Wilmington Evening Journal - March 28, 1980
Green undecided who’ll bat second
By Hal Bodley, Sports Editor
CLEARWATER, Fla. – A'musings while walking not-so-swiftly along the sandy Grapefruit League trail:
OK; so who's going to bat second for the Phillies?
"One thing's for sure," Manager Dallas Green said the other day in his not-so-quiet voice. "It will not be Garry Maddox."
When Green roughed out his batting order over the winter, he penciled Manny Trillo's name in the second spot So far, that has not worked in the exhibition games. Trillo, obviously trying to become a hit-and-run type to follow Pete Rose, has only five hits in nine games.
"I'm still open-minded about the No. 2 spot," said Green. "I've used Bake McBride and Garry and Manny, and I still have Larry Bowa in the back of my mind. I doubt very much, though, that it will be Maddox.
"Manny has become hit-and-run conscious because that is the type of game I want to play. He is not swinging the bat welL Billy DeMars (batting instructor) and I talked about it. We dropped him to seventh today so he could start swinging the bat a little bit without thinking of the hit-and-run."
• • •
Bob Boone, the National League player representative, and Larry Bowa, the Phils' rep, will miss the team's trip to the East Coast next week. They will fly to Dallas to participate in what could be the historic meeting of the Major League Baseball Players Association. At that meeting a vote will be taken whether or not to strike against the owners on April 1.
Bowa has been quietly telling friends he does not think the April 2 game in Cocoa against Houston will be played.
• • •
Infielder Buddy Harrelson pulled a groin muscle yesterday and if the Injury keeps him from working out for a weeK or so, Green may get a chance to see just how good rookie Luis Aguayo is.
If Harrelson were to open the season on the disabled list, Green could take Aguayo to Philadelphia as a reserve infielder and see if his dazzling spring performance was for real.
Harrelson is signed through 1980 and if he does not make the team or hook on with another one, the Phils would have to pay him something like a hundred grand. That kind of money helps make decisions.
Aguayo, who has been used in the outfield a couple of times, is hitting .318 this spring with five doubles.
• • •
Owner Ruly Carpenter and Jerry Kapstein, Garry Maddox' agent, have been quietly negotiating this week but there will be no public statement as to progress.
"We think it's best for both parties If we do not discuss this publicly," said Carpenter.
It was reported here last Saturday that negotiations had been reopened and at the time Maddox said be was puzzled by one of Carpenter's comments. Garry said Ruly admitted Maddox was probably worth what he was asking, but that the Phillies would not give it to him.
"What I told him," said Carpenter, "was that if he becomes a free agent, there is undoubtedly some owner who will pay what he is asking. That certainly would happen if a player of Garry Maddox' caliber went on the free-agent market."
Meanwhile, Maddox and Kapstein are mulling over an offer believed to be $3.1 million over five years.
• • •
Dallas Green doesn't see how opposing players can buddy-up with each other around the batting cage, make plans for dinner or a date at the races, then go out and try to beat each other.
"When I played and the other team came out onto the field, you didn't like to have anything to do with them. I just don't think fraternization is good for a baseball player.
"Maybe it's because players are so close. They get traded together. They play winter ball together. There's just a closer proximity among players than when I played.
"I don't know if there are any dangers. I've got to believe in my heart that guys go out and bust their butts and play the game the way it's supposed to be played. But I just felt better, as a pitcher, knocking a guy down on 0-and-2 if I hadn't just talked to him about his wife and kids."
• • •
On the Q.T.
Most of the veteran Phillies have guaranteed contracts. Clauses in their contracts state that they will be paid regardless, with several escape clauses for management. For example, if a player breaks a leg skiing and is unable to perform, he won't be paid.
Now, along comes the threat of a strike and some of these players feel they legally should be paid because there is nothing in their contracts about a strike. In fact, several of them have consulted attorneys on the matter.
So, if there is a strike and the team cuts off the money, look for the players to take their cases to court or dump them in the lap of an arbitrator.
And if I win," said one, "I would be a free agent."
Will it ever end?
Schmidt’s hitting bails out Phillies’ ineffective pitching
By Hal Bodley, Sports Editor
CLEARWATER. Fla. – The Phillies' pitching received rough treatment yesterday.
Steve Carlton was hammered, Rawly Eastwick was hammered and Lerrin LaGrow was ineffective.
Even with that, the Phillies out- slugged the Chicago White Sox 12-5 yesterday at Jack Russell Stadium, but from a former pitcher's standpoint there wasn't much to cheer about.
Except Michael Jack Schmidt.
The third baseman continued his awesome Grapefruit League batting show with his third homer in two days, a rocket shot with two runners on in the fourth inning when the Phils scored nine runs.
Schmidt now has five homers and 14 runs batted in nine spring games.
Manager Dallas Green, the former pitcher, says there is no way he is going to try to slow Schmidt down even though the scheduled National League opener is two weeks away.
"I don't believe in that," Green said when somebody suggested Schmidt might leave everything in Florida. "He is strong and has a good stroke; I'm not about try to slow him down."
Green, however, was waiting for his question-mark pitching staff to hit the bottom and it apparently did yesterday.
Carlton, who had allowed just one earned run in 11 innings, gave up three runs on 10 hits. Eastwick, who had pitched extremely well his last time out, gave up three hits, including a two-run homer by Lamar Johnson in one inning of work.
"I was talking to Paul Owens and Ruly Carpenter this morning," sai Green. "I told them we hadn't hit that downslide yet of being 'logy' and fed up with spring training and that type thing. I felt that maybe because we were in such good physical condition we won't hit it, but it happened today. This is just about the time when you expect it."
Green used the term logy to describe Carlton's mediocre performance.
"I think he was a little lazy. I knew he didn't pitch well and he knew it," said Green.
"We had a full day today before this game even started. We worked the hell out of them over at the complex on cutoffs and relays and pop-ups. We had catchers blocking the plate and also had the B' game. You probably saw some guys walking on their knees and it figures."
EXTRA POLNTS - Scott Munninghoff pitched five innings in the Phils' 3-2 victory over Toronto in the 'B' game... The rookie allowed one run and six hits before he tired.
Players say talks a ‘waste of time’
Associated Press
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – A scheduled three-day negotiating session between representatives of major league baseball owners and players turned out to be a two-day waste of time, says the head of the players' union.
The talks, aimed at formulating a new four-year basic agreement between owners and players, broke off abruptly yesterday and today's session was canceled.
The meetings will resume Sunday in Palm Springs, Calif., with the help of a federal mediator requested by the owners.
Two days later, the Players Association's executive board plans to meet in Dallas to determine if and when a strike will be called.
"I regret they saw fit to waste yesterday, today and tomorrow," Players Association executive director Marvin Miller said yesterday. "There was no bargaining Wednesday or today."
Miller had met for about two hours Wednesday with Ray Grebcy, the chief negotiator for the owners. He said it was Grebey's decision to recess the talks until Sunday.
Grebey said the owners asked the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service to participate in the negotiations, and reiterated their contention that the season should open on schedule April 9 whether or not an agreement has been reached.
Miller, who worked for the Mediation Service in 1946-47, said he had no objection to its participation, but he questioned the timing of the owners' request.
"I think this may well be a kind of stalling mechanism on the part of (the owners)," he said.
Miller hinted that the owners may have asked for the mediator shortly before the players' strike decision is due so that players might delay any action until they can re-assess the situation.
Grebey has continually refused to comment on the specifics of the negotiations, but insists they have been productive.
Players who have attended the sessions say otherwise.
Mark Belanger, player representative for the Baltimore Orioles, was visibly disgusted with the situation following yesterday's brief session.
"I've been at all but two or three of these meetings, and nothing's been accomplished," Belanger said. The talks – about 30 in all – have been hung up on several owners' proposals, some of which Miller contends don't belong on the table.
"They came in with a demand that no player can be offered more than a one-year contract if he has less than five years of service," Miller said. "They don't have to offer more (than a one-year contract) now. They want us to take over management's responsibility."
The major issue to be resolved is an owners' proposal to adjust the amount of compensation a team receives after losing a free agent.
Under the owners' plan, a team signing a highly-sought free agent would be required to give up a player, rather than an amateur draft choice, in return. The agent's new team could protect only 15 of its players from that selection process.
Such a change would "break the back of the free agency system," Miller said, since few teams would be willing to give up a regular in return for a free agent.
Other major issues yet to be resolved include whether players should continue to be entitled to a piece of baseball's television revenues, and whether a player's time in service or his performance should be considered more important when an arbitrator rules on a salary dispute.
More than 800 players from 22 of the 26 major league teams have voted to authorize a strike on or after April 1, with only one dissenting vote so far. Miller planned to meet with the remaining teams by the end of this week.