Pardon the expression, but many owners are convinced baseball is becoming a political football. Why else would the Senate subcommittee on antitrust monopolies and business rights hold a baseball hearing in Washington on Thursday, one day before the deadline on the reopening of the Basic Agreement? The owners are asking if this is merely a scheduling coincidence or an attempt to pressure them from reopening their contract with the Players Association. Howard Metzenbaum (D-Ohio), who will chair the meeting, is labor- oriented and said to be a pal of Don Fehr, the executive director of the union.
At least a half-dozen witnesses will testify, including Fehr, former Commissioner Fay Vincent and Bud Selig, Vincent`s interim successor. Several economics professors also will appear, descending, for a day, from their academic towers to offer their usual naive opinions.
The prevalent view among baseball executives is that if they reopen, Metzenbaum will extend the hearings, which would increase the possibility of baseball losing its antitrust exemption. Whatever, the owners will resume discussion on this thorny issue Monday in Louisville.
If they decide to reopen, I doubt the 1993 season will be in jeopardy. More than likely, months and months of meaningless negotiations would take place. Then, at this time next year, when the contract expires, the owners, in effect, will tell the players, ”Look, we`ve been bargaining for a year without results. Now we`re going to have to lock you out.”
– The Cubs` signing of free-agent pitcher Jose Guzman appears to be a good move-but only if General Manager Larry Himes uses the rest of the ”Greg Maddux money” to acquire a seasoned closer such as Tom Henke or Todd Worrell. If the Cubs don`t come up with an effective late man, not much improvement should be expected.
Good to hear the White Sox are willing to open their purse and spend big money for premier free agents. To win it all, the Sox need another strong starting pitcher and an established front-line outfielder capable of hitting for average and power.
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Maddux certainly would fill the pitching bill, but the question is, would the Sox management sign Maddux and thereby embarrass their crosstown rivals? I think not.
– If you haven`t noticed, former Cubs managers, like old soldiers, don`t fade away. Don Zimmer has signed as a coach with the expansion Colorado Rockies, and Lee Elia, who has been managing Philadelphia farm teams, is returning to the big leagues as a coach with the Seattle Mariners.
As for Jim Essian, he will be joining the Montreal Expos as a roving catching coach. Essian is a former catcher who had the quickest release I ever have seen, Johnny Bench included. At the moment, however, Essian barely can lift his arm. He broke his collarbone Thursday night in a hockey game.
– It has been a joyous holiday season for Bobby Bragan, a baseball lifer who managed four big-league teams-Pittsburgh, Cleveland and the Milwaukee and Atlanta Braves. Bragan`s wife, Roberta, who underwent serious surgery, has made a good recovery, and Bragan`s memoirs, ”You Can`t Hit the Ball With the Bat on Your Shoulder,” is selling well.
It`s a wonderful book, full of inside baseball and praise for Jackie Robinson, Branch Rickey and Leo Durocher. Bragan supports the belief of many other veteran baseball men that Rickey, who broke the color line when he signed Robinson, was the ”greatest man that ever walked on the sports stage.”
Bragan also reveals Chuck Dressen`s well-concealed managerial blunder in the legendary 1951 ”Bobby Thomson” playoff game between the Dodgers and the old New York Giants. This was the game Thomson won for the Giants with a two- run, ninth-inning home run off Ralph Branca.
It wouldn`t have happened, Bragan explains, if Dressen hadn`t had first baseman Gil Hodges holding Alvin Dark on the bag. The many fans interested and fascinated with strategy will be interested. Here`s what happened:
The Dodgers were leading 4-1 going into the bottom of the ninth. Dark led off with a single. With the Dodgers ahead by three runs, Dark`s run was of absolutely no consequence; Dressen should have conceded the run and had Hodges playing back, at the first baseman`s normal position.
Instead, Hodges held Dark on and was unable to handle Don Mueller`s grounder. Hodges dove for the ball, but it ticked off his glove and rolled into right field, a single. Had Hodges been playing deep, behind Dark, it would have been a routine 3-6-3 double play-two outs and nobody on.
Instead, there were no outs and the Giants had runners at first and third. Monte Irvin, next up, popped up for what should have been a game-ending third out. Whitey Lockman followed with an RBI double. Thomson then hit one of the most memorable home runs in baseball history.
”We all knew about it and talked about it after the game,” recalled Whitey Lockman, now a special assistant to Dave Dombrowski of the Florida Marlins. ”But, strangely, nobody from the media mentioned it. And we didn`t volunteer anything.”
– Also good reading, certainly worthy of Christmas giving, is ”Super Scout” by Jim Russo, a scout for 35 years, most of them with the Baltimore Orioles. Russo should have been a big-league manager, but that`s another story.
It is a lively tome, packed with anecdotes, and it gives the inside of many trades, including the deal in which the Orioles acquired Frank Robinson from the Cincinnati Reds, a trade that helped the Orioles win four pennants.
Less than a week after the Robinson deal, the Orioles had a chance for another big deal-Billy Williams, the Cubs` Hall of Famer, in exchange for Mike Epstein, a first baseman of middling ability.
”I couldn`t believe it,” Russo says. ”I thought to myself, `First Frank Robinson, and now this guy. Billy Williams in our lineup, with Frank and Brooks Robinson and Boog Powell.` ”
Hank Bauer, the Baltimore manager, was delighted. ”Frank was so happy. He asked where I would bat him. My answer was, `Anywhere. If he was mine, I`d hit him third. Anywhere.` ”
The Cubs agreed. ”They thought they had a deal,” Russo says. Fortunately for the Cubs, it was rejected by Frank Cashen, then the Orioles`
general manager. Cashen refused to part with Epstein.