AL 7, NL 6: Pinch-hitter Hank Blalock's two-run HR in eighth grabs homefield.
By TOM JONES
Published July 16, 2003
[AP photo]
Hank Blalock, of the Texas Rangers, watches his two-run, game-winning home run in the eighth inning.
CHICAGO - How 'bout that.
The All-Star Game turned out to count after all.
After all the hubbub about the game determining homefield advantage for the World Series, after all the fury raised by the players, after all the talk that this time the All-Star Game, doggone it, really was going to mean something, the game might have shifted the outcome in October.
It was the National League's turn to host the World Series, but the American League wrestled the advantage away with a thrilling 7-6 victory before a record U.S. Cellular Field crowd of 47,609.
And wouldn't you know it: A guy from a last-place team, a player who very well might be standing over a putt or knee-deep in a fishing hole come World Series time, turned out to be the star.
Hank Blalock, 22, a Rangers third baseman batting for the first time in his first All-Star Game, crushed an Eric Gagne fastball all the way to October for a two-run homer to give the American League the victory.
"I (was) happy to be in the All-Star Game first of all," Blalock said. "To be able to do this is icing on the cake. ... If I'm not in the starting lineup, I'm always antsy to get in the game. They told me (starting) in the fourth inning, "Always be ready to go in.' "
Because of some nifty strategy by AL manager Mike Scioscia, Blalock came up in the right place at the right time. Waiting for the NL to use lefty Billy Wagner, Scioscia found the perfect spot for the left-handed hitting Blalock: facing the right-handed Gagne with a runner on and two outs in the eighth, an inning after Wagner and an inning before what surely would've been the insanely dominant John Smoltz.
It was an example of how seriously the game was taken as the managers waited for matchups and played to win. Another example was that 12 players, including Devil Rays pitcher Lance Carter - one of four American League pitchers - did not get into the game. And yet another example was Scioscia leaping out of the dugout to argue a call.
"I don't ever recall that," Scioscia said when asked if he had seen an argument in an All-Star Game.
Whether the game was played as if the World Series was on the line was depreciated by the managers.
"These guys are playing hard no matter what was at stake," NL manager Dusty Baker said. "We realize and recognize what was put on us and the stakes that were there, but these guys, I'm sure they would've played the same way if it was a pickup sandlot game someplace."
Scioscia went as far as to downplay what homefield advantage actually means in the postseason.
"I'm just a believer that it is how you're playing," Scioscia said, "not who you're playing or where you're playing that is going to determine who is champion."
Still, there's this: No team has won a World Series Game 7 on the road since the 1979 Pirates. And if an NL team is going to win a Game 7 this season, it will have to do it on the road.
"How it ended is not exactly how I wished for the National League," Baker said.
How it started is exactly how Baker had wished. After falling behind 1-0, the NL scored five in the fifth, two on a Todd Helton homer and two on an Andruw Jones double.
Slowly, though, the AL picked away with homers by game MVP Garret Anderson, the winner of Monday's Home Run Derby, and Jason Giambi. That set up Blalock's magic, which could benefit the Yankees or Red Sox or A's or whomever the AL champion is come October.
"I'm really happy about that," Blalock said. "Certainly, (so are) the guys in the clubhouse are who are going to be in the World Series. I'm glad I could help them out."
