Baseball Has Five Perpetual Losers

Baseball fever? Forget it.

That’s the slogan operating in Cleveland, San Francisco, Seattle, Minneapolis and Arlington, Texas as major-league baseball’s failing five stumble through another yet another losing season.

Unstable management, poor trades, tight-fisted financial policies and unproductive farm systems are all offered as explanations for the annual failures of the Giants, Indians, Mariners, Twins and Rangers. Whatever the reasons, it’s clear these five franchises have carved out a special niche in baseball lore since divisional play was instituted in 1969.

“First you must have a plan,” insists Cleveland President Peter Bavasi, who helped build Toronto into a league power and is now trying to resurrect an Indians’ franchise that hasn’t won 90 games in a season since 1955.

“It starts with people because we’re a people business. Scouts come first and you must have capable player personnel people. In Toronto, we understood from a historical perspective it would take eight seasons to build a winner.”

The Indians have never finished better than fourth in the American League East. Since divisional play began, they have gone through eight managers and five owners and this season looms as Cleveland’s worst in 60 years.

“In Cleveland, it’s going to take time, patience and money,” says Bavasi. “Part of the plan is that once you develop good, young players you must pay the bucks to keep them. There should be no quick-fix trades or deals with the free agent market until the team develops. Fans and media are not difficult when things are going badly for an organization, but owners tend to be impatient. The plan needs time to take root. I’ve seen the plan work in Toronto and if I hadn’t, I wouldn’t be so confident.”

For the Seattle Mariners, that winning plan must be buried somewhere in Puget Sound. Seattle has not won more than 76 games in a season since the franchise began in 1977 and the Mariners would need a late surge to top that plateau in 1985.

Like the Indians, who traded Graig Nettles to the Yankees in 1972 for John Ellis, Jerry Kenney, Charlie Spikes and Rosendo Torres, the Mariners must overcome some dreadful transactions. Seattle shipped Bill Caudill to Oakland for Bob Kearney and Dave Beard in 1983. In 1981, the Mariners dispatched a player to be named later to Kansas City for Manny Castillo. Seattle completed the deal in March, 1982 by sending Bud Black to the Royals.

“You must have sound baseball people in the organization and after that you must have continuity,” says Boston coach Rene Lachemann, who posted a 140-180 mark as manager of the Mariners from 1981-83. “Seattle has done a super job of scouting--they have some of the best young players in baseball--but you’ve got to keep your people and be patient. We lost Floyd Bannister, Tom Paciorek and Bruce Bochte at Seattle, one right after the other.”

Texas, which hasn’t won a pennant of any kind since the franchise began in Washington in 1961, seems destined for a last-place finish in the AL West and a former Rangers’ pitcher names management as the culprit.

“When I was in Texas, we had no stability,” says Milwaukee’s Danny Darwin, who spent seven seasons with the Rangers. “We went through three or four managers and at one time, our minor-league system was almost completely gone. They traded off Dave Righetti, Walt Terrell, Ron Darling, Tom Henke. Changes at the top cause a lot of conflict in the clubhouse--the players are worried about what’s going on and each new person that comes in has his own ideas about how the club should be run. Every year you’re doing something different.

“It’s very tough to get psyched up when you’re 25 games out in August, but we had to go to the park no matter what. You have to walk with your head up and give it your best shot in that situation. I think Texas is finally going in the right direction, though. They have a young general manager (37-year-old Tom Grieve) who knows the minor leagues real well and a young manager in Bobby Valentine.”

Youth is being served poorly in Minnesota, where the Twins are still looking for their first AL West title since 1970. The Twins have not won more than 85 games in a season since ’70 and they took a giant step back this year after reaching the .500 mark in 1984.

“Not keeping your people is what killed the Twins,” says Lachemann. “They got rid of Butch Wynegar, Dan Ford, Bill Campbell and others.”

Former owner Calvin Griffith disregarded the Bavasi plan in the 1970s, reaching for the Excedrin rather than for his wallet. Trading Rod Carew to California in 1979 for Dave Engle, Paul Hartzell, Brad Havens and Ken Landreaux and a ’78 deal with the Mets, swapping Jesse Orosco for Jerry Koosman, didn’t help.

The only National League club with a legacy of losing is a most worthy candidate. The Giants haven’t won a Western Division title since 1971 and San Francisco fans are still plotting revenge against Giant general managers.

Can you blame them? No team in professional sports has made deals on a par with these gems: George Foster to Cincinnati in 1971 for Vern Geishert and Frank Duffy; Gaylord Perry and Duffy to Cleveland in 1971 for Sam McDowell; Garry Maddox to Philadelphia in 1975 for Willie Montanez, and the recent Brinks job pulled by St. Louis, obtaining Jack Clark for Dave LaPoint, David Green, Jose Uribe and Gary Rajsich.

“The Giants have good scouting, but the management doesn’t have any idea what they want to do,” says Foster, who made the All-Star team four times with the Reds. “Instead of building around certain players, they trade them away. When I went to the Reds, the difference in organization was night and day. In spring training, the Giants would work maybe 90 minutes on fundamentals while Cincinnati stressed the basics for three hours. I feel for the guys on the Giants and their fans. When they start in spring training, their goal is not to finish first or second . . . it’s just to finish, period.”

While the Indians have gone 30 years without a 90-win season, the Baltimore Orioles have reached that mark 17 times in that span. While the Giants have not finished first or second in the West since 1971, the Dodgers have accomplished the feat 11 times.

“Anytime you see a dramatic change in ownership and management, you’re gonna see a change in plan,” says Bavasi. “Then you tend to retrogress a while until the new plan takes root.”

But management stability may not be enough to rescue the failing five from another decade of losing. From the Super-Turf of the Metrodome to the crushed volcanic rock surface of Candlestick Park, these remain baseball’s killing fields.