WHO’S ON FIRST? : Brock Feels Some People Are Waiting to See If He Stubbs a Toe

He has shadow-boxed with Steve Garvey, heard the 10-count from Al Campanis, stood in toe-to-toe with Sid Bream, and absorbed some low blows from a Dodger lawyer.

Greg Brock has taken on all comers, and although he may not be first in the hearts of Dodger fans, he is still the Dodger first baseman, four springs and 55 home runs after inheriting the Garvey legacy.

That’s not to say, however, that the Dodgers have tired of testing Brock. This spring, they’ve arranged a rematch with Franklin Stubbs, the 6-2, 215-pound pride of Hamlet, N.C., an All-American from Virginia Tech and another favored protege of Campanis.

Stubbs was rushed into the fray in 1984, two seasons removed from Class A ball, and took a near-fatal blow to the ego, striking out more than once every four times at bat. Now the confidence is back, Stubbs says, and this time, he’s ready.

“Gotta be, baby,” Stubbs said the other day. “I’ve paid my dues--now it’s time to go pay the bills.”

By now, of course, Brock is not surprised to have another fight on his hands. He got the message first-hand during his arbitration hearing last month, when he says Dodger attorney Bob Walker told him the club wasn’t sure if he’d retain his position this season. Walker says he didn’t put it quite that way, but Brock came out of the session swinging.

“I think they are trying to do that again this year, put the pressure on me,” Brock said here recently. “ ‘Watch the confrontation between Brock and Stubbs.’

“I don’t think there’s much difference between this and last year as far as the threats--I wouldn’t call them threats, but the added pressure. But I’m just going to forget about it.”

What will be less easy for Brock to forget is that he lost in his hearing, the only Dodger player to be beaten in arbitration this winter. He asked for $440,000 but the arbitrator awarded him the Dodgers’ offer of $325,000.

In an uncharacteristic outburst the day after the hearing, Brock said the money bothered him less than the lack of respect.

“I just wanted to say my stuff in one or two days,” he says now. “I don’t really like to talk about it. At the time, I didn’t think there was anything wrong with what I said. And I’ve forgotten about it--$325,000 is more money than I thought I’d ever make.

“I’ve turned it (the hearing) around into an incentive. I want to prove something to them, give them less stuff to say about me next year. The so-called cheap shots are past. I have more incentive now than hard feelings.”

So, the gloves are off, and the Dodger brass is sitting back to see if Brock can go the distance.

Campanis said: “Stubbs is a good ballplayer, but I don’t have a favorite. I want the best talent to play. They’ve got to do it on the field.

“Brock’s a good ballplayer. Stubbs is a good ballplayer. The one who can help the club should be the one who plays.”

Manager Tom Lasorda is on record as saying Brock is his first baseman, but the reality is that the organization needs convincing once again.

“It’s a ticklish situation,” scouting director Ben Wade said. “I don’t think Al or anyone else here has made up his mind that one of them is better than the other.

“I’m just damn glad we’ve got both ballplayers. You can’t have too many good players.”

THE INCUMBENT

Greg Brock strolled into the pressroom here one day and picked up a copy of the Sporting News Baseball Yearbook. The cover pictured Vince Coleman, last season’s National League Rookie of the Year and leading base stealer, sliding back into first base. The guy making the tag, incidental to the picture, was Brock.

“My first cover,” he said.

Since Brock arrived here in 1983, advertised as the second coming of Duke Snider, this is the first spring that he has been seen in the pressroom and/or joking with reporters.

But soon Brock will be 29, and although he may not have displayed the stuff of legends, he has established himself as a big leaguer. And one’s sense of humor has a way of emerging in direct proportion to one’s sense of security.

How else can you explain the “Play Me or Trade Me” T-shirt that 14-month-old Casey Brock showed up wearing the other day?

“My message to Campanis,” Brock said with a laugh. “Actually, I don’t remember where we got the shirt. I think it was a gift, or maybe Denny (his wife) picked it up someplace.”

And although Brock’s bitter words were no laughing matter after his arbitration hearing, Dodger batting instructor Ben Hines saw a good sign in Brock’s willingness to speak out.

“I don’t think he would have said what he said unless his confidence level was so good,” Hines said. “I think it was a good sign. And I don’t feel it was a pop-off, even though I didn’t agree with everything he said.”

Last season, Brock hit 21 home runs, third on the club behind Pedro Guerrero’s 33 and Mike Marshall’s 27. It was the second time in his three big league seasons that he has hit 20 or more home runs.

He batted .251, 26 points higher than the previous season. He drove in 66 runs, matching his rookie output. When Guerrero and Marshall were out of the lineup in July, Guerrero with a bad back and Marshall with an appendectomy, Brock carried the club, batting .323 and driving in 24 runs.

If the Dodgers have some doubts about Brock’s ability, he does not share them.

“In my mind, I’m satisfied I’ve given my best shot,” Brock said. “I’ve not cheated myself. Average-wise, I could have done better, but power-wise, I’m satisfied.

“Forty, 50 home runs, that’s something not too many people can do. I’m not that far off. The most at-bats I’ve had in a season, I think, is only 450 (455 in ‘83). Ratio-wise (home runs to at-bats), I’ve been satisfied.

“I’ve done what they’ve wanted: supply power and drive in runs. I’d like to have a better batting average.”

The Dodgers, however, point to the downside: namely that Brock hit only .178 against left-handers. He had a .198 August and went the month without a home run and just two RBIs. Then, in the playoffs, Brock had just one hit, a home run, in 12 at-bats against the St. Louis Cardinals. Coupled with an 0-for-9 postseason performance against the Philadelphia Phillies in 1983, that gives Brock a composite playoff average of .048.

“I’m not going to sit here and say I hit left-handers as well as I do right-handers, but I have power against left-handers,” Brock said. “The year I hit 14 home runs (1984), six of them were against left-handers.

“I think if I played against them every day, I could hit them. No one made a big deal about (Steve) Sax hitting .307 against right-handers and .207 against left-handers.”

After the Dodgers traded for Enos Cabell last July, Brock found himself being platooned. “They jerked him around and it really hurt him,” one Dodger official said.

The most striking example of how Brock was used at the end of the season occurred in the playoffs, when he hit a long foul ball off Cardinal right-hander Bob Forsch that just missed being a three-run home run. St. Louis Manager Whitey Herzog brought in a left-hander, and Lasorda lifted Brock for Cabell.

“I knocked myself and the pitcher out with one swing,” Brock said.

Brock would prefer it not to happen again. His agent, Tony Attanasio, said during the winter that Brock would rather be traded than platooned.

“I haven’t thought about that right now,” Brock said. “I’m preparing as if I’m going to play every day. I’m thinking 150 ballgames.”

Lasorda’s still thinking about it.

“I’d like to see if he can play every day but when you’ve got a guy like Enos Cabell, the question you have to ask is whether you’re better off offensively with Cabell out there or Brock,” Lasorda said. “That’s the answer we’ve got to come up with.

“My worry is not whether (Brock) understands or not, my concern is what’s best for the Dodger team.”

And if Brock wants to be traded?

“That’s not my department.”

Brock said he hasn’t seen much of Stubbs in action.

“Just watching him, I’d say he has the tools to play in the major leagues,” Brock said. “But I don’t feel he’s capable of taking my job, of doing what I’m able to do.”

THE CHALLENGER

Franklin Stubbs hit 32 home runs in Albuquerque last season. He drove in 93 runs, batted .280, had 23 doubles and 23 stolen bases.

At 25, what’s left for him to accomplish in Triple-A?

“Nothing,” Stubbs said.

“Nothing,” Ben Wade said.

“Nothing,” batting coach Manny Mota said. “He’s proven himself in the minor leagues.

“He’s more mature now, not the free swinger we used to see,” Mota added. “He’s a different type of hitter than I saw two years ago. . . . He believes he can hit major league pitching.”

Two years ago, Stubbs sat in the visitors’ clubhouse in New York’s Shea Stadium, sobbing uncontrollably after striking out four times against Dwight Gooden of the Mets.

“I couldn’t get any lower,” Stubbs says now. “But I hadn’t played in a month. You have to be there every day unless you’re a veteran and know how to handle the situation.”

In 1984, Stubbs was a rookie, rushed to the majors when Brock injured his wrist. He had a nine-game hitting streak in May and hit eight home runs, but he didn’t hit one the last two months of the season. He finished with a .194 average, and had more strikeouts, 63, than hits, 42.

The Dodgers admitted that they had made a mistake. “We rushed him,” Lasorda said. “But we didn’t have a choice. It was an emergency.”

It set Stubbs back a year, but he appears to have regained any esteem he lost, especially in Campanis’ eyes.

“A lot of teams call us and express interest in Stubbs,” Campanis said.

Now, Stubbs is just waiting to find out whether he’ll get a legitimate shot at Brock’s job.

“I hope to have a good spring, but I’d say (Brock) is the guy,” Stubbs said. “And if he is, I don’t want to slow down my career. I hope they find somewhere else where I can play every day and show my ability.”

To beat out Brock, Stubbs said: “I can’t have as good a spring, I have to have a better one. I can’t hit .310 and have him hit .310.

“I have to be the challenger. I have to throw the knockout punch.”