American League : What Martin Needs Is an Attitude Coach

If it is part of Billy Martin’s mandate to restore discipline to the New York Yankees, this raises a familiar question.

How will Martin discipline himself?

The record indicates that he can’t.

And now, in only the first week of his fourth term as Yankee manager, evidence indicates that the problem is still there.

On Day 2, Martin did not get to the clubhouse in Texas until 5:30. That was two hours before game time but about two hours later than most managers arrive. The team was in uniform, waiting for a lineup to be posted.

A reporter asked Martin about his work hours. Martin turned to equipment man Pete Sheehy and said: “I obviously need one of those big time-clocks. I can punch in when I arrive and when I leave. Then we can post it.”

Sheehy, who has been with the Yankees for 59 years, replied: “A cuckoo clock would be more appropriate.”

Indeed.

The disciplining may be left to the recently hired Willie Horton. The former Detroit Tiger slugger carries the title of assistant batting coach. His real role, even Martin has suggested, may be that of an attitude and tranquility coach, a strong-armed liaison between the manager and players, many of whom reacted angrily to the firing of Yogi Berra.

One of the angriest was Don Baylor. The former Angel reponded by kicking a garbage can across the clubhouse in Chicago, then firing off a series of epithets.

Baylor, a clubhouse leader, has since chosen his words carefully, refusing, it seems, to reveal his true sentiments about Martin, as he did in the spring of 1984, when the Berra-Martin roles were reversed.

“A lot of people think we won 90 games with Billy (in 1983),” Baylor said then. “We won 90 despite him. All you had to do is look down at the end of bench and see the look on his face to know we were going to lose.”

Now the cautious Baylor is saying:

“We’re going bad enough around here. We don’t need any internal problems. We have to pull together if we’re going to have a chance to win.

“I don’t have any problems playing for anybody, especially Billy Martin. He’s here for the same reason I’m here, to win.

“I don’t harbor any animosity toward him. I kicked that can over because Yogi was fired, not because Billy was hired.”

Baylor may be kicking permanently, however, if Martin continues to platoon his designated hitters. Owner George Steinbrenner has been sniping at Baylor’s lack of runs batted in, saying recently that Baylor has lost it.

The Yankees are attempting to acquire Ken Phelps from Seattle as a left-handed hitting complement to the right-handed hitting Baylor.

“In our park, Phelps might hit 25 to 30 homers a year, depending on how much he played,” Martin said.

Said Baylor, in a New York Daily News story:

“My only problem with Billy is the only problem I have with any manager. When I look up there and don’t see my name on the lineup card, I’m not happy.

“I’m not that much unlike Don Buford, when he was a teammate with the Baltimore Orioles. When Earl (Weaver) put up a lineup card with Don not on it, he’d tear it off the wall and rip it up.

“It’s like I’ve said before, I’m not here to have off-days.”

Responding to a question, Martin said he considered Baylor a friend. He added, however: “I know we won’t have a problem because we’ll do it my way.”

Detroit right-hander Milt Wilcox, already known as the Count of Cortisone because of the many shots he received for last year’s ailing shoulder, got another the other day for a sore elbow. Wilcox may be facing the disabled list.

Reacting to a decision to move him into long relief and make Dave Rozema the new bullpen stopper, ex-Dodger Dave Stewart has asked the Texas Rangers to trade him.

Said Stewart: “I had two save opportunities and got saves. I had two chances to win and didn’t. You tell me if I had a chance. Have we played three weeks yet? This is going to be a great season.”

Right-handed power hitters are supposed to swoon at the sight of Fenway Park’s left-field wall. Steve Balboni of the Kansas City Royals swoons in Fenway, period. He is hitless in his last 23 at-bats there, and has struck out 15 times.

The Minnesota Twins 10-game winning streak coincided with Manager Billy Gardner’s decision to go with a four-man rotation until the schedule forces him to go with five again.

There were six complete games in the 10, including four by John Butcher. The staff earned-run average was 2.90, compared to 5.24 during a previous nine-game losing streak.

Chino’s Rich Yett, a rookie right-hander on temporary option to Toledo, will rejoin the rotation as a fifth starter in about two weeks.

Add Twins: The winning streak also coincided with the offensive awakening of Kent Hrbek.

“I don’t think anybody was getting down during the losing streak except the big man,” pitcher Mike Smithson said of Hrbek. “The rest of us knew he’d start hitting. We knew that when he hits, he makes things happen.

“He intimidates the pitcher so much . . . the pitcher spends the whole game thinking how he’s going to pitch Hrbek. Then (Tom) Brunansky comes along and crushes one.”

Of his recent selection of Jim Rice as the first captain he has ever had, Boston Red Sox Manager John McNamara said it was the first time he has an individual “who’s willing to pay the price of leadership . . . being the model of what I consider a player should be from the first day of spring training to the last day of the season--on and off the field.”

Baltimore Manager Joe Altobelli has used 13 lineups in his team’s first 20 games, partly because of problems finding a leadoff hitter in the wake of a thumb injury that will sideline Lee Lacy another two weeks and partly because of Eddie Murray’s recent absence caused by the death of a sister.

The Orioles, through the 20 games, had a 12-3 record with Murray in the lineup and a 1-4 record without him. He has missed only 10 games over the last three years and Baltimore has lost nine of those.

The absence of Lacy has prompted the Orioles to make new inquiries into the availability of Seattle second baseman Jack Perconte.