Getting fired by Charlie Finley was among the best things that happened to Haywood Sullivan and demonstrates anew that nobody can predict the future. It is almost a Cinderella story.
Sullivan had an undistinguished major-league playing career. A second-string catcher, he appeared in only 226 games in seven seasons and had a .226 lifetime batting average.
He was a so-called student of the game. On May 15, 1965, Finley, then at Kansas City, fired Mel McGaha, his manager, and named Sullivan to succeed him. The A’s were in 10th and last place, with a 5-20 record, when Sullivan took command. Sullivan had slightly better success, but the A’s, nonetheless, limped home last, 43 games out of the lead. A month later, Finley dismissed Sullivan and replaced him with Alvin Dark.
Sullivan had broken in with Boston and rejoined the Red Sox, assuming a minor position in the club’s front office. Soon thereafter, because of his diligence and pleasant personality, he became a favorite of owner Tom Yawkey and his wife, Jean. When Yawkey died, his wife, in the restructuring, loaned Sullivan $1 million so he could buy 12 percent of the club.
This was in 1979, and Sullivan had been running the Red Sox, more or less, until two weeks ago when he sold his holdings for $32 million. According to reports, Sullivan is now heading an investment group that is likely to land an expansion franchise for the Tampa Bay area.
As for Finley, he was an enormously successful owner-on the field. His Oakland teams, in the early ’70s, won the World Series three years in a row. But Finley didn’t do nearly as well as Sullivan in the financial de-partment and in 1980 sold his 100 percent interest in the A’s for $13.7 million-$18.3 million less than Sullivan received for his 12 percent holdings in the Red Sox.
The moral of the story, I suppose, is twofold: No one knows what’s around the corner, and professional baseball, at the major-league level, is a good business.
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Poorer for it: Veteran second baseman Jody Reed appears to be the latest player to misjudge the market. Reed, who rejected a $7.8 million, three-year offer from the Dodgers, wound up signing a $500,000 minor-league contract with the Milwaukee Brewers.
Reed is too good a player to stay in Triple A, but if he does, he won’t win the title as the minor leagues’ highest-paid player. Carlos Martinez will be earning $600,000 with Charlotte in the International League-unless the Cleveland Indians bring him back, which is doubtful.
Speaking of the Indians, they already have sold the equivalent of 16,500 season tickets. Cleveland’s new ballpark is still without a name, but corporate bids are pouring in. The leader, according to Lake Erie reports, is British Petroleum, which apparently is willing to surrender $20 million for the honor.
Book it: The Hall of Fame Library, refurbished at a cost of $8 million, is expected to be opened to the public in May. It will be the largest sports library in captivity and will include replicas of two press boxes, one ancient and one modern. Also on display will be radio booths and the original microphones used by star broadcasters Red Barber, Bob Elson and Jack Brickhouse.
This and that: Lee Thomas, general manager of the Philadelphia Phillies, who has turned out to be a shrewd trader, is willing to send pitcher Terry Mulholland to the Yankees, but wants pitchers Bobby Munoz and Mark Hutton in exchange. Gene Michael of the Yankees has indicated he would deal Munoz, but not Hutton.
Some baseball scouts have expressed doubts reliever Lee Smith, recently signed by the Baltimore Orioles, will find the small dimensions of Oriole Park at Camden Yards to his liking. Perhaps they have forgotten Smith was remarkably effective when he pitched in the Wrigley Field bandbox. Still, he will have to junk the high fastball and rely primarily on his slider, which is still among the best in either league.
If the Dodgers succeed in trading Darryl Strawberry, manager Tom Lasorda is expected to open the season with two rookie outfielders, Billy Ashley and Raul Mondesi. Cubs fans may remember Ashley. Two years ago he dropped a flyball in Wrigley Field on his first major-league chance. After that game, he revealed the night before he had a nightmare dream. He had gone to the wall for what should have been a routine catch, but got stuck in the ivy.