Scioscia Had Blueprint for New All-Star Era

Baseball can thank Mike Scioscia, manager of the World Series champion Angels, for transforming the very nature of the All-Star game.

Seldom does a sport stumble into such a bonanza. On Tuesday night, baseball desperately needed a good game to justify a radical format switch, with the winner getting home-field advantage in the World Series. Instead, the sport saw the biggest come-from-behind win since 1955 and perhaps the best game since Ted Williams’ walk-off home run in ’41. The main reason was Scioscia.

The AL manager got it. Dusty Baker, the NL manager, didn’t.

“This Time It Counts” wasn’t just another slogan. When you can grab home-field advantage for the World Series, the stakes are very high.

All night Scioscia managed as if he were in a polite version of a playoff game. He broke all the unwritten rules of All-Star Game decorum, probably changing the game’s future in one night. As a result, the AL, trailing 5-1 in the fifth, won 7-6 with late-inning, home-run heroics against one of the best bullpens ever assembled. Meanwhile, Baker managed much as others have for the last 15 years. And lost.

In recent times, only the most famous stars get a third all-star at-bat. Hit the showers. Let the subs in. Only Barry Bonds and Albert Pujols, the two best NL players, got that respect from Baker. Scioscia slapped that tradition in the face. Six AL starters got a third at-bat.

Garret Anderson, exactly the kind of semi-great player who is normally pulled after two at-bats, got four trips -- and ended up the game’s MVP. In his third at-bat, he hit a two-run homer. In his last at-bat, his double ignited a three-run game-winning rally off Eric Gagne. (Forget the French pronunciation. Now, it’s “Gag-Knee.”)

At the seventh-inning stretch with the AL behind, 6-3, preparing to face Billy Wagner, Gagne and John Smoltz, Scioscia still had his power-laden lineup, and bench, set up exactly as he wanted. If 10 AL all-stars got only one at-bat or none at all, so be it. Let ‘em cope. Jason Giambi and Hank Blalock, whose two-run homer won the game, each hit homers in their only at-bats.

Baker understood the new all-star concept, but couldn’t bring himself to implement it. On Monday, he said how he hated to have players come thousands of miles for a token appearance.

In contrast, Scioscia talked to each AL player, telling him how important the game was and letting reserves know their exact late-inning role, as well as the possibility they wouldn’t play.

Perhaps Scioscia welcomed the chance to grab home-field advantage because nine months ago that edge helped give him his greatest baseball moment. Maybe Baker couldn’t bear to remember how painful it was to watch his team fall apart in Games 6 and 7 of the World Series last year in Anaheim. By the fifth inning of the All-Star Game, with a 5-1 lead, Baker had yanked seven of his nine starting players. Soon, his entire “bench” was someone named Geoff Jenkins. Dusty had counted his chickens too soon. Again.

How could Baker forget the seventh inning of Game 6 last October, when Scioscia’s Angels were as dead as a team could be. They trailed the Giants, 5-0. Baker, then the San Francisco manager, replaced starter Russ Ortiz. As Ortiz walked off the mound, Baker called him back and handed him the baseball for his trophy case. The Angels noticed the accidental insult and, annoyed, awoke.

The next batter, Scott Spiezio, hit a three-run homer. As his ball left the park, the crowd arrived. From that moment, the Angels were borne forward to World Series victory by home-field advantage as much as any team can be. The Angels outscored the Giants 10-1 over five innings starting with Spiezio’s blast. Does the same sequence of events happen if the games are in San Francisco?

A home-crowd adrenaline rush also helped save the Diamondbacks the year before. Arizona returned home after two of the most incredible losses in history -- the two-outs in the ninth, game-saving homers in Yankee Stadium by Tino Martinez and Scott Brosius.

Back home, the crowd loved up the Diamondbacks like they had done nothing wrong at all. After three innings of Game 6, Arizona led 12-0. Suddenly, all the momentum of the Yankee miracles was neutralized.

The next night, Arizona scored twice in the ninth to beat Mariano Rivera, 3-2, to end the best Series ever played. Do the Diamondbacks beat Rivera if that game is in Yankee Stadium? You can say, “Nobody knows.” But I know. They don’t.

Before this All-Star game, players were cautious about admitting how much this game meant. In part, their reluctance was face saving. These three days have been a mid-season lark since Babe Ruth’s time. All other sports have followed the same fun-first model. Think about it: How do you get players to work for free -- which is what an all-star game is -- if it isn’t played entirely on their terms? Bring the family. Kick back. Get worshipped. No pressure.

So baseball just changed the format and let human nature take its course. “It’s hard to say who’s going to be in the World Series,” said the Cards’ Woody Williams, who gave up Anderson’s two-run homer, “but if we do get there, it’s a big disadvantage.”

Afterward, Mariners players pointed out that their slugger, Edgar Martinez, would get an extra game at DH in a Series with home-field advantage. Giambi didn’t mince words, saying the intensity level was higher than in the past “because of what’s at stake.”

We can anticipate that the players’ union may not be entirely cheerful about the sudden importance of an unpaid “exhibition” game. But, for once, baseball has ‘em over a barrel. Great players are born competitors. The internal pressure to win the all-star game will only increase.