For the Time Being, Baker Remains a Giant Underdog

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. —  The San Francisco Giants move into Pac Bell Park on the water near China Basin next year. They have already sold 19,000 season tickets and are hopeful of reaching 28,000 in a 42,000-seat park.

In baseball’s battle of the bucks, some would have expected the Giants to join the big spenders this year, building on the new park’s momentum to bring in some quality free agents for the final, merciful year in 3Com Park--more widely known as the dreaded Candlestick.

It didn’t happen. The payroll will remain about

$45 million, meaning the Giants will again try to prove they can come out of the middle of the pack to win, with Dusty Baker providing some managerial magic.

“It’s definitely a compliment when people say I’ve won with less, but it’s a double-edged sword,” Baker said the other day. “At some point, I’d like to see if I could win with more. I’m not at that point yet.”

Intriguing comment. It suggests that the two-time manager of the year, signed through 2000, might at some point seek a job in which his team is not consistently the undermanned underdog.

At this point, Baker said, he is focused strictly on helping the Giants sustain the momentum of the last two years. They won the National League West title in 1997 and rallied through the stretch last year to force a one-game playoff with the Chicago Cubs for the league’s wild-card berth, which they lost.

He will start with essentially the same team he finished with, knowing that the longer he can stay in the race, the more likely ownership is to respond.

The Giants traded for Roberto Hernandez, Wilson Alvarez and Danny Darwin on the eve of the July 31 deadline in 1997, and last year acquired Jose Mesa and Ellis Burks in deadline moves.

“In modern baseball, it’s important to get off to a good start and stay in the race as late and as long as you can--or else the temptation [by ownership] is to disband and cut losses,” Baker said. “Our people have kept their word and got us reinforcements [down the stretch]. We’re not as [financially] fortunate as some, but we’re more fortunate than most. Not everyone can be on the same handful of teams. That would be boring, wouldn’t it?”

Barry Bonds, Jeff Kent and Burks give the Giants three home run threats in the middle of a lineup that includes a solid enough combination of Bill Mueller and Charlie Hayes at third and the reliable J.T. Snow at first. Snow is giving up switch-hitting after batting .214 from the right side over the last five years.

A rotation of Shawn Estes, Mark Gardner, Kirk Rueter and Russ Ortiz could use another inning-eating veteran--Orel Hershiser has moved on to a tryout arrangement with the Cleveland Indians--and must have Estes recapture his 19-5 form of 1997 after an injury-marred 7-12 in 1998. Robb Nen anchors a bullpen in search of a setup man.

“The key for us is defense, execution and avoiding injuries,” Baker said. “We have to keep our people on the field.

“We changed our fitness program a couple years ago and we’ve been second or third in the league with fewest players on the disabled list. It’s one of our equalizers. When you’re operating on a tight margin, you can’t afford down time, you can’t afford to start renting players.

“One of the advantages the affluent teams have is that they can afford to increase the payroll

$10 million to $20 million in the middle of the road.”

The hated Dodgers will outspend the Giants about two to one this year, but it’s the won-lost ledger that counts. The Giants have only one fewer win than the Dodgers in the ‘90s, and if the Dodgers are favored again in the West, well, when haven’t they been, said San Francisco General Manager Brian Sabean, who isn’t cowering and isn’t impressed by the bold predictions coming from Vero Beach.

“We have our own business to worry about,” Sabean said. “We never worry about what other people are doing or saying. We’ve had a great amount of success the last two years being low key and proving it on the field, whereas other teams are more vocal about what they’re doing.

“I don’t know in modern baseball if any team is really in position to do that, with the exception of a couple real strong teams like the Yankees and Braves, but you don’t hear them being braggadocio. They just do it on the field.

“As for our division, I see more parity throughout the league than ever, and I truly believe we’ll be in the thick of it.

“There may be a team capable of jumping out like San Diego did last year, but I don’t really expect that.”

Sabean has consistently disputed the perception of the Giants as a group of castoffs playing over their heads. He sees a talented group of blue-collar performers, many of whom won elsewhere and have transported that feel to the Giants’ clubhouse.

Would he like to have more financial resources?

“Sure, you always want more,” he said. “But the reality of our situation is that the owners have been unbelievably resilient. To even get to the level we’re at, they’ve really had to stretch the envelope. We’re not in a money-making situation at Candlestick. We’re operating at a significant loss, and have been since 1994.”

The ultimate hope, both Baker and Sabean said, is that Pac Bell Park will help produce an attendance and artistic renaissance comparable to the Jacobs Field impact in Cleveland. In the meantime, the marketing department is billing 1999 as a “Goodbye Party” at Candlestick, and the headline on the media guide reads “Tell It Goodbye,” the home run call of broadcaster Lon Simmons.

The Giants, instead of simply burning the frigid, wind-swept stadium, will hold a series of events commemorating the 39 years there, possibly including a “Gone With the Wind” weekend highlighting the zaniest moments.

The hope, of course, is to go out a winner, even though Dodger General Manager Kevin Malone has already put his team in the World Series.

“Well,” said Sabean, unable to resist the needle, “I suppose they’ll pitch Kevin Brown in Game 1 [of the Series], but I wonder who they’ll pitch in Game 2?”

Said Baker, “You can’t worry about keeping up with the Joneses or trying to spend Rockefeller money if you’re not a Rockefeller. If all you can afford is a Chevy, you buy a Chevy and do the best you can, but we may have to figure out how David slew Goliath.”

Baker has been doing a great job of that, but he may come to that point when he’d prefer to be Goliath.

BLAME GAME

In a display of class, Kerry Wood has remained above the finger-pointing that has followed discovery of the torn elbow ligament that will force him to sit out the season. Who is to blame? The accusations have come fast and furious on the Chicago talk shows, and the Cubs themselves have been playing the blame game behind locked doors.

Was General Manager Ed Lynch to blame for rushing Wood to the majors last year? Was it pitching coach Phil Regan for failing to correct his elbow-straining, cross-body delivery? Was it his high school coach in Dallas for abusing his arm, or Cub Manager Jim Riggleman for overuse, even though Riggleman monitored pitch counts and was often criticized for lifting his 21-year-old phenom too early?

Wood dismissed all of it. He has experienced elbow problems since high school, he says, and knew it could explode at any time. He remembers seeing Dave Dravecky suffer a broken arm simply by delivering one pitch.

“It’s safe to say this was inevitable,” Wood said at the Cubs’ Mesa camp while waiting for the swelling to go down so that surgery can be scheduled. “From the time my velocity picked up when I was younger and started to throw harder, I felt it could happen at any time. It’s not fair to blame the organization.”

It is also true that Wood resisted attempts by Regan last year to change his delivery, reducing the strain, and that new pitching coach Marty DeMerritt was working with Wood on his mechanics this spring.

“It’s tough to change when you’re in the groove he was last year,” DeMerritt said, jolted by his first experience with the Cub curse.

THE BIG BOW

Arizona Diamondback pitcher Todd Stottlemyre may have overreacted when Sammy Sosa bowed to the fans after each of his two home runs Wednesday--”I look on it as offensive,” Stottlemyre said--but Cub teammate Mark Grace has asked Sosa to desist, reminding him it’s a risky violation of protocol.

“Some old-school pitcher might take a shot at Sammy next time up, or me as the next batter,” Grace said. “Sammy is a team player. He knows what’s going on. I think he’ll stop.”

An old-school pitcher named Bob Gibson was recently hired by the National League to supervise discipline, which Seattle Mariner broadcaster and former big leaguer Ron Fairly considered a curious development.

“I want to ask Bob if he’s going to fine pitchers for hitting batters or fine them for not hitting them soon enough,” Fairly said.

THE BIG LIE

Tim Johnson had yearned and prepared diligently for his big league managing opportunity. He got it with the Toronto Blue Jays, then saw it collapse because of the lies he concocted regarding his alleged combat action in Vietnam while in the Marines. Johnson wasn’t in combat but carried guilt because many of his friends had been, and some had been killed.

Johnson apologized publicly for the lies last fall--he also claimed fraudulently to have received a basketball scholarship offer from UCLA--and privately to his Blue Jay players this spring, but the atmosphere was tainted, the season at risk.

“Each day there was a new revelation,” General Manager Gord Ash said. “Tim did his best, but I couldn’t put the feelings of one person ahead of the team. My intuition told me that if I didn’t make a move now, I’d have to make one 30 to 45 days from now.”

Ash said he went the proven route, hiring Jim Fregosi to succeed Johnson, “because I think we have a more reasonable chance of winning than when I hired Tim.”

PAMPERS

So now Gary Sheffield, instead of Raul Mondesi, will bat third for the Dodgers.

It is the right decision, given Mondesi’s poor on-base percentage and lack of discipline, but announcing the move a day or two after Sheffield aired his demands and desires publicly left the perception that management has capitulated and that the inmates run the asylum.

Perception? Make no mistake, the Dodgers want to give Sheffield as few reasons as possible to create turmoil.