Giants Will Play in 1986, but the Question Is Where

Whether the San Francisco Giants will return to Candlestick Park in 1986 is one of just many questions facing the team in the off-season, according to club president Al Rosen.

“We’ll open, though. I guarantee you we’ll open the season,” Rosen said.

Bob Lurie, the owner of the National League team, will make the decision on the Giants’ 1986 home, with input from Rosen and others. Most of Rosen’s time is being spent trying to improve the roster of the team which lost a club-record 100 games this season.

Lurie has stated that he does not intend to have his team play at Candlestick next year. When asked if Lurie is sticking to that position, Rosen replied, “He hasn’t said anything to the contrary.”

But Rosen added that he believes Lurie would have a change of heart and endure a few more seasons at cold, windy Candlestick if a proposal for a new San Francisco ballpark can get off the ground soon. The plan has the support of some city officials.

“This is a very difficult time for us, and there are no answers now,” Rosen concluded. “I just signed a lease on a place, and I would be living 10 minutes from that ballpark, so I hope the proposal goes through.”

Rosen, former Houston Astros and New York Yankees executive, was hired by Lurie in September, when Roger Craig also replaced Manager Jim Davenport in a shakeup of Giants’ personnel. He has made two trades since the end of the regular season, and he indicated more dealing could occur this week during a Florida meeting of major league general managers.

“I’ve talked to almost everyone more than once and we’ve got some things (trade proposals) hanging out there,” Rosen said.

Baseball’s winter meetings are scheduled in early December, but Rosen said, “I’d prefer to get things done before then. I’ve found the meetings to be mostly talk and rhetoric.”

Relief pitchers Scott Garrelts and Mark Davis, both very impressive at times in 1985, outfielder Chili Davis, and starting pitcher Atlee Hammaker are among the players mentioned most by other teams in trade talks.

The Giants also would like to hold on to those four, Rosen said, but he added, “Anyone on the team could be traded for a price. Some have prices higher than others.”

Jeff Leonard, the Giants’ top hitter in 1984, had a bad 1985 season, hitting .241, and admitted to past cocaine use during the Pittsburgh drug trial.

“Whenever a player has had a (drug) problem, it’s hard to deal him,” Rosen said. “Jeff would like very much to stay here, and we’re not going to give him away. Rather than send him off into the sunset for a couple of rookies, we’d prefer to have him on this ballclub.”

Rosen said that Bob Kennedy, the former big league manager now in charge of player development, decided against continuing an experiment (in the Arizona Instructional League) to convert center fielder Dan Gladden to a second baseman, and that Kennedy thinks Mark Davis should be given an opportunity to start again. Davis, 5-17 as a starter in 1984, was 5-12 with a 3.54 earned run average as a reliever this year and had 131 strikeouts in 114 innings.