Baseball’s All-Star game: Stars come out, but they don’t always get in

Chone Figgins was an All-Star last year but didn’t play.

Jered Weaver could be an All-Star this year and be barred from playing.

Recent rules that have expanded baseball’s All-Star rosters haven’t necessarily resulted in more players getting in the game. But this year, as the stars gather in Anaheim on July 13, there’s a new wrinkle designed to allow more players to participate.

For the first time, each manager can designate one player to reenter the game in case of an injury. That means there will be no need to hold players in reserve as a precaution.

“That’s going to go a long way to being able to use more players because you’re not always worried about getting caught short,” said Angels Manager Mike Scioscia, who along with Dodgers Manager Joe Torre was on a committee that recommended several All-Star rule changes giving managers increased flexibility.

Team rosters — except one final spot on each 34-player side that will be decided by Internet fan voting — will be announced Sunday during an hour-long television special broadcast by TBS beginning at 9 a.m. PDT.

Another of the changes, one that could haunt Angels fans, prohibits pitchers who start on the Sunday before the All-Star break from participating in the game.

Weaver is the Angels’ projected starter July 11, the Sunday before the game, meaning he could be prevented from making his first All-Star appearance in his home stadium. Weaver could still be named to the team, and would be recognized in uniform as an All-Star and be able to wave to the home crowd, but he would be replaced on the active roster.

Scioscia said there was a “functionality issue” in making sure each team had enough rested pitchers should the game go into extra innings. Weaver declined to discuss the situation last week, saying, “I don’t really want to get into that right now.”

With pitchers, there is flexibility in numbers. With position players, one utility man could prove instrumental. Scioscia said this year’s managers, Joe Girardi of the New York Yankees and Charlie Manuel of the Philadelphia Phillies, probably would respond to the new reentry rule by picking someone who could play multiple positions.

“Versatility is going to be something you are going to look for,” Scioscia said.

Last year, Manuel still had plenty in reserve when the American League recorded the final out of its 4-3 victory over the National League at St. Louis’ Busch Stadium: five pitchers plus Pittsburgh second baseman Freddy Sanchez and Houston outfielder Hunter Pence.

Figgins and Angels closer Brian Fuentes, baseball’s saves leader last season, were among three position players and four pitchers who did not play for the AL.

Not every player accepts being held out graciously.

St. Louis first baseman Albert Pujols complained loudly after his own manager, Tony La Russa, didn’t play him during the 2007 game. But Texas’ Josh Hamilton said there are worse things than spending a few hours around the game’s elite.

“The experience itself is worth it, so if you don’t get to play you still had a good time and had a couple of days off,” said Hamilton, one of the leaders in All-Star voting among AL outfielders.

Though it might seem that fewer, not more, All-Stars are needed, the rosters have expanded by one player each of the last two years. Each side now has 13 pitchers for 27 outs — 24 outs if the home team doesn’t need to hit in the ninth.

“They want to be covered in the event of extra innings,” Major League Baseball spokesman Mike Teevan said. “They want to be prepared for any worst-case scenario.”

That’s because the game means something — the winning league gets home-field advantage in the World Series — and baseball wants to avoid a repeat of 2002, when the teams were deadlocked and out of pitching after 11 innings and the game was declared a tie.

Still, it can be tough on managers when they can’t get every player into the game.

Torre said he apologized to Troy Percival after a game-ending double play prevented the then-Angels closer from participating in the 1999 game. On another occasion, Torre let Minnesota teammates Eric Milton and Joe Mays decide which of the two would pitch and which would be held in reserve.

“My goal was always to use every single player,” Torre said. “ … I just feel some guy might make an All-Star team just one time in his life. He should get in the game.”

Scioscia, the AL manager in 2003 and a member of Girardi’s coaching staff this year, said the fun of managing an All-Star game trumps any pressure that goes with the position.

“Some players have to realize that they’re not going to get in, which is unfortunate,” Scioscia said. “But that is the nature of how the game has evolved and that’s where we are right now.”

Times staff writer Dylan Hernandez contributed to this report.

ben.bolch@latimes.com