National League : Phillies’ Ad Belongs on the Bench

Truth in advertising: The Philadelphia Phillies, promoting next weekend’s series against the San Diego Padres, are running a TV commercial in which broadcaster Richie Ashburn is shown reading a Trivial Pursuit-type question to several Phillies.

Ashburn’s question: “Who’s the fastest man in the National League?”

“Juan Samuel,” Glenn Wilson answers, citing his Phillie teammate.

“Yeah, Juan Samuel,” Kevin Gross concurs.

Ashburn: “The answer is Alan Wiggins of the San Diego Padres.”

The ad ends with Samuel protesting: “Come on, I am the fastest.”

Samuel’s pride aside, at this point, the question is why the Phillies are still running the ad, since Wiggins is in a drug rehabilitation center.

“We just decided we couldn’t pull it,” Dennis Lehman, the Phillies’ director of marketing, told the Philadelphia Daily News. “It was the only San Diego spot we had cut, and technically we couldn’t just lift off his name.”

Add Wiggins: The second baseman is eligible to return next weekend, although the Padres have said that he will not play for them this season. According to one source, Padre General Manager Jack McKeon offered Wiggins to the Phillies, who said they weren’t interested. “I don’t think anybody’s going to take him,” the source said.

Since Wiggins’ departure, Graig Nettles has played every day at third base for the Padres, and Jerry Royster and Tim Flannery have alternated at second base.

On April 24, the day before Wiggins dropped out of sight, Nettles was hitting .350. He’s down to .225.

That, however, has not prevented Nettles’ agent, Jerry Kapstein, from seeking a two- or three-year extension on Nettles’ contract, even though his client will turn 41 in August.

Strange bedfellows: Pittsburgh catcher Tony Pena, unhappy with a batting average that had dropped to .224, took his bat back to the hotel with him after a recent game for a little 4 a.m. batting practice. Pena used a rolled-up newspaper for a ball and his pillow as a batting tee.

“If I have to sleep with my bat to hit, I will,” Pena said.

The next day, Pena had two hits, one of them a double in the Pirates’ ninth-inning, game-winning rally.

In case you were wondering: The Phillies are picking up $275,000 of Al Oliver’s $725,000 contract with the Dodgers.

Poor price for a penguin: An update on the progress of Vance Lovelace and Dan Cataline, the two minor leaguers the Dodgers got from the Cubs for Ron Cey:

Lovelace, a former high school teammate of the New York Mets’ Dwight Gooden, is 0-4 with a 7.61 earned-run average for Double-A San Antonio. He also has walked 30 batters in 23 innings.

Cataline, also playing for San Antonio, is hitting .158 with two home runs and four runs batted in.

A belated apology: During spring training, this reporter was under the mistaken impression that Cataline was no longer in the Dodger organization. Sorry. Suffice to say, Cataline does not figure prominently in the Dodgers’ plans.

Family man: At the start of the season, Chicago pitcher Rick Sutcliffe was quoted as saying that if the Cubs win the World Series this season, he would seriously consider retiring, a startling remark since he had just signed a contract that will pay him $1.9 million for the next five years.

After beating the Dodgers last week, Sutcliffe explained his statement.

“I was going through a period where my little girl (Shelby) was upset about my playing,” he said. “One day I was coming to the park and she was crying, ‘Daddy, don’t go.’ Baseball didn’t seem very important at the time. When I said it (about retiring), I meant it.

“But now, the spark’s back.”

And, Sutcliffe said, he has eased his daughter’s anxiety by taking her and his wife, Robin, on the team’s trips.

Mr. Personality: After the Phillies signed Derrel Thomas, the former Dodger who had been playing for the Class-A Miami Marlins, Bill Conlin of the Philadelphia Daily News wrote: “The Phillies are not running a popularity contest, the Daily News has learned.

“No, any team that signs Derrel Thomas, the Melvin Belli of clubhouse lawyers, a world-class needler and an agitator who makes Larry Bowa sound like Mother Teresa, is worried more about winning than clubhouse harmony. Why else would they acquire a guy who has burned more bridges than the Wehrmacht?”

Giant pay cut: When San Francisco players got their paychecks last week, pitcher Greg Minton’s was stamped void. Minton taped the check to his forehead.

“Do you suppose they’re trying to tell me something?” asked Minton, who is on the outs with Manager Jim Davenport.

Computer error was blamed for the foulup.

Sign in Atlanta Fulton County Stadium: “Ted, Forget CBS. Buy us a pitcher.”

Add Turner: Asked if he were considering firing new manager Eddie Haas, the owner of the Braves said, “No. I thought about changing owners, but I can’t do that. It wouldn’t be fair to fire my manager at this time.”

Shades of Luis Tiant: A San Francisco newspaper revived the controversy about the actual age of Giant first baseman David Green, quoting a big league scout who claimed that Green is actually 31, not 24, as he says. The day after the story appeared, one of the team’s Spanish-language broadcasters produced a Nicaraguan baseball guide that showed Green, purportedly 18 years old, playing for Nicaragua’s national team six years ago.

Said Manager Jim Davenport: “I don’t care if he’s 50, if he goes 3 for 5.”

Green, who was batting .080, doubled his average with six hits in three games.