National League Notebook : Cards Run Better Than They Fly

Unofficially, the most asked question on Tuesday was this:

How do you slow down the Cardinals?

Orel Hershiser: “The key is to keep the first two guys (Vince Coleman and Willie McGee) off base.”

Tom Niedenfuer: “Keep the first two guys from getting on.”

Fernando Valenzuela: “Keep the fast guys off base.”

Yet, can it be done? If you believe in omens, yes. The Cardinal flight to the West Coast on Tuesday was late, slowed down by a 95 m.p.h. head wind.

“First flight in which I had breakfast, lunch and dinner,” Cardinal Manager Whitey Herzog said.

Add speed: Coleman, who stole 110 bases this season, and McGee, who stole 56, are roommates in St. Louis.

Who cooks?

“TGI Friday’s,” Coleman said. “We find ourselves eating there a lot.”

But don’t you guys like fast food?

“Yeah, definitely.”

Adding more speed: Dodger catcher Mike Scioscia, who must stop Cardinal baserunners, had three steals himself this year.

That doesn’t qualify for getting a green light.

“He has the purple light,” Manager Tom Lasorda said. “That’s the danger zone. You get killed if you’re going.”

Coleman hit a bloop base hit recently and was timed at 7.1 seconds from home plate to second base.

“Danny Sullivan (the race car driver) isn’t that fast,” NBC’s Joe Garagiola said.

Add Coleman: He has run a 9.4 100-yard dash.

“Baseball wasn’t my sport,” Coleman said. “I didn’t chose baseball until ’82. Before ‘82, I couldn’t have told you who was in the National or American league. My sport was football.”

Just to make sure, Coleman was asked who won the 1981 World Series.

“Couldn’t tell you,” he said, and he laughed when told it was the Dodgers.

Scouting reports: Former big-league manager Jim Marshall (Cubs, A’s) is now a Yankee scout based in Southern California and watched the Dodgers all season. Among his observations:

“After managing against the Dodgers in the mid-’70s, then being out of the country (he worked in Japan), when I saw the Dodgers in April and May, they were quite a shock in the defensive area. Obviously, moving (Pedro) Guerrero off third base was a big factor.” On Mike Scioscia: “I think Mike was the most underrated player on the team. He just had an outstanding year. He improved his throwing--his release was a lot quicker--and he hit 25 or 30 points higher than I thought he would.”

On Greg Brock: “A streak hitter. I think (in July and August) most scouts felt he had reached maturity; why he went down again, I don’t know. It’s probably more mental than physical.”

On Mariano Duncan: “He matured as a shortstop much quicker than I thought he would. He’s the man the Cardinals have to keep off the bases. He keys everything by being on base. He’s improved on his bunting, but he’s not a good bunter yet.”

On Bill Madlock: “He played for

me (with the Cubs) and he’s changed very little. He has that short stroke and that extra adrenaline in the batter’s box that makes him a great player.”

Giant scout Grady Hatton, on John Tudor:

“I never thought he’d be more than a .500 pitcher anywhere. He has below-average velocity, a breaking ball that’s average at best, and good control.

“But he put some screwball action on his changeup and striking everybody out with it. I can’t understand the hitters. They keep swinging at it, and that scroogie is eating them alive. It gets ‘em out easy. I don’t know why they don’t look for it.”

Orel Hershiser, on AstroTurf:

“Take a ball, hold it shoulder high and drop it here (in Dodger Stadium) and it bounces this high (holding his fingers an inch apart). Take a ball, hold it shoulder high and drop it in on St. Louis’ field and it bounces to your knee. There should be rules on the elasticity of the AstroTurf. . . . There’s a rule on bats and balls, and now there’s this thing called AstroTurf, and there’s no rules on that?”

Left-hander Rick Honeycutt has been sent to the bullpen, his role likely to be long relief, but he could be valuable late in a game against certain left-handed hitters.

“Sure, I’m envious of all those other starters,” said Honeycutt, the fifth Dodger starter. “I’d live to have the year Orel’s having--19-3 and in the spotlight. But . . . I’ll just go out and do my best.”

Cardinal Manager Whitey Herzog, surrounded by reporters in his clubhouse office, commented on the firing of Houston Manager Bob Lillis.

“I think Lillis did a real good job,” he said. “He just can’t sit here and BS with you guys like I can.”

The phone rang.

Said Herzog: “That’s President Reagan calling now, men.”

Herzog complained about the starting times for today and Thursday.

“It’s an awful shame to be playing at 5:30. I know the reason--but it’s not the right time to play in this ballpark. You work your tail off to get here, then to play under these conditions, is not right.”

Herzog also said he didn’t like the off days in the seven-game playoff. “I’d rather play straight through with no off days,” he said. “Then you would have to use your fourth and fifth starters, which would show your true strength.”

Miscellaneous

Bill Russell, a veteran of five playoffs but unable to play because of blurred vision, will throw out the first ball tonight. . . . Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda said he was thinking about playing Ken Landreaux in center field instead of Candy Maldonado but hadn’t made up his mind. Said Landreaux: “All I know is I don’t play against lefties, and he (John Tudor) is a lefty.” . . . The Dodgers and Cardinals have met in a playoff once before: in 1946, when the teams finished tied for the pennant and the Cardinals won the best two-of-three playoff in two straight games.