BASEBALL NOTES : He Prefers to Remember Mantle From Playing Days

Some of Saturday’s papers ran pictures of Mickey Mantle in the follow-through of that ferocious swing. And wasn’t that wonderful to see again? His face was contorted from the effort exerted, not from the effects of alcohol. His body still was trim, and all those thick, farm-strong muscles were straining to stop the most powerful swing in the game. The image stuck in my mind.

Something else stuck in my throat when I considered the reason that photos of Mantle were running on the day before Super Bowl XXVIII.

I’ve seen thousands of photos of Mantle in that position of power. Scrapbooks made thick when I was 7 and he was “7� and this city had seven newspapers are stored in my attic, each one filled exclusively with photos similar to the ones I saw Saturday morning -- with Mickey swinging. Mickey swinging left-handed and right-handed, at the Stadium and anywhere else. Mickey in black and white. Mickey in color.

I assumed -- or pretended -- that each swing produced a home run. And I cherished them, looked at them until I had memorized them.

Those are the only pictures of Mantle I want to see now. I can do without the ones taken at Oldtimers Days and card shows, the ones that show the effects of 62 years of gravity and four decades at the bar.

I felt robbed when Elvis died and Lennon was killed. The generations before mine would get to see their icons grow old -- Sinatra, DiMaggio, Carson. Now it turns out I don’t want to see Mantle grow old. I can handle Dylan, Yogi, McCartney, Angie Dickinson, Little Richard and even Shelly Fabares in their fifties or older. But I want Mantle in Fifties when he was XXVIII and worthy of seven daily headlines and seven pictures of that swing.

Indeed, I don’t want to read any news stories about him now. With him at age 62 and with blackouts and memory loss afflicting him, chances are the stories aren’t going to be very uplifting.

I’ll read Phil Pepe’s book about 1956 and Bob Sheppard’s poem about the monster home runs, and look at some of those thick scrapbooks. And I’ll remember meeting him when I was XXVIII and so certain my objectivity could handle it. I was wrong. And I’ll recall taping a commercial for Newsday with him and Whitey and wondering what my third-grade buddies would do if they saw me.

And I’ll do what, it seems, I’ve done for as long as I can recall: root for Mickey.

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Willie Mays publicly chastised his godson, Barry Bonds, last Sunday night when he accepted an award for Bonds at the awards dinner of the New York chapter of the Baseball Writers Association of America. Mays said Bonds should have made the trip from California and been proud to accept the award in person.

Interesting thoughts from the same man who, in 1990, was in New York the day of the same dinner and, having promised to attend and receive the chapter’s Toast of the Town Award, didn’t show. At least Bonds had made no promises.

Not that Bonds didn’t need to be lectured.

When Mays arrived in the dais room Sunday night, he greeted Dwight Gooden, saying, “Hey, Darryl, how ya doin?� He quickly realized his mistake, and he and Gooden said almost in unison, “Yeah, we all look alike.�

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The fear is that this could be a summer without baseball, what with all the talk and speculation about labor problems. Well, the 1994 baseball year already is diminished. The Elias Sports Bureau has decided not to publish a 10th edition of the “Baseball Analyst.� That means everyone connected with the game begins the season with an 0-1 record. And it’s a big loss.

Two reasons for the Elias decision are economics and too many people using the remarkable wealth of information without crediting the source. “If we received credit one out of every 10 times we should have,� said Peter Hirdt of Elias, “our sales would have increased dramatically.�

If a salary cap ever is put in place and revenue sharing ever is implemented, what will the Yankees do? Their 12-year contract with Madison Square Garden Network expires in 2000, but the contract already has been cashed in with CitiCorp and the money distributed among George Steinbrenner, his wife and the other owners. That contract was a prime source of revenue. The Yankees had cash-flow problems two years ago when they took out loans to cover the signings of Danny Tartabull and Mike Gallego, and people not in the Yankees’ employ but familiar with baseball’s finances say an inordinate amount of baseball’s overall debt is the Yankees’. So might the Yankees have trouble contributing to the revenue-sharing pool? Probably not. But the cash-flow problem could return.

If the responsibilities of the league presidents are to be diminished -- and that seemingly will be the case when baseball implements restructuring -- the presidents’ roles may be little more than dealing with umpires. If that’s the case, the National League ought to consider Doug Harvey as a candidate. The former umpire would be ideal for the position. ... A scout who watched Luis Rivera, the Mets’ new shortstop, when Rivera was an amateur says Rivera has “scared eyes,� which is another way of saying Rivera is not a “two-out� shortstop. ... How much out of whack was Jim Abbott’s 1993 salary arbitration proposal? He sought $3.5 million. A year later, he sought $600,000 less and settled for $2,775,000. ... Bob Kipper, signed by the Mets during the offseason, has the first few lines of “New York, New York� playing on his answering machine. “Start spreading the news. I’m leaving today.�

Shawon Dunston, still recovering from May 1992 back surgery, was able to do all that was asked of him two weeks ago in a Cubs minicamp in Mesa. But, no, the Mets still don’t want him, nor should they. He would be overpriced at full strength. The Mets were among the clubs who sent someone to watch Dunston work out. Dunston batted 10 times last September before pulling his hamstring, but apparently he’s more capable now than he was when he made his comeback ... Related question: How could the Cubs run a minicamp? The Yankees were told by the players association that they couldn’t. According to Eugene Orza, attorney with the players association, the Yankees erred by inviting players to their planned camp. “They can run a camp, but they can’t invite players to camp,� Orza said, “because invitations, in this game, become demands.�

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Call them what you will -- presidents, vice presidents, directors, vice chairmen or general managers -- each is his club’s primary baseball executive and essentially has the responsibilities traditionally associated with general managers.

Whatever you call them, there are three new ones: Dan Duquette, late of the Expos, now with the Red Sox, and two others recently promoted -- Bill Bavasi of the Angels and Kevin Malone, Duquette’s successor with the Expos.

The promotions of Bavasi and Malone, each 36, increased to 12 the numbers of “general managers� younger than Marlins pitcher Charlie Hough, the oldest active player in the game. Hough turned 46 earlier this month. Sandy Alderson, the Athletics’ president and general manager, is only six weeks older than Hough.

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Former Mets General Manager Al Harazin was interviewed for the Red Sox job that went to Duquette. Says Harazin: “Dan is a bright young baseball mind. He’s today’s genius. ... I was ‘today’s genius’ two years ago.�