National League : LaRussa Is Delighted With One Ex-Padre

In the wake of LaMarr Hoyt’s selection as the most valuable player in Tuesday’s All-Star game, someone asked Chicago White Sox Manager Tony LaRussa whether he still would have favored the trade that sent the pitcher to the San Diego Padres.

“I’d do it in a minute,” LaRussa said. “Not only that, I’d do it for Ozzie Guillen straight up. This kid is a special type of player. I’d like to see all the people who question that trade to put their names on a piece of paper, so I can check with them in a few years.”

Guillen, the White Sox’s starting shortstop, was one of three players the Padres gave up for Hoyt. The others were third baseman Luis Salazar and pitcher Tim Lollar, who recently was traded to the Boston Red Sox for reserve outfielder Reid Nichols.

Flew the coop: A TV reporter, introducing the trade that sent relief pitcher Neil Allen of the St. Louis Cardinals to the New York Yankees, said: “Neil Allen leaves the Redbird roost.”

Off-camera, Allen said: “Yeah, with bird stains on my forehead.”

Add Allen: At the time of the trade, Allen’s record with the Cardinals was 1-4 with two saves and a 5.59 earned-run average.

“Every time I went out there, I felt I had to prove something,” said Allen, who had been dealt to the Cardinals by the New York Mets for All-Star first baseman Keith Hernandez and then was expected to fill the vacancy left by Bruce Sutter, when Sutter signed as a free agent with the Atlanta Braves.

“I can’t tell you the last time I went to a St. Louis mound and was completely relaxed,” Allen said. “Mentally, I was messed up. I didn’t know whether I was coming or going.”

Check his handicap: Before shutting out the Chicago Cubs, 1-0, last Thursday, Mike Krukow of the San Francisco Giants set up a miniature golf course in the clubhouse. Krukow said it relaxed him, so he couldn’t have taken too many double-bogeys.

No comment: The winning run in Krukow’s shutout was driven in by Jeff Leonard, who doesn’t talk after wins. Leonard got his hit off of Cub reliever Lee Smith, who doesn’t talk after losses.

Not his style: Cub Vice President Dallas Green caught a foul ball at the All-Star game, but that still didn’t improve his opinion of the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome.

“I will not recommend that the Tribune Company build a stadium like this,” said Green, who is lobbying hard for a new home for the Cubs.

Add Green: If the Cubs hadn’t beaten the Dodgers last Sunday and thus avoided a four-game sweep, Green said he would have paid a visit to the clubhouse of the home team, currently in fourth place in the National League East, for “a talking to.”

Said Green, furious after the Cubs’ 9-1 loss to the Dodgers on national TV the previous day: “I was very mad and frustrated at their lack of intensity and effort.

“I usually leave that part of the game to Jimmy (Manager Jim Frey) and his coaching staff, but I’m not afraid to go down there and talk to them when I think it will help.”

Plucked by a Rose: Fifteen years after their memorable collision at the plate in the 1970 All-Star game, former catcher Ray Fosse does not have to look at a videotape of the play to recall what it felt like to be run over by Pete Rose. All he has to do is get up in the morning.

“When I rotate my left arm, I wake my wife up,” said Fosse, 38, now director of sales for the Oakland A’s. “It’s just bone to bone. In a quiet bedroom, it can be heard.”

X-rays taken the night of the game were negative, but the next spring, another examination showed that Fosse had suffered a broken collarbone when Rose collided with him while scoring the winning run in the 12th inning of the National League’s 5-4 win.

“I’ve seen it so much, I’ve talked about it so much, it’s like a part of my life every day,” Fosse told Jay Weiner of the Minneapolis Star and Tribune.

“Looking 15 years back, I just look at the style of play at that time of both Pete and myself. Pete was an aggressive type ballplayer. Myself, I was a young catcher who wanted the respect of his peers and wanted to stand there and not necessarily try to get out of the way of someone who might do exactly what Pete did.”