Spiezio Gives Angels a Big Shot at Victory

Chone Figgins got his first big league hit, a sharp slash to right field, and Angel fans gave the speedster who had, until now, done nothing but pinch-run for the Angels, a standing ovation.

Matt Higgins, a 12-year-old second baseman from Lancaster, was one of the cheering fans. He came to the game with his parents and sister because, Matt says, “I like the Angels. They don’t have any big shots.”

After beating Texas, 13-4, Monday, this team with no big shots has 94 wins and sole possession of first place in the American League West.

Troy Glaus, who might be a big shot someday, had three home runs and made a crowd-ordered curtain call after No. 3 in the bottom of the eighth. While the smoke from the fireworks was still clearing, Scott Spiezio hit a sharp ground ball to shortstop. The Angels were leading by nine runs, and, frankly, most of the paying customers were waiting for the game to end so they could bust loose with some of that first-place mojo they’ve had bottled up for so long.

But Spiezio ran hard from the moment his bat hit the ball. Unless the ball was bobbled, Spiezio, who is no Tim Montgomery when it comes to dashes, was not going to be safe at first. He wasn’t.

But when you’re not a big shot you always run hard.

When you’re the son of not a big shot, as Spiezio is, you have a father who hits you ground balls and a mother that is your double-play partner. You have two grandmothers who shag fly balls in the outfield for you and two older sisters, fine tennis players, who let you field, bare-handed, their serves. And you have an empty basement perfect in which to hit golf balls, which you try to field before the ball takes out your eye or breaks your jaw.

Spiezio has played first base, second base, third base, right field and left field for the Angels. He’d play shortstop too, if asked. “My dad made me field all the positions and be a switch-hitter,” Spiezio says.

His dad, Ed, was a journeyman, a bench filler, a major leaguer, yes, but one who hung on because he would do anything.

Ed decided Scott would be the same.

In his last 236 games at first base, he has committed only four errors.

“There are a lot of great fielders playing first base, but in my mind Scott deserves to win the Gold Glove this year. His play at first has been phenomenal. What an incredible first baseman he’s become,” Manager Mike Scioscia said.

“We all knew Spieze had the glove if he just got the chance to play every day,” center fielder Darin Erstad said.

“It didn’t take much to figure that out. You just had to watch him field.”

Spiezio has scored 16 runs in Anaheim’s last 15 games. On this home stand, he has scored eight runs, driven in eight and has made the hard plays at first base seem easy.

Now the Angels head off on a 10-game trip tied with the Yankees for the best record in the American League--94-55. That’s the most wins ever for an Angel team in a season.

Not bad for a team of not big shots.

“We’ve got guys who could be big shots,” Spiezio says.

“Troy Glaus, Garret Anderson, Darin Erstad, Troy Percival, Tim Salmon. Part of being a big shot is getting seen and noticed and we’re kind of lost out here sometimes. If people paid attention to us more, maybe we’d have some big shots. But we almost do.”

Spiezio didn’t mention himself. He stands in front of his locker, getting ready to take a plane to Oakland where he and the other not big shots will play the A’s four more times, four games that will go far in deciding who wins the AL West. Spiezio has painted an Angel-red stripe on his chin hair and he giggles, his face turning Angel-red, when the stripe is commented upon.

“I just thought it would be kind of cool,” Spiezio says. “I didn’t do it to get noticed.”

In 141 games, Spiezio is batting .287 with 75 runs and 78 RBIs. He’s hitting .360 as a righty and .252 as a lefty.

He has 32 doubles and 11 homers. In his last seven games, Spiezio is hitting .360, which shows a guy who is getting stronger, more confident, more reliable.

He played third base twice last week when Glaus jammed his fingers.

At the beginning of 2001, the Angels were busy trying out Wally Joyner and Larry Barnes at first base. If Erstad knew that Spiezio would be this great a first baseman, he wasn’t sharing that information with anybody else back then.

“I just knew that if I ever got the chance,” Spiezio says, “if I ever got to play somewhere, anywhere, full-time, that I’d be able to do what I’m doing.”

Scioscia says Spiezio is such a good fielder because he has “great, soft hands and a good arm.”

Spiezio says it’s because his father made him become a great fielder.

“From the time I was 3 years old,” Spiezio says, “I was taking ground balls.”

He’s still taking them. Mom doesn’t complete the double play the way she used to, Spiezio says, but his dad can still hit fungoes and make sure Scott is doing it right. It being everything. That’s the way it is with this not a big shots bunch.

Even the ones in first place.

Diane Pucin can be reached at diane.pucin@latimes.com