ESPN broadcaster Jon Miller is miffed at the way Cincinnati owner Marge Schott is promoting the Reds’ game Monday afternoon against St. Louis. He thinks Schott should pay more attention to their game Sunday night, the first of the season in the major leagues.
Miller, of course, will announce Sunday’s game with former Reds infielder Joe Morgan.
“The Reds volunteered for the game, and now she’s encouraging people not to focus on it, but to look at the Monday game,” Miller said. “This is the showcase game, not only for the Reds, but all of baseball, coast to coast. I don’t understand how they would downplay the Sunday game.”
Schott has called the Monday afternoon game at Riverfront Stadium the traditional opener, with a parade and pageantry.
Jed Drake, ESPN’s senior coordinating producer, said the Reds’ attitude toward the game will be mentioned during the opening of the broadcast, then dropped.
“It sounds like Marge is trying to create a negative out of it, which is astounding to me,” Miller said.
Cooking up a deal: Dusty Baker, the National League manager of the year for 1993, has signed a two-year contract extension with the San Francisco Giants. Baker is committed to the team through 1996. Baker, 44, replaced Roger Craig before last season. The Giants won 103 games but finished a game behind the Atlanta Braves. Baker won more games than any rookie manager in NL history and the Giants led the league in hitting and fielding.
Giant effort: A $5 million facelift of San Francisco’s Candlestick Park was accomplished by as many as 150 workers in 63 working days since the end of the 49ers season. The improvements include new home and visiting dugouts that are twice as large as the old ones, and rubberized warning tracks in the outfield to limit blowing dirt.
Carr fare: Chuck Carr, showing no ill effects from a strained side muscle, had two hits, scored twice and stole a base for the Florida Marlins in an 8-2 rout of the Kansas City Royals. Two days ago, the Marlins were worried that Carr might go on the disabled list because of his injury. “Let’s just say I hope Tuesday will be even better than today,” Carr said.
A first: Rookie pitcher Chan Ho Park has made the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Opening Day roster, General Manager Fred Claire announced. Park, 20, is the first player from South Korea to make a major-league team. He was 2-0 with a 2.35 earned-run average in six spring starts. He drew attention for his unusual pauses in his pitching motion.
“In order for me to be in this position,” Park said through an interpreter, “there were a lot of people with a lot of effort. I want to thank the people in the Dodger organization who nurtured me and gave me this opportunity. I think this is going to give a lot of hope and pride to the (Korean) youngsters.”
Park, a right-hander, was signed as a free agent.
Non-Ryan express: The guest of honor nearly didn’t make it Friday when the Rangers opened their new baseball palace, the Ballpark. Nolan Ryan was penciled in to throw out the first pitch before Texas unveiled its new $189 million stadium with an exhibition game against the Mets. Ryan got stuck in the traffic just short of Nolan Ryan Expressway, which runs next to the park. “I got deadlocked and sat out there for 30 minutes,” Ryan said. He made it in time to throw out the first ball, wearing a coat and tie. It was a fastball over the plate for a strike to his catcher, son Reese. “I didn’t miss spring training but I would have liked to have been in uniform,” Ryan said.
