Lest we forget: In all the talk about shifting Ivan Calderon and Carlos Martinez and Steve Lyons and Robin Ventura anywhere and everywhere, a name has been left out.
Remember Ron Kittle?
”I haven`t forgotten him,” says White Sox manager Jeff Torborg.
Kittle, who underwent back surgery a month ago, has a Friday appointment with Dr. Michael Schafer, who operated on Kittle and, before that, on the Cubs` Scott Sanderson. If Schafer likes what he sees, Kittle will begin soft workouts.
”I was told by the doctor that if I obeyed everything he says and do my work, by October or November I could be swinging a bat,” said Kittle, hitting .302 with 11 homers and 37 RBIs in 51 games until the pain grew too great.
He said he talked with Harold Baines two days before the trade was announced.
”I said, `Harold, you`re gone,` ” Kittle said. ”He said, `What do you mean?` I said, `Harold, you`re going to get traded.` I was teasing him more than anything, but I knew he was going to get traded.”
On the trade: ”They should`ve never gotten rid of Scotty Fletcher in the first place.”
On his future: ”I`m looking at going to spring training as a first baseman. I watch those games. You`ve got Ivan playing out of position right now, and I got to the point where I was comfortable over there and thought I was doing a good job.”
On these days: ”I`ve been driving my wife crazy,” Kittle said with pride. ”Beyond crazy.
”She tells me, `Just go for a walk for about 5 or 6 hours somewhere. Go eat at somebody else`s house.` ”
– Trying to find it again: Richard Dotson`s arm is fine.
”I don`t have a lot of doubts about him,” says Torborg.
But he`s 4-7-so what`s wrong? Sometimes, says Torborg, the pop isn`t there. Or the changeup floats.
The solution, the theory goes, may be a return to the windup and arm-action of 1983, before the 1985 surgery that made him a different pitcher. So he`s watching tapes with Torborg and pitching coach Sammy Ellis, then working with them to recreate his old, natural motion. It`s a struggle.
”We`re trying to change what might be muscle memory for the last four years,” says Torborg. ”That`s not easy to do.”
”I`m capable of throwing the ball hard,” says Dotson, ”but I can`t do it consistently. I feel good, but I`ll throw one good one, then throw one 5 miles an hour less.
”Maybe it`s because I`m trying so hard. You know, coming into a situation where you`re really not going for the pennant, people say, `Well, there`s no pressure on you.` But you put pressure on yourself.”
”He`s really starting to pick up the things we would like him to pick up, and I think we`ll benefit from it in the long run,” says Torborg. ”I really do.”
– Trying to find it: Steve Rosenberg`s arm is fine. ”I don`t think mechanically he`s got much if any problem,” says Torborg.
But he`s 3-8-so what`s wrong? Sometimes, says Torborg, he loses focus.
”The good ones seem to have a little higher level of concentration,”
says the manager. ”Mattingly, there`s nobody else in the ballpark. Boggs. You can almost see it with Fisk. Drysdale and Koufax-I mean, it was just right there. That`s all experience. It`s always something you deal with with younger pitchers.”
Rosenberg is trying to deal with it.
”We had a sports psychologist come in and help us out with concentrating when things are going bad on the mound,” said Rosenberg. ”To be able to step back off the mound, take a couple of deep breaths and go back to what you`re trying to accomplish.”
”It`s just experience,” says Torborg. ”Koufax wrote an inscription in a book to me about it, when I was a young player. He said something to the effect of, `Be patient. Only time will allow you to have the experience that we all need.` ”
At the time, says Torborg, the inscription annoyed him. Not anymore.
– Wet grounds: Bill Veeck, in the days when it always seemed to rain on Friday nights when the Yankees came to town, called it ”Veeck`s Hex.” But Sox groundskeeper Roger Bossard said this season has been the worst. ”I`ve been here 23 years, and this is the first I can remember that every homestand, we`ve had precipitation,” he said as rain pelted the tarp-covered infield Wednesday afternoon. ”Every homestand. I`ve never seen anything like it.
”I hate to see guys slipping and sliding around.”
On the other hand, the grass has never looked greener.
