Vizquel Choice for All-Stars Is Good as Gold

In the shortstop-rich American League, where the Angels’ Gary DiSarcina would also have been a deserving choice, Cleveland Indian Manager Mike Hargrove chose his own Omar Vizquel over Nomar Garciaparra as the third All-Star shortstop behind Alex Rodriguez, the fans’ choice, and Derek Jeter, who was runner-up in the voting and selected by Hargrove, the All-Star pilot.

Garciaparra clearly has better statistics than Vizquel’s--better than Jeter’s, in fact--but it’s hard to dispute the selection of Vizquel, who gets little recognition for his defensive skills other than the five consecutive Gold Gloves, as voted by the league’s managers and coaches.

“Omar’s defense overshadows everyone else’s offense,” teammate Sandy Alomar said in support of Vizquel’s selection.

Vizquel, no automatic out at .302 with 16 stolen bases, had made only one error in his last 117 games through Saturday. He also has a .981 career fielding percentage, the best in history among shortstops, but he said, “People don’t care about defense. You never see any defensive numbers in the newspapers.”

Hargrove and his pitchers care.

“He is as good or better than Ozzie Smith, and I played with Ozzie,” Hargrove said.

Garciaparra, meanwhile, rolls on. A defensive wizard himself, the Whittier native set a league rookie record last year by hitting in 30 consecutive games. He has had seven streaks of 10 or more games in his first two years, among them the 24-game streak that ended Saturday. Only four other Red Sox players have had more than one streak of 20 or more games, and no other has done it in his first two years.

Garciaparra said that the All-Star snub didn’t bother him, but it could be costly. His five-year, $23.25-million contract calls for the two option years to increase by $500,000 each if he makes the All-Star team four times before the end of the 2002 season.

Said Red Sox Manager Jimy Williams, on the All-Star selections, “If it were Lou Piniella [managing], he’d take Rodriguez. If it were Joe Torre, he’d take Jeter. If it were me, I’d take Nomar. You can’t go wrong with any of them.”

It was Hargrove, who took his own Vizquel. No need to get defensive about it.

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League officials are privately concerned about first-half attendance at Tampa Bay.

Whereas the other expansion team, the Arizona Diamondbacks, have drawn an average of 45,000-plus in the National League, the Devil Rays have averaged just short of 31,000, only sixth best in the AL.

There is concern about the park, the area and the flight of residents to escape midsummer heat and humidity.

Of course, it only took the bigs about 25 years to decide a team could survive in the Tampa Bay area. Maybe a little more study was needed.

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While the Angels blistered June at 22-6, a club record, the Seattle Mariners tied a franchise futility record at 8-20. Said Piniella: “I’ve seen things this year that I’ve never seen before in baseball, and we still have July, August and September. The manager’s sanity is in doubt.”

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Baltimore owner Peter Angelos on the status of Manager Ray Miller: “Take any rotation in baseball. You lose three out of the five pitchers and it will have similar consequences. I mean, John McGraw couldn’t have won in this situation.”