When Angels third-base coach Dino Ebel, who managed the Salt Lake Stingers the entire 2005 season, saw Oakland's Jay Payton was not going to field the ball cleanly, he waved Aybar home.

Aybar beat the relay throw to tie the game as the A's stared on in amazement.

A surprise?

Not to those who have followed Ebel's career, and know him to be one of the most aggressive coaches in the game when it comes to baserunning.

“That's my style,” said Ebel. “We did a lot of running in Salt Lake, too. It's just a bigger stage here, with more exposure and more fans. But [manager] Mike [Scioscia] hasn't asked me to change, so I'm not going to.”

Ebel, 40, was “called up” to be the Major League team's third-base coach after 18 years in the minor leagues, and he said Saturday he is “thankful for every minute of this experience. There's just nothing like it, putting on the uniform of a big-league club and being part of the show.”

“I really am living a dream,” he said.

Scioscia, who was familiar with Ebel from their days together in the Dodgers organization, said he thought about the Barstow, Calif., native the minute a position on his staff became available. That happened last fall when Angels bench coach Joe Maddon was hired as manager of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and Ron Roenicke moved from third base to the bench.

“Sometimes, I can't believe I'm really here,” Ebel said. “I can't believe it. But it has just been great. Not a day goes by that isn't special. This is such a great organization, and I have a great bunch of guys to work with.”

Ebel would eventually like to become a bench coach and then perhaps a manager.

“Not that my year in Salt Lake wasn't fantastic,” he said, staring out from the dugout onto the field at Oakland's McAfee Coliseum. “It was. We had a strong team that worked hard. But this is big-league baseball. There's nothing else like it.”

drew@sltrib.com