Spiezio Identifies First Priority

First base does not seem like the most complex position to play. A grounder is hit to an infielder, you run to the bag and catch the throw. A grounder is hit to first, you catch it and either step on the bag or flip the ball to the pitcher.

Nothing to it, right?

Well, not if a few other possibilities are mixed in, like fielding a grounder, spinning 270 degrees, firing to second to start a double play and getting back to the bag for the relay. And leaping for a wild throw and swiping a tag on a runner.

Or making that split-second decision to either field a grounder in the hole or let the second baseman take it. And cutting off a throw from the outfield and firing to third. And fielding a drag bunt and making an off-balance throw to a moving target, the pitcher covering first.

“You don’t want to think about them all too much, you just want to react as they happen,” said Scott Spiezio, the Angel utility player who hopes to beat out Wally Joyner and rookie Larry Barnes for the first-base job this spring.

“It’s like driving a car. If you think too much about your hands in the 10-o’clock-and-two-o’clock position, the speed limit, your turn signals--it doesn’t come naturally. That’s when you make mistakes.”

Spiezio, a third baseman in the minor leagues and a second baseman at Oakland in 1997-98, is not a natural at first. He played one full college season there at Illinois and has logged about 40 big-league games at first.

But Spiezio showed in 29 games last season that he can field the position competently, making one error in 146 chances. And his power potential could give him a slight edge over Joyner and Barnes and ease the loss of Mo Vaughn, who will miss the season because of elbow surgery.

In 297 at-bats last season, the switch-hitting Spiezio batted .242 with 17 homers and 49 runs batted in, figures that would project to 31 homers and 91 RBIs in a full season of 550 at-bats.

“I haven’t done that yet, but I know the way I felt last year, and if I get more consistent at-bats and twice the number of at-bats, I feel I can double my home runs,” Spiezio, 28, said. “But until I actually go out and do that, it’s my word against everyone else’s.”

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Joyner, the 38-year-old veteran who was a star rookie on the Angels’ 1986 playoff team, made his first spring-training appearance Sunday, and a wave of nostalgia swept through the Tempe Diablo Stadium clubhouse.

Third baseman Troy Glaus remembered being a fourth grader at Chatsworth Park Elementary School and getting caught up in the Wally World phenomenon. Pitcher Mike Fyhrie, then a junior at Huntington Beach Ocean View High, remembered all the Wally World signs in Anaheim Stadium that summer.

“And I’m 31 now,” Fyhrie said.

Yep, it was enough to make a veteran first baseman feel like, well, a 38-year-old. “This is pretty weird,” Joyner admitted, “but we’ll see, maybe I can hang with these guys.”

If Joyner, who is coming off three injury-plagued seasons, shows he is healthy, he’ll have a good shot at beating out Spiezio and Barnes.

“But it’s not a given,” he said. “I’m a non-roster player, and the Angels aren’t going to do me any favors. I have to prove I can play.”

If he isn’t the starter, Joyner said he will retire this spring. If he plays this season in Anaheim, it will be his final year in the game.

“There’s no reason to save anything--let’s go all out,” Joyner said. “If it doesn’t work out, I can pack my bags, drive home to Utah and say, ‘Gosh, it’s been fun.’ But I don’t want to be halfway to Utah and think, ‘If I would have worked a little harder, would I have made it?’ ”

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Manager Mike Scioscia believes Spiezio, Joyner and Barnes are capable first basemen, so offense will likely determine who wins the job.

“Spiezio brings a power dimension that Wally doesn’t have, and Wally is more of a contact hitter,” Scioscia said. “We don’t know that much about Barnes, but he has the potential to be a good gap-to-gap hitter.”