Minnesota’s Kirby Puckett, playing in his 10th consecutive All-Star Game, insisted he wasn’t worried about facing Hideo Nomo, the Dodgers’ pitching sensation who made the start for the National League in Tuesday night’s Midsummer Classic.
“I’d rather hit off Nomo than our guy,” Puckett said, referring to Seattle’s Randy Johnson, the American League’s strikeout king. Like Nomo, the 6-foot-10-inch Johnson is averaging more than one strikeout an inning.
Puckett described Johnson as one of “the few guys capable of a no-hitter every time he takes the mound. He’s like Nolan Ryan and Roger Clemens.”
Puckett, who has seen Nomo only on television, said he is aware that many of Nomo’s pitches drop out of the strike zone.
“It doesn’t matter to me,” Puckett said. “If he throws a shoe up there, I’m swinging. I’m not going to change my style. I’ve got a 50-50 chance. He’ll get me or I’ll get him.”
Neither failed nor succeeded. Puckett batted in the eighth spot, and by the time he came to the plate, with one out in the third inning, Nomo was gone. The first Japanese-born player to appear in an American All-Star Game, Nomo departed after two scoreless innings. He faced the minimum six batters, giving up a harmless single while striking out three.
Johnson was equally tough. He also worked two scoreless innings with one walk and three strikeouts.
Much of the clubhouse talk prior to the game was about baseball’s new power hitters, which began and closed with Frank Thomas of the White Sox.
Phil Garner, the Milwaukee manager, said Thomas is the ideal hitter.
“He has no holes, no weaknesses,” Garner declared. “He hits the ball inside and he hits the ball away. He hits the fastball and he hits the breaking ball.”
Garner characterized San Diego’s Tony Gwynn and the retired Rod Carew as “natural” hitters, but said they can’t be compared with Thomas because the Big Hurt has so much power.
“The most important thing in baseball is to generate runs, and Thomas does that better than anybody.”
He said he also noticed during Monday’s home run contest the ferocious intensity of Thomas and Cleveland’s Albert Belle. Thomas crashed seven of the 10 longest home runs in the contest and beat Belle 3-2 in the final round.
“When they walk on the field you can feel their power of concentration. It’s incredible,” said Garner. “It took Frank a little while longer to get started, but once he got locked in mentally, the balls started flying.”
It was the 11th All-Star Game for Wade Boggs, who is essentially a line-drive hitter. Boggs explained that he disagrees with the many experts who insist that the pitching has been weakened by expansion.
“There’s never a change in the pitching,” Boggs observed. “It’s always of major-league caliber. Maybe some of the hitters are just getting better.”
Boggs insisted that the batting orders, one through nine, are stronger than ever.
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“It used to be you could pitch around some of the big hitters. But today the Nos. 7, 8 and 9 guys are driving in 70 and 80 runs. You can’t pitch around everybody. There are only three bases. You can’t put everybody on.”
“I’m the only Judy on the team,” said Milwaukee’s Kevin Seitzer. “Everybody has thunder–lots of thunder.”
Seitzer mentioned Thomas, Belle and Boston’s Mo Vaughn, another new slugger of the first rank.
“Those guys have to get bored,” Seitzer said, laughing. “All they do is hit the ball out.”
Willie Randolph, the longtime Yankees infielder who was among the AL All-Star coaches, agreed the squad of power hitters is increasing.
“There is one difference from when I played,” Randolph said. “It used to be the veterans were the power hitters. Today, the young guys coming are hitting the ball 400 to 500 feet. Maybe it’s because of all the emphasis on weight training. I don’t know, but that could be it.”
Mark Grace of the Cubs, who had only six home runs last season, already has connected for 10 this season.
“All the new ballparks are smaller,” Grace observed. “And they’ve brought the fences in in Montreal and in St. Louis and in Houston. People want to see the home run.”
Grace said that when he hit six home runs last year, some of his critics claimed the ball was “juiced.”
“But when I was hitting, the balls were full of prune juice.”