American League / Ross Newhan : Orioles to Pay for Fall in the Spring--Weaver

Earl Weaver’s desire to return next season as Baltimore manager has been strengthened by the collapse of the Orioles, whose rotation has a cumulative earned-run average of 4.81 contrasted with Eastern Division-leading Toronto’s 3.36.

“The more they lose, the more I want to come back and punish them,” Weaver said of his players in a story in the Baltimore Morning Sun. “Oh, what a spring training it will be. We’ll start at 7 in the morning and go to 7 at night.

“They’ll still be working when I’m on the 17th green.”

Is he serious?

“Ninety percent of this is serious,” he said. “The other 10% is tongue-in-cheek.

“I’m just trying to protect my sanity.”

Seattle Mariners owner George Argyros ripped two of his young stars--outfielder Phil Bradley and first baseman Alvin Davis--for remarks they made in the wake of the strike’s settlement.

Bradley and Davis said they were sorry to see the union agree to require future players to spend three years in the majors, rather than two, before becoming eligible for salary arbitration. That change won’t affect Bradley and Davis, since each is in his second year, but both said they were underpaid and that arbitration is a young player’s only leverage.

Argyros told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer: “Those players’ comments are immature nonsense. They don’t understand their own system. From my perspective, $175,000 is a lot of money. Is Al Davis a superstar? He’s a fine man, but look at this year. He doesn’t have the numbers.

“Phil Bradley is a fine player, but last year, he was a part-time player. If he doesn’t like the money he’s making, maybe he should find another business.”

Clearly disappointed by the strike’s short duration was Cleveland Indians shortstop Julio Franco, who has tired of media criticism of his fielding. “I hope it’s a long strike,” he said Tuesday. “And I hope all you baseball writers go bankrupt.”

Teammate Jamie Easterly might also have been disappointed. “I’m going to take a case of Scotch and spend it in the basement,” he said of his strike plans. “I like damp and dark places.”

Roy Eisenhardt, Oakland A’s president, on rumors that Denver oilman Marvin Davis is about to buy the club: “Total fabrication. I can’t say it any other way.”

The A’s day record of 30-15 is baseball’s best. Hitting instructor Billy Williams, looking for an explanation, said: “Maybe it’s because I played for the Cubs all those years and I teach better day baseball.”

That may be it. Shortstop Alfredo Griffin is hitting .338 during the day and .215 at night. Second baseman Donnie Hill is hitting .312 during the day and .227 at night.

LaMarr Hoyt is having a big season for the San Diego Padres, but that winter trade hasn’t exactly been a bust for the Chicago White Sox. Rookie shortstop Ozzie Guillen has only 8 errors, giving him a shot at the club record of 13, set by Ron Hansen in 1963.

The White Sox have had some of baseball’s most illustrious shortstops, none of whom enjoyed a rookie season comparable to Guillen’s--at least in the field. Luke Appling made 42 errors as a 1931 rookie, Chico Carrasquel made 28 in 1950, and Luis Aparicio made 35 in 1956, when he was Rookie of the Year.

It was left to his 7-year-old daughter, Annie, to keep Tom Seaver’s 300th victory in perspective. Seaver noticed that Annie appeared bored as she sat in a box next to the White Sox dugout in Yankee Stadium. He moved close to it after the eighth inning of his 4-1 win, tapped Annie on the arm and said, “Three more outs and we can go home.” She smiled and said, “Good. Then I can go swimming.”

Calvin Griffith, who sold the Minnesota Twins for $42 million after a penurious tenure as owner, reacted to the strike settlement by saying: “Arbitration is the killer of the whole game. A lot of people would like to get back to the way I used to operate.”

When recently recalled Steve Farr started for Kansas City against Detroit in the second game of a doubleheader Thursday night, it snapped a string of 112 straight starts by the Royals’ regular rotation of Bret Saberhagen, Danny Jackson, Bud Black, Mark Gubicza and Charlie Leibrandt.

Farr, released by Cleveland last spring, had been 10-4 with a 2.02 ERA as a starter at Omaha. It had been thought that the Royals would recall relief pitcher Mark Huismann, who had 26 saves at Omaha, but the Kansas City management was reportedly angered by quotes attributed to Huismann in a Kansas City Star story last Sunday.

Huismann said that Dan Quisenberry gets a lot of easy saves, and if he got similar saves, he’d have 35 or more.

“I don’t get a lot of the gimmes like Quiz gets,” Huismann said. “I don’t come in and pitch the whole ninth inning when we’re three runs up. Dan gets a lot of those.”

Leaving Huismann to get his at Omaha.