The most Harold Baines probably will play in Tuesday`s All-Star Game is a couple of innings. Too bad. The nation ought to get the kind of look at Baines that had 30,392 fans cheering Saturday night at Comiskey Park.
”I guess he had his All-Star night,” said White Sox manager Jim Fregosi.
Baines went 4-for-4, drove in a run and ended the game with a shoestring catch in right field that saved at least two runs and possibly the Sox`s 6-3 victory over the Baltimore Orioles. It was a performance that gave the big picture of a player who cannot be appreciated in short glimpses and sidelong glances.
”You know a guy is a good player, but until you see him play every day, you don`t realize it,” Fregosi said.
He has had other days and nights like this. It was Baines` third four-hit game of the year.
The problem is that Baines isn`t a shooting star, one who lights up the night sky. Otherwise, he might be starting the All-Star Game, instead of merely being part of the team.
What he has done over the past 4 1/2 seasons has largely escaped the attention of all but the game`s closest observers. What he has done in the first half of this season, as good as it has been, is a noticeable improvement to everyone but him.
With one game left before the All-Star break, Baines is hitting .318 with 12 homers, 53 runs batted in and a seven-game hitting streak. That isn`t half bad, especially for a player with a history of being a whole lot better in the second half of the season.
Never in his six previous major-league seasons has Baines batted over .300 in the first half. Only in his rookie year did Baines hit for a higher average in the first half than the second.
His second-half career average, .291, is 14 points better than his first- half average.
”My goals are RBIs,” said Baines. ”I don`t really worry about average. I`ve had higher RBI totals at the half before. You could get 200 hits and not have 100 RBIs. I`d rather have 100 RBIs–if we`re winning.”
Baines has driven in more than 100 runs in two of the previous four seasons, 99 in a third and 94 in the other. All of that has earned him just two All-Star selections. He was 1-for-1 as a pinch-hitter in last year`s game. ”I`m going with legit numbers, compared to last year,” Baines said.
Last year he was hitting .296 with 50 RBIs at midseason. Those are million-dollar numbers for anyone but Baines.
”He just goes about his business,” Fregosi said. ”But tonight, I even thought I saw him get a little excited.”
If he was, it was over the ninth-inning catch of Cal Ripken`s slicing liner with two outs and two men on.
Running hard to his left, Baines did a sliding split as he reached for the ball, then went head over heels.
”If I don`t catch that ball, it`s an easy triple,” Baines said. ”It was a game-winning or game-saving catch, either way.”
It was a game the Sox couldn`t afford to let get away. It enabled them to end a three-game skid and gain a game on American League West leader California.
Though they are still seven games under .500, the White Sox are only 7 1/ 2 games out of first place. The Orioles, six over .500, are 10 behind the first-place Red Sox in the AL East. East is East and West is Worst.
The Sox won this by getting the best of Oriole pitcher Mike Boddicker
(11-5), something they have rarely been able to do. Boddicker, 5-2 against the Sox, was knocked out in the four-run sixth inning that overcame a 2-1 Oriole lead.
”Boddicker`s elbow was bothering him,” said Oriole manager Earl Weaver. ”But they hit some pretty good pitches.”
The sixth inning still started off looking something like the fourth, when the Sox conspired not to score despite three hits and no double play. That chance had been wasted when Baines, running to second, was hit by Jerry Hairston`s grounder.
In the sixth, Ozzie Guillen singled, advanced on a wild pitch and barely budged as Baines drove a double off the wall. Guillen had to stop at third, but the only damage done would be to Baines` RBI total.
A groundout by Greg Walker scored Guillen, and three more hits–a double by Hairston and singles by Steve Lyons and Julio Cruz–each drove in a run. That made a winner of Gene Nelson (5-4), who had relieved starter Joel Davis in the third inning.
The fireworks followed. First, there was Tim Hulett`s homer in the eighth, setting off the scoreboard. Then, the postgame show of pyrotechnics.
While the bombs were still bursting over Comiskey Park, Harold Baines took a shower, briefly entertained the press and went quietly into the night.
