This time it counts – for the ghosts of Babe, Joe D. and Mickey, too.
The star power on hand for tonight’s 79th All-Star Game is immense, but the leading actor sits on the corner of 161st Street and River Avenue in The Bronx, with no swings to rehearse or pregame butterflies. Yankee Stadium just has to remain its grand old self, with MLB’s best players there as the supporting cast.
Yankees manager Joe Girardi, a coach on the AL staff, has some advice for the out-of-towners.
“Enjoy the surroundings,” Girardi said yesterday. “Enjoy what you have earned. Go see Monument Park. Think about the place where Babe Ruth and Joe [DiMaggio], Mickey Mantle and Yogi Berra have all walked, and soak it in.”
And after that, go play.
AL manager Terry Francona and his NL counterpart, Clint Hurdle, finished preparations yesterday, naming the Indians’ Cliff Lee and the Brewers’ Ben Sheets as their respective starting pitchers for tonight. The batting orders contain no real surprises – Derek Jeter batting second and Alex Rodriguez cleanup for the AL team – and perhaps the only lingering mystery is whether Francona will use Mariano Rivera in the ninth inning of a save situation instead of his own Jonathon Papelbon.
At stake for the sixth straight year is home field advantage in the World Series, something that last belonged to the NL in 2001. The NL last won an All-Star game in 1996.
“You prepare like you’re going out to win, but at the same time it’s time to laugh, smile and joke around,” Mets third baseman David Wright said. “There’s a thin line between wanting to go out and win, especially with [the Mets] in the position we are – to hopefully win the National League and get home field advantage in the World Series – but you also want to enjoy it.”
The game will have a certain Yankees-Red Sox feel to it, especially in the infield. Rodriguez and Jeter are the starters at third base and shortstop and Boston’s Kevin Youkilis will start at first base with Dustin Pedroia at second. Rivera and Papelbon represent the rivalry in the bullpen, but after that it’s all Red Sox, with Manny Ramirez (a starter in the outfield), catcher Jason Varitek and outfielder J.D. Drew also on board. Another Red Sox All-Star, DH David Ortiz, won’t play because of injury.
“Blue and red in the infield, it is bizarre,” Rodriguez said. “I wish we had a few more of our guys here.”
And what about sharing the Yankees’ clubhouse with the hated rivals?
“That’s going to be really weird, more than anything, sharing our intimate locker room with them,” Rodriguez said. “We’re going to get hit by the red wave of Red Sox.”
Sheets, who never has pitched in Yankee Stadium – his first visit there was during yesterday’s workouts – said he’s not going to let a ballpark intimidate him. What comes to mind when he considers Yankee Stadium?
“Babe Ruth. Who doesn’t think of that?” Sheets said. “He was the greatest ballplayer ever, right?”
The last time the Stadium hosted an All-Star game was 1977, when the NL won 7-5. When the event eventually returns to The Bronx after tonight, it will be across the street at the new Yankee Stadium.
First, however, it’s time for MLB to say goodbye to Ruth’s House, the original version of which opened in 1923. Rich memories of the ballpark aren’t limited to the Yankees.
“I hit a ball off the façade of the upper deck [in 1999],” Atlanta’s Chipper Jones said. “And I could just remember rounding first and thinking that my dad would be saying to my mom right at that point, ‘Our son just hit a home run in the same park as Mickey Mantle did.’ ”
No more applications, please. Yankee Stadium will be the real star of this year’s All-Star game.
“It should be,” Varitek said. “It’s the biggest star in our game – besides Fenway.”
mpuma@nypost.com