The conversation turned to the issue of the laid-backness of the manager of the Chicago White Sox.
”Who`s the fieriest manager in baseball?” asked Gene Lamont.
Someone quickly mentioned Bobby Valentine, then quickly realized (1)
Valentine never won anything as manager of the Texas Rangers, and (2)
Valentine was no longer manager of the Texas Rangers.
”If you don`t have men on base, you look like a laid-back team,” Lamont said. ”I`d say when Texas didn`t have guys on base, they probably looked laid-back.”
The subject moved easily from teams to players.
”Robin Ventura, I think, is a good player,” said Lamont. ”I`d say Robin`s laid-back. When George (Bell) gets kicked out of a game, sometimes people say he shouldn`t have been. I say that`s part of what makes George Bell tick. That`s just part of George Bell.”
The point?
”If George Bell tried to say nothing, people would know that wasn`t George,” said Lamont. ”If Robin tried to be rah-rah, people would know, well, something`s not right here.”
Which means . . .
”I don`t think I could put on a false front,” Lamont said. ”People could see it. Well, I don`t know if people would, but players would see it.” Bottom line: ”I`m not going to change. I think I know how to deal with a team.”
– No hard feelings, but . . .: With 10 years in the big leagues and five with the same club, the Sox would need Carlton Fisk`s approval to be dealt to another club.
”I wouldn`t go through that again,” Jerry Reinsdorf said. Then he told a story.
”Several years ago, the Yankees approached us,” Reinsdorf said. ”We wanted him to know that they had approached us, and we wouldn`t talk to them unless he told us he wanted us to talk to them.
”He then went public with that conversation and made it seem like we were trying to get rid of him. He made it clear to us at the time that he had no interest in going anyplace.”
So Fisk didn`t go anyplace, and Reinsdorf looked like a heel.
Chairmen, like catchers, have excellent memories.
– Not likely: There`s some feeling in the organization that American League umpires have a grudge against the White Sox. The umpiring, in spots, has been awful. But a vendetta?
”That`s totally ridiculous,” said Marty Springstead, AL supervisor of umpires. ”You haven`t got time, with 14 clubs, to go and call each other up and say, `Hey, we`re going to get the White Sox this year.` The White Sox are a pretty good organization.
”It`s funny: When things don`t go well, everything seems to bother you. I think maybe that`s the case. Geez, the umpires aren`t out there to try to get the White Sox. They don`t have time to be worried about stuff like that.” The more he talked about it, the more agitated he became about the whole concept.
”It`s very difficult to explain-but you don`t get into that,”
Springstead said of private wars. ”If you went to 162 games thinking, `Ooh, we can`t wait to get those guys when we get a chance,` you`d be a basket case.”
– Are they over yet? A week ago, U.S. Olympic baseball coach Ron Fraser lauded the Cuban team. ”The Cubans,” he said, ”would definitely beat the Indians and probably give Boston a heck of a run.”
Mike Hargrove, manager of the Indians, wasn`t amused.
”The only thing Ron Fraser knows about the big leagues,” said Hargrove, ”is that he wasn`t good enough to play in them.”
– Take that: The A`s were full of great quotes after Tuesday`s 12-10 victory over the Twins, many paying tribute to Eckersley, who closed out Minnesota with two scoreless innings.
A good one, from teammate Mark McGwire: ”Thank God Eck came in and blocked the field goal.”
The Twins` Chili Davis evidently was less impressed.
”Screw Eckersley,” Davis told reporters. ”No pitcher in the game is unhittable. I don`t want to hear anything about Eckersley, because you guys build him up like he`s unhittable. He`s not unhittable. He`s lost games. He`s a good pitcher. Let`s just leave it at that.”
That was Tuesday. Wednesday night, Eckersley saved the final game of the big three-game sweep.
Last out? Strikeout. Called. Chili Davis.
– Around the league: Seattle`s Kevin Mitchell, closing in on Ken Griffey`s club lead in RBIs: ”I tell Junior every day, `I`m going to catch you,` and every day he says, `No you won`t.` I tell him very time he leaves somebody on base, I`m going to drive them in.” He credits tapes sent by Dusty Baker, his hitting coach at San Francisco. . . . Mickey Tettleton, with 22 home runs as the weekend begins, needs eight to become the first catcher to have back-to-back 30-homer seasons since Brooklyn`s Roy Campanella in 1950-51.
. . . Milwaukee GM Sal Bando wants to re-sign Scott Fletcher, who will be a free agent. That`s bad news for Jim Gantner. . . . The Blue Jays won five straight from Oakland earlier in the year, then lost six of seven. In those last seven games against the A`s, Joe Carter was 0 for 27. . . . Texas` Jeff Russell made his 345th appearance for the other day, passing Charlie Hough`s club record for pitchers. . . . Remember when Luis Rivera was burning it up for Boston? At midweek, he was stuck in a 5-for-41. The other shortstop, Tim Naehring, is on the DL. He was 0 for his last 18.
Boston`s Butch Hobson has Rick Burleson coaching third now and Don Zimmer beside the manager on the bench. Might be Hobson just wants Zimmer nearby. Might be Zimmer`s aching knees won`t let him coach third without pain. Might be both. . . . Speaking of Zim: Tom Hanks must have studied Zimmer for his
”League of Their Own” role. Sometimes it`s real, real close. Except Zimmer is no drunk. . . . Tim Fortugno, the Angels` 30-year-old rookie pitcher, struck out 12 Tigers in a 9-0 victory Saturday, including Tettleton, Travis Fryman and Cecil Fielder three times each. ”I didn`t know him from nobody, but that`s the best anybody`s pitched against us this year,” said Sparky Anderson. ”Either that, or we were wearing blinders.” Afterward, Gene Autry greeted Fortugno. ”Good game,” said the Cowboy. ”Now go out there and do it 50 more times.” . . . One more thing on Fortugno: In 1989, he was sold by the independent Reno Silver Sox to the Milwaukee Brewers organization for $2,500 and 144 baseballs.
