WORLD SERIES : Notes : Herzog Complains to Ueberroth About Ban on Replacing Coleman

Cardinal Manager Whitey Herzog, upset by a World Series rule that prohibits him from replacing injured rookie Vince Coleman on his roster, expressed his displeasure directly to Commissioner Peter Ueberroth.

Coleman suffered a bone chip near his left knee when he was caught under the Busch Stadium tarpaulin roller 10 days ago. Herzog would like to replace him with Curt Ford, an outfielder who played for the Cardinals’ Triple-A team in Louisville.

But a rule, implemented after Oakland owner Charlie Finley tried to dump second baseman Mike Andrews in the 1973 Series in order to get Manny Trillo on the roster, prohibits a team from making any changes on its postseason roster.

“It was stupid to put in a rule like that,” Herzog said. “ . . . I lost a regular. I lost the catalyst to my whole team. That changes our whole way of playing, which doesn’t look too good.”

Herzog predicted that the rule will be changed in the future.

“Suppose my left fielder, center fielder and right fielder ran into each other on a fly ball, and all three of ‘em got hurt?” Herzog said. “They tell me I can’t replace them. Or if the bus going from the hotel to the airport got in an accident and 17 guys got hurt, and there were eight left. I can’t replace ‘em?”

St. Louis right-hander Danny Cox, plagued by a recurring elbow inflammation over the last month, will not start tonight as previously scheduled. He will be held back until Game 6 in Kansas City, if a sixth game is needed. Bob Forsch, who was 9-6 in the regular season and went only 3 1/3 innings as the starter in Game 4 of the National League playoffs against the Dodgers, will replace Cox.

Manager Whitey Herzog said it was evident during his seven-inning stint in Game 2 that Cox wasn’t throwing with his customary velocity.

Said Herzog: “The one time I went out there and asked him how he felt, he said ‘fine.’ But he had just thrown eight changeups in a row. Hell, I’m not dumb.”

Herzog added, however, that if the situation was reversed, if the Royals led the Series, 3-1, Cox would pitch tonight.

“It’s a precautionary move to give him the extra day of rest,” Herzog said. “I have upmost confidence in Bob Forsch.”

Kansas City Manager Dick Howser said it didn’t matter who the Cardinals started.

“The key is still going to be our own pitching. The key is still going to be Danny Jackson,” Hoswer said. “All we can ask is that he has the same stuff he had in Kansas City.”

He alluded to Game 1, when the Royals wasted Jackson’s stuff, losing, 3-1.

At the point in the playoffs when the Royals trailed Toronto, 3-1, George Brett said that the pressure was on the Blue Jays, that the Royals remained underdogs who weren’t expected to win.

Does Brett now think the pressure is on St. Louis?

“I don’t know why I said that,” he said of his previous statement. “I opened my mouth, and it came out. I open my mouth tonight, and it doesn’t.

“I guess there’s a lot of pressure on us and a little pressure on the Cardinals.”

But Brett said the Royals are conditioned to the situation.

“I don’t know why it always has to be this way,” he said, “but we’ve come too far to quit. We didn’t quit, pout or moan in Toronto, and we won two games on the home field of a team that some people thought was the best in baseball. We know we can do it, but that doesn’t mean it will be easy.”

Royal reliever Dan Quisenberry, on Cardinal shortstop Ozzie Smith: “Ozzie Smith is the highlight film I always remembered seeing.”

Rachel Robinson, the widow of Hall of Famer Jackie Robinson, threw out the first ball for Game 4. Wednesday night was the 40th anniversary of Robinson’s signing a minor-league contract with the Brooklyn Dodgers.

It’s gotten nasty for Joaquin Andujar, on and off the field.

Said cab driver Jerome Duncan, to a passenger who had his pen poised: “I’d pay the transportation if they let him go back to South America or wherever he comes from.” Andujar is from the Dominican Republic.

And at the downtown Cookie Factory, a lady behind the counter was explaining why there were a variety of cookies with the names of the leading Cardinal players frosted on, but none with Andujar on them.

“You know why there’s no Andujar,” she said, “because he’s no good.”

Whitey Herzog, an executive with the Mets when Nolan Ryan broke in, said: “Dwight Gooden is so far ahead of Ryan at a similar age that it’s incredible.”

For the record: It was reported in Wednesday’s editions that Joaquin Andujar of the Cardinals had named Lonnie Smith of the Royals as a cocaine user during the Pittsburgh drug trial. Actually, Smith had named Andujar as a user.