my bat,” Piazza said of the intimidating Johnson. “I faced him a couple years ago, but I understand he’s a lot nastier now.”

So nasty that the left-handed hitting Larry Walker, having a possible triple-crown season, chose not to play when the Colorado Rockies faced Johnson on June 13. Walker will start in right tonight, batting behind Bagwell.

“It’s amazing how it has gotten built up,” Walker said of this meeting with Johnson. “I’m just happy to be the first left-hander to have ever taken a day off against him. That’s all I’m getting asked about.”

Said Johnson: “I never looked at it like he was dodging me. I didn’t even realize he wasn’t in the lineup because there were still nine guys I had to get out.”

Johnson is 12-2 with a 2.20 earned-run average and 168 strikeouts in 131 innings. He is again throwing in the high 90s after last year’s back surgery and said tonight’s assignment was a particularly special reward, as well as a measure of his comeback.

“I’m throwing 99 [mph] again and there was no guarantee I would even pitch again,” Johnson said. “I came out of surgery so weak that I couldn’t even pick up a cup of coffee. I’m very grateful.

“I mean, everyone points to 1995 as my best year statistically [he was 18-2 with 294 strikeouts in 214 1/3 innings], but I was pushed so hard through therapy, physically and mentally, that I feel I’m a better pitcher now. I know I can get through it when I don’t have my best stuff or my back is a little stiff.”

And how far will the 6-foot-10 Johnson go tonight?

“As big as he is, I’ll ask him how far he wants to go,” Torre said.