BASEBALL / ROSS NEWHAN : Seattle Keeps Mariners, but Now What?

One question has been answered. The Mariners will remain in Seattle for the time being. Next: Will there be a front-office housecleaning by the new owners?

“There’s a lot of tension and uncertainty. We’re all anxious to see what happens,” General Manager Woody Woodward said.

Woodward has operated under financial hardships, but his inexplicable firing of Manager Jim Lefebvre after three years of progress seems to have set the tone for a year of regression.

After their first .500-or-better finish in 1991 and first season of 2 million or more in attendance, the Mariners seemed in position to challenge for an American League West title.

Instead, they are challenging the Angels for last. Seattle keeps its team, but what kind of a team?

“We felt everything was in place for a good start, but it didn’t happen,” Woodward said. “I still feel that, by playing up to our capability, we can make it an interesting year.”

The Mariners started the weekend 12 games under .500. One of the best young pitching staffs in baseball has gone up in flames despite rookie-of-the-year finesse shown by Dave Fleming, who is 9-1.

The staff earned-run average is almost two runs a game higher than last year’s 3.79. Erik Hanson and Randy Johnson, who won 21 games last year, are a combined 8-15. Brian Holman, a 24-game winner over the last two years, has not pitched because of a shoulder injury. Relief ace Mike Schooler has become a part-time arsonist. Six other members of last year’s staff are gone, diluting the depth.

Bill Swift, Mike Jackson and Dave Burba were traded for Kevin Mitchell, the right-handed power hitter who might have made the difference for Lefebvre in ’91.

Swift is 6-0 as a San Francisco Giant starter but is on the disabled list, and Woodward said his medical staff had warned him that Swift’s shoulder could not support the innings required of a starter.

Also gone are three free agents: Bill Krueger, 6-0 with the Minnesota Twins; Scott Bankhead, 7-1 with the Cincinnati Reds, and Rob Murphy, pitching in long relief with the Houston Astros.

“We knew it was a gamble,” Woodward said of some of the decisions. “But our disappointment is that many of our returning players haven’t performed at their previous levels.”

He referred to the middle of the lineup as well as the pitching staff.

Mitchell, who was expected to destroy the Kingdome, has four home runs. Jay Buhner, who hit 27 homers last year, has six and a .211 average. Pete O’Brien is batting .225. Ken Griffey Jr. was having an All-Star season after a struggling start, but he was put on the disabled list Friday because of a sprained ligament in his right wrist.

Then, too, there has been the distraction and uncertainty of the ownership situation, with a daily barrage of questions and media rips at outgoing owner Jeff Smulyan.

“It’s been tough on everybody,” Woodward said, adding that the real frustration has been operating under rigid financial restrictions. The Mariners had to buy their own TV time this year and expect to lose $12 million while averaging 21,000 in attendance.

“We had made nice progress the last couple years,” Woodward said. “Our goal was to add to it, rather than being put into another situation where we had to let veterans go. It’s frustrating trying to build a team in that framework.

“I mean, there are four or five clubs with player payrolls of $40 million or more. Our total revenues are less than that. That kind of discrepancy makes for a difficult operation and a problem that baseball has to address.

“The new owners are banking on the market producing more revenue. If so, we can do some of the things we’d like to do, but time will tell.”

Underwritten by Nintendo as a community service, the new owners are hoping to build on the promise of 1991, the belief that the Seattle market will respond to a successful team and committed organization. Will Woodward and staff be part of it? Time will tell that, too.

POWER PLAY

George Steinbrenner will return as managing partner of the New York Yankees in December. Commissioner Fay Vincent is expected to make the announcement Monday, possibly opening the door to more problems. It would not be surprising if Steinbrenner tried to organize a coup against Vincent.

In violation of his exile agreements, Steinbrenner wrote to the other owners, threatening to sue the commissioner if he wasn’t reinstated.

For the present, however, Vincent has never appeared stronger. He seemed to solidify his position and support in the last two weeks by first summoning Fred Kuhlmann, chairman of the major league ownership committee, to a meeting in Washington and demanding resolution of the Seattle situation.

Then, during a meeting of the owners’ Player Relations Committee in Chicago, he rebuffed an attempt by Bud Selig of the Milwaukee Brewers and Jerry Reinsdorf of the Chicago White Sox to (a) strip him of his right to intervene in labor negotiations and (b) establish a more militant base for the next talks through the PRC’s chief negotiator, Richard Ravitch, recently hired by Selig.

Vincent, admittedly dismayed by the Selig-Reinsdorf move and citing his “best interest of baseball rights” as outlined in the Major League Agreement, delivered a stern lecture to the owners on Thursday.

Don Fehr, executive director of the Major League Players Assn., watched the latest machinations with interest, still believing the owners will choose to reopen collective bargaining negotiations in December rather than wait until the agreement expires after the ’93 season.

Fehr said he expects a hardball approach, no matter who’s calling the shots--Ravitch or the more conciliatory Vincent.

“As I’ve said a hundred times, collective bargaining is driven by institutional needs, not personalities, and it’s not unusual to have these kinds of tensions in advance of bargaining,” Fehr said. “If I’m wrong, great, but we’ve operated for several months on the theory they’ll reopen in December and have a lockout again in the spring.”

PIECE OF THE PIE

The union probably will encounter its own internal problems this winter when it begins distributing the owners’ $280-million collusion fine to claimants from the winter of 1986.

About 850 players filed some 3,000 claims seeking more than $1 billion in damages during a period that began in ’86 and stretched, through various fallouts, into last winter. The first disbursements will be ready when the current season ends, but the $280 million obviously will not cover all claims. The union is faced with the prospect of being dragged to arbitration by many of its dissatisfied members.

AND HOWE

There is no stronger supporter of Steve Howe’s drug suspension than Texas Ranger General Manager Tom Grieve, who gave Howe a chance in 1987, only to have Howe relapse and draw the sixth of what are now seven suspensions.

“The disease is stronger than Steve Howe,” Grieve said. “Over the years, a lot of us have been duped into believing his rehabilitation has been successful.

“But without being an expert in the field, I’d say it’s never been close to successful, and Howe has been arrogant and cocky through the whole thing.”

Howe was suspended by Vincent Monday after pleading guilty in Missoula, Mont., to a misdemeanor charge of trying to buy a gram of cocaine.

Had he been on the New York Yankees’ roster for six more days he would have received a bonus of $200,000. With six more appearances he would have received a $300,000 bonus. His appeal of the suspension will be heard by arbitrator George Nicolau on Tuesday.

Howe’s baseball attorney, Richard Moss, acknowledged that his client’s case may not be the most popular but that he continues to deserve the benefit of the doubt.

Moss said that what happened last winter in Montana when he was “tempted by the government” into trying to buy the cocaine “never culminated in either use or possession,” and that Vincent acted without knowing the facts or understanding the legal concept of Howe’s Alford plea.

Technically, Moss said, Howe pleaded guilty without corroborating the facts as presented by the prosecution.

“His attorneys in Montana believed he could win if it went to trial, but Steve finally got his head above water last year after being in debt for many years and did not want to put his family through the emotional and financial stress of a trial,” Moss said.

“In essence, he told the court, ‘Do with me what you will, even though I’m not saying I’m guilty of the government facts.’ ”

KID GLOVES

Tom Lasorda finished pitching batting practice to Lasorda U. students Eric Karros, Dave Hansen, Jose Offerman and Carlos Hernandez the other day. He then settled behind his desk and discussed a subject that has touched a nerve with him this season--persistent media reports that he runs off young players, that he prefers using veterans who can help him win now.

“I don’t know where it started, but it’s erroneous,” he said. “I sent 74 players to the majors in the eight years I managed in the minors. I never asked how old Fernando (Valenzuela) was when he first came up or questioned Howe’s age when I called the bullpen for him.

“I’ll play anybody if they can play, but I won’t play someone just because he’s a young player. I’m not running a development camp. This isn’t the instructional league. You’re expected to win in Los Angeles.

“If we don’t, Peter O’Malley doesn’t check birth certificates, he calls the manager.”

With few alternatives, Lasorda has done a good job melding in his young players of ’92. He can’t be blamed because the system has not supplied him with more to work with in the last decade, but the image may linger because of the players who have gone elsewhere to develop after failing to get a shot or produce for Lasorda.

Among them: Rick Sutcliffe, Dave Stewart, Mike Devereaux, Sid Bream, Greg Brock, Rudy Law, Ted Power and Candy Maldonado.

A few others have been traded before reaching Lasorda or having an extended chance at the major league level. Among them: John Franco, Sid Fernandez, Juan Guzman and Kevin Campbell.

Kevin Campbell?

The right-handed pitcher was a fifth-round draft choice from Arkansas in 1986. The Dodgers traded him to the Oakland A’s for pitcher Dave Veres in 1991. Campbell made 14 relief appearances with a 2.74 ERA for the A’s last year. He has appeared in seven games this year and pitched six shutout innings of a 6-1 victory over Milwaukee in his first start since 1988 Tuesday.

Campbell credits his major league success to a slider that the Dodgers refused to let him throw. And Veres? He was released by Los Angeles in mid-May.