Baseball / Ross Newhan : Should Giamatti Follow Judge Out of the Rose Inquiry?

Baseball commissioner Bart Giamatti, a former president of Yale University and an authority on Renaissance literature, is obviously a man of letters.

But why would he have written that letter praising the honesty and virtue of a convicted drug felon and admitted bookie who allegedly took more than $1 million in bets from Manager Pete Rose of the Cincinnati Reds over a two-year period?

Giamatti won’t discuss the subject, but at some point an explanation would seem in order.

On the surface, it isn’t the most auspicious beginning for the new commissioner.

The situation:

Giamatti, within the last week, wrote an apparently unsolicited letter to Carl B. Rubin, chief judge of the U.S. District Court in Cincinnati, who at the time was about to sentence Ronald Peters for cocaine trafficking and tax evasion, both felonies.

Giamatti wrote that Peters is a genuinely swell fellow who “has been candid, forthright and truthful” in baseball’s investigation into Rose’s gambling activities. He didn’t say that Peters would throw out the first ball at the World Series, but he seemed to be portrayed as a possible candidate.

Rubin, of course, wondered why Giamatti was telling him this and made the mistake of saying so publicly.

He called the obvious link between the letter and the sentencing of Peters “very offensive” and said there seemed evidence of a vendetta against Rose.

Legal experts called Rubin’s public comments a breach of judicial conduct, and Rubin responded by stepping down as the sentencing judge in the Peters case.

Now what about Giamatti? Did he think his powers as commissioner extended into the courtroom? Was that part of a deal he had cut with Peters in exchange for evidence against Rose? Is he so intent on convicting Rose that he would publicly defend a convicted gambler and drug trafficker?

Vendetta may be too strong a word, but Giamatti has created an impression that he, too, should step down as the sentencing judge in the Rose inquiry.

Of course, his five-year term may be over before we get a decision anyway.

After all the bombast of spring training and the declaration by Darryl Strawberry that he was through negotiating with the New York Mets and would leave when his contract expired after the 1990 season, sources say that emotions have cooled and that Strawberry and the Mets are quietly talking about an extension that could become reality soon.

Strawberry’s camp credits the peacemaking efforts of Frank Cashen, the club’s chief operating officer and a man Strawberry admires.

Syd Thrift moved quickly and shrewdly in rebuilding the Pittsburgh Pirates. He may have a tougher time as general manager of the New York Yankees.

“Nobody wants to help the Yankees,” he said. “I’ve got a sore throat and cold just from spending two weeks on the phone talking to those clowns (other general managers).

“I think when it comes to trading, the American League is 90% air and about 2% balloon.”

The question of whether the Angels’ pitching success, as compared to last season when Bob Boone was the catcher, stems from a new emphasis on pitching inside is likely to be a running story throughout the season.

Boone expressed irritation last week with the Angels’ implications that he did not have the pitchers work inside. The other day, he added: “If they don’t think I earned my money last year I’ll be glad to send some of it back.”

That’s an offer economist Mike Port probably would like to accept. But there seems to be a larger question here.

If, in fact, Boone didn’t work the inside half of the plate, and didn’t allow pitchers to shake off his signs, shouldn’t the criticism be directed at Gene Mauch, John McNamara and Cookie Rojas, Boone’s managers with the Angels?

Isn’t the catcher strictly a conduit for the manager’s pitching philosophy? Boone wanted to manage the Angels but his application was rejected. He was strictly a player and, like the 23 others, following his manager’s orders.

How far has Bo Jackson come? Well, his eight home runs and nine stolen bases top Jose Canseco’s eight and eight totals of last April, when he went on to become the first player ever to hit 40 or more homers and steal 40 or more bases in the same season.

Canseco set it as a goal. Has Bo?

“When you start doing that, you put too much pressure on yourself,” he said. “You put ideas in people’s minds and they run away with it.

“Sure it would be nice, but I’d rather not think about it. I’d rather not talk about it.”

New York Met rookie Gregg Jefferies cleans his bat with alcohol after every game.

“If the bat is perfectly clear, I can see the point of impact with the baseball and I know if I’ve had a good swing or not,” he said.

Jefferies may keep his eye on the ball better than most, but he can’t be happy with what he’s seen. His swing produced a .167 average before a weekend series against the Houston Astros.

Not since Gene Alley in 1968 have the Pittsburgh Pirates sent a shortstop to the All-Star game and not since Dale Berra appeared in 135 games in 1984 have they had a shortstop play more than 120 in the same season.

The Pirates have used 15 shortstops since Berra--Jay Bell, Rafael Belliard and the recently acquired Rey Quinones this year alone.

In their bid for stability at the position, the Pirates traded pitcher Mike Dunne and two top prospects--right-handed pitcher Mike Walker and outfielder Mark Merchant--to Seattle for Quinones.

“We had to get some offense from the shortstop position,” Pirate Manager Jim Leyland said, noting that the bottom third of his batting order hit only four home runs last season.

Quinones hit 12, but nine were in the friendly confines of the Kingdome.

The San Francisco Giants would also like to do something about the bottom half of their batting order.

Will Clark, who hits third, and Kevin Mitchell, who follows, have 43 of the team’s 88 runs batted in.

Mitchell has been on base with hits or walks 33 times but has scored only 10 runs, and six of those stemmed from his own home runs, meaning that the bottom four hitters have driven him in only four times.

Of Randy Johnson, the Montreal Expos’ 6-foot-10 rookie pitcher from USC, Pittsburgh’s Andy Van Slyke said: “When Abner Doubleday invented baseball, he didn’t have Randy Johnson in mind. If he had, the pitching mound would be 70 feet 7 inches away instead of 60 feet 6 inches.”

The Milwaukee Brewers’ 12-0 thumping of Allan Anderson and the Minnesota Twins Wednesday carried the aspect of revenge.

Anderson skipped his last start of the season against the Angels last year and edged the Brewers’ Ted Higuera for the American League’s earned-run average title: 2.446 to 2.45.

“I thought that was gutless,” Milwaukee pitcher Chuck Crim said after Wednesday’s game. “I don’t believe in stuff like that. When it’s your turn, you should pitch, especially when it’s for something like that.”

Anderson seems to have genuine remorse, which is natural for anyone who passed up an opportunity to pitch against the heartless Angels last September, when they ended the season with 12 straight losses, the last at the hands of Anderson’s teammate, Roy Smith.

“Deep down, after all was said and done, I wished I’d have pitched,” Anderson said. “It wasn’t the right way to go, but I can’t do anything about it now.”

A significant factor in the Texas Rangers’ fast start has been the leadership of second baseman Julio Franco, whose attitude was regarded as something of a problem by the Cleveland Indians.

Franco has become a mentor for talented Ruben Sierra and a positive force for the Rangers.

“The guys have respect for me here and I respect them,” Franco said. “I wasn’t well-treated in Cleveland. I made mistakes when I was young and people got down on me.

“These people give me a chance to show the real Julio. They don’t listen to reputations.”

In a four-game series against the San Diego Padres last weekend, Dale Murphy went eight for 17 with three home runs and 10 runs batted in. It proved to be misleading. The outfielder for the Atlanta Braves then went to New York and was one for eight with six strikeouts in two games.

He was hitting .202 before a weekend series against the Expos and even his wife, Nancy, was showing a lack of respect.

Asked what they should call a stray dog Murphy brought home, she said, “Let’s call it Slumper, after you.”