BASEBALL / ROSS NEWHAN : Dodgers Lack More Than Wizardry

It would be a stretch to suggest that with each new error Jose Offerman is juggling the future of his biggest supporter, Dodger Vice President Fred Claire, but this much is certain:

More than halfway through his first full season, the verdict is still to be rendered on the 23-year-old shortstop, although Ozzie Smith seemed to offer his own at the All-Star game.

Reflecting on the preseason rumors involving a trade to the Dodgers, the Cardinal shortstop didn’t criticize the Dodgers’ decision to stay with Offerman, but said:

“When a club needs help in a certain area and has a chance to make a trade that appears beneficial, you have to be curious why it doesn’t happen. I have no idea why it didn’t, but I think it would have been good for everyone. I think it would have been a match made in heaven.”

Offerman has slowly become established offensively, but leads National League shortstops with 21 errors.

Yes, Pee Wee Reese made 47 errors in his first season as the Dodger shortstop and made 25 or more in nine seasons.

Yes, Bill Russell made 34 errors in his first full season as the Dodger shortstop and made 29 or more in eight seasons.

Reese, however, played on a team that was brilliant defensively. Russell played on a team that was not brilliant defensively, but was solid.

Their errors did not lead to others elsewhere. Their errors did not help trigger an overall collapse. The 1992 team is no longer solid defensively at any position, except perhaps first base and center field.

The Dodgers lead the league with 91 errors in 91 games. This is a team that hasn’t been strong enough to absorb Offerman’s errors, leaving him, at times, the unfortunate focus of perhaps the worst fielding Dodger team since the move to Los Angeles.

This is not to absolve Offerman or suggest he is here to stay, that he is about to become the wizard the Dodgers could have had. It is merely to suggest that Offerman is only a piece of the Dodger puzzle.

WHAT’S UP, DOC?

Dwight Gooden of the New York Mets went back on the disabled list Saturday because of an inflammation in the rotator cuff that was repaired surgically in September.

Gooden had the 13th magnetic resonance imaging exam of his career on Friday, and team doctors said there was no indication of a new tear, although the same procedure last summer failed to detect the old tear.

At the least, club executive Al Harazin acknowledged, Gooden, 27, will have to live with periodic flare-ups in the shoulder.

“I’m scared as hell,” Gooden told New York Newsday on Thursday. “Each time, it gets a little harder to take. You say, ‘Is this the time it’s not going to get better?’ ”

Gooden said his arm hasn’t felt normal since 1988.

“Sometimes I feel old,” he said. “Mel (Stottlemyre, the pitching coach) calls me ‘T.O. Doc.’ T.O. for ‘tired, old.’ I guess I have to start thinking about what I’m going to do with the rest of my life.”

The Mets hate to think what Gooden’s current loss means to a rotation that has received little contribution from the No. 5 starters and has been without Bret Saberhagen since mid-May because of an inflamed right index finger.

Saberhagen, activated Saturday, is scheduled to face the Dodgers Tuesday, but the overall situation was on David Cone’s mind Friday when he refused to come out and made 166 pitches during a 1-0 victory over the San Francisco Giants.

“Under the circumstances,” Cone said of the probability that Gooden would be put on the disabled list, “I felt I had to stay out there, that it was a very important game for us.”

MOST WANTED

Bill Virdon, the former New York Yankee, Houston Astro and Pittsburgh Pirate manager, is said to be near the top of both the Colorado Rockies’ and Florida Marlins’ managerial lists. Virdon is on the Pirate coaching staff.

SOMETHING FOR NOTHING

It’s still possible. The All-Star rosters put the focus on a series of trades that received little attention at the time they were made, but turned into All-Star steals:

--Dennis Eckersley was acquired by the Oakland Athletics from the Chicago Cubs in 1987 for Dave Wilder, Brian Guinn and Mark Leonette.

--Ryne Sandberg was acquired by the Cubs (with Larry Bowa) from the Philadelphia Phillies in 1982 for Ivan DeJesus.

--Norm Charlton was acquired by the Cincinnati Reds from the Montreal Expos in 1986 for Wayne Krenchicki and Tim

Barker.

--John Kruk was acquired by the Phillies (with Randy Ready) from the San Diego Padres in 1989 for Chris James.

--Cone was acquired by the Mets from the Kansas City Royals in 1987 for Ed Hearn, Rick Anderson and Mauro Gozzo.

Then there was Bob Tewksbury, signed as a six-year minor league free agent by the St. Louis Cardinals, and Doug Jones, signed to a minor league contract as a free agent by the Houston Astros.

RE-OPENER

The players union remains convinced that the owners will choose to reopen collective bargaining talks in December and stage a spring lockout in pursuit of major changes in the salary system.

The bargaining agreement expires after the 1993 season, but either side can reopen in December.

Richard Ravitch, president of the owners’ Player Relations Committee, insists that he continues to seek owner opinion on that issue, with no decision having been reached. There are several reasons to think the owners might hold off until after the 1993 season:

--They do not have their customary lockout fund in place.

--They would damage expansion enthusiasm in Denver and Miami with a lockout in the spring of their those teams’ first seasons, and they would be risking the $350 million that is at stake in the final year of the TV contract.

On the other hand:

--They collect the $190 million in expansion fees this winter and might not care what impact a spring lockout has on the expansion cities.

--They might believe that the loss of TV income by a spring and early season lockout would be insignificant because most of the $350 million is tied to the playoffs and World Series.

--They might also believe that they can no longer deal with a restructuring of a salary system that will probably be battered again next winter when many of the best players--Kirby Puckett, Cal Ripken Jr., Barry Bonds, Ruben Sierra, Mark McGwire and Greg Maddux, among them--can become free agents.

The decision to reopen or not is complicated by two other factors:

--The owners must negotiate a new television contact. Many believe they will suffer a loss of income in the new contract. Both owners and the union have generally opposed negotiating a new bargaining agreement without knowing what the TV income is.

To negotiate both at the same time would be a formidable challenge, unless it is the owners’ feeling that the change in the salary structure would put less reliance on the TV income.

--In addition to the new TV contract, the status of Commissioner Fay Vincent would have to be considered if the owners reopen salary bargaining in December. Vincent has not said if he will seek reelection, only that he will not be forced to resign.

His contract expires in March of 1994. The Major League Agreement says that the reelection of a commissioner must be considered at a joint owners meeting not more than 15 months nor less than six months before the end of his term. In Vincent’s case, that would be at some point between next January and October.

Some owners fear the possibility of Vincent’s intervention in the next bargaining talks. He has refused to yield his rights in that area, and some owners are talking about taking that issue to the National Labor Relations Board.

Some owners might also believe it would be best to try and vote him out of office before entering the bargaining talks, meaning they wouldn’t begin collective negotiations until after the 1993 season.

Referring to the confluence of these issues, Vincent said:

“It’s not a very smart way to do business, but it’s not easy to get off the cycle. Anyone who thinks they’re unrelated doesn’t understand the process or the situation.”