Baseball : Andujar Doesn’t Feel at Home Under American League Roofs

Joaquin Andujar has picked up in the American League where he left off in the National.

He was 4-8 with a 5.68 earned-run average in his final 15 starts with St. Louis.

Now he is 0-1 after two starts with the Oakland A’s, having allowed 12 hits and 9 earned runs in 10 innings against the Angels at Oakland and the Twins at Minnesota.

Of the Metrodome, Andujar shook his head and said it is claustrophobic enough to make him shudder:

“Now, I know why there are so many good pitchers in the American League whose earned-run averages are so high,” he said. “It’s not the pitchers, it’s the ballparks.

“In Seattle, a fly ball is a home run. In here (the Metrodome), a fly ball is a home run.

“I could hit 10 or 15 home runs in here if they let me be the DH.”

Andujar added that all American League power hitters should hit 100 home runs--a year.

“Jack Clark would,” he said. “Even the little midget (Ozzie Smith) might hit 25 or 30.

“No kidding, man. Throw the fastball and if they hit a fly ball, it’s a home run.”

The slow start of the Chicago White Sox has already jeopardized Manager Tony LaRussa’s job.

No surprise.

The appointment of Ken Harrelson to head Chicago’s baseball operation led to immediate speculation that LaRussa wouldn’t survive the season. Jim Fregosi and Dick Williams have been mentioned as eventual successors.

“If things continue on this path,” Harrelson said the other day, “yes, there would be some thought about firing LaRussa, no question about it.

“Up to this point, making this kind of change hasn’t been in my thoughts, but if we keep going bad, which I like to think we won’t, there’ll be some thoughts along those lines.”

Harrelson said he will shorten spring training by about 10 days next year. He said the White Sox hitters were smoking until the last week of camp, when they went flat.

“The bottom dropped out,” he said.

Both sides say that the negotiations are still tenuous and delicate, but Commissioner Peter Ueberroth and the Major League Players Assn. seem to be closing in on a joint drug agreement.

Ueberroth, interviewed by phone on another subject Thursday, said he hoped to have an important announcement within the next few days. A union official, asked Friday if a drug agreement is imminent, said, “I can’t say it’s a good possibility but I can say it’s within the realm of possibility.”

It’s now being said that the playing field at Cleveland’s Municipal Stadium truly resembles a mistake by the lake.

Rather than completely resodding this spring in the wake of winter kill, only the most damaged grass was replaced. The field has the appearance of a quilt, a checkerboard.

“It’s the worst in the country,” Cleveland Indians outfielder Joe Carter said. “Russia probably has better fields. A mine field would be better.”

Said Detroit’s Kirk Gibson: “A year-old baby could have done a better job of preparing a field.”

Harmless and blameless? The New York Mets have publicly dismissed that Tuesday night incident in which Dwight Gooden and his sister reportedly argued with a LaGuardia Airport rental-car clerk, who claimed that Gooden’s sister then threw a cup of liquid at her.

Privately, however, the Mets are wondering if this was part of a trend, if Dr. K’s spotless reputation isn’t becoming soiled. Gooden has been involved in three incidents since January.

He first displeased the Mets by failing to tell them he had twisted an ankle working out at his Tampa home Jan. 5, then compounded it by failing to show up for a scheduled physical in New York.

Then, in the second incident, he asked for a day off in spring training, phoning Manager Dave Johnson to say that he and a friend had been in a car accident.

Johnson gave him the day off, but a subsequent investigation indicated that either there had not been an accident or that it had not been serious enough to warrant a day off. Gooden was reportedly fined $500.

Said a Met executive, requesting anonymity:

“Our only real concern is that Dwight hasn’t been showing good judgment. He should have backed off the incident at the airport, and he should have been more forthright on the other occasions.

“People look at his poise on the mound and forget that he’s only 21, but that’s not an excuse. He has to remember who he is and where he is. He has to accept the responsibility that he’s a public figure who’s constantly being judged.”

Both New York tabloids, the News and the Post, have been having a field day with the latest incident. The Post had three stories on Thursday, including a Q and A with the man in the street. The subject: “Are you worried about Dwight Gooden?”

Rained out twice during their three-game series last week, the Mets and the St. Louis Cardinals can look forward to two doubleheaders amid a six-game series spanning four days in August.

You have to like the Mets’ pitching depth if that series is the Armageddon it’s expected to be, but consider this: In the last two years, the Mets have only a 4-3 advantage over St. Louis in games that Gooden has started. One reason is that Cardinal center fielder Willie McGee seems to own Gooden. He has 12 hits in 26 at-bats against him.

Another indication of the owners’ apparent determination to weed out fringe veterans in favor of younger players: Nineteen players with guaranteed 1986 salaries totaling $10.2 million have already been released.

Part of it stems from the decision to go with 24 players. Part of it stems from the industry-wide youth movement. The obligations range from the $2.8 million that the Atlanta Braves still owe released pitcher Len Barker to the $50,000 that the Chicago Cubs still owe released pitcher Lary Sorensen.

The Dodgers owe $375,000 to infielder Bob Bailor and $300,000 to pitcher Bobby Castillo.

The Angels owe pitcher Frank LaCorte $340,000.

George Brett drew 103 walks last season, a career high. He is being pitched around with even greater frequency this season. Through nine games, he had been walked 12 times, including three times intentionally.

The burden falls on designated hitter Hal McRae, who hits behind Brett in the Kansas City Royals’ batting order. McRae revived his career by batting .291 and driving in 46 runs in his final 56 games last season. He opened the new season by going 2 for 4 with a home run against the Yankees. Then he got only two hits in his next 26 at-bats.

McRae, at 39, knows he can’t count on tomorrow.

“At this stage, all you’ve got is yourself,” he said. “You’ve got nobody else with you.

“As soon as I look bad for two weeks, everybody says I’m done. That’s natural. I expect it.

“If I do well, they’ll say, ‘I knew the guy could do it,’ but they’re waiting for you to have a bad streak. It’s not that anyone is being cruel, it’s just human nature.”

The Royals would like to be patient with McRae. He hit 74 points higher in the second half of the 1984 season than he had in the first and he hit 87 points higher in the second half of the ’85 season than he had in the first.

Kansas City pitcher Dennis Leonard, who needed two years and four operations in coming back from the same injury Pedro Guerrero suffered, said of Guerrero:

“If he only needs one operation, give it a year. If he’s back by July, it’ll be a miracle.”

Milwaukee Brewers Manager George Bamberger is thinking of using a four-man rotation rather than five, meaning he would start three rookies--Juan Nieves, Bill Wegman and Dan Plesac--and a sophomore, Ted Higuera.

“We baby these kids,” Bamberger said. “Years ago, there were as many injuries as there are today. The difference was, a guy didn’t say anything. I think tendinitis only means you got smoked the last time out.”

How are you going to keep ‘em down on the farm?

The Philadelphia Phillies have the right idea.

Morganna Roberts is part owner of their Utica team, and Pia Zadora is part owner at Portland.

LaMarr Hoyt, who succumbed to shoulder pain and pitched only one inning against Las Vegas on the final weekend of the exhibition season, is back on schedule for an April 29 return to the San Diego Padres’ rotation.

Hoyt threw for 20 minutes without pain Thursday and credited acupuncture. Trainer Dick Dent reportedly learned the system from the medical staff of the Yakult Swallows of the Japanese League, who trained with the Padres in Yuma.

Whom do you believe? Tony Kubek keeps telling his Canadian TV audiences that Dave Stieb has an elbow problem that prevents him from throwing a slider. The Toronto Blue Jays keep denying it.

Detroit Tigers Manager Sparky Anderson has decided to bench second baseman Lou Whitaker for 20 to 25 games against left-handed pitching. Whitaker, since the start of the 1984 season, is hitting .224 against left-handers--and is 0 for 7 this season. His average against right-handers is .301.

A home run by the Baltimore Orioles’ Eddie Murray in the second game of a Wednesday doubleheader with Toronto was his first run batted in of the season. It was Game 9, the longest Murray has gone without an RBI at the start of a season. In fact, from 1978 through last year, Murray drove in at least one run in every season opener.

The Game of the Week was played between Texas and Milwaukee Wednesday. The Rangers won, 7-5. The decisive run scored on a wild pitch, which was appropriate. Seven pitchers delivered a total of 346 pitches. There were 21 walks, 21 strikeouts, 12 hits, 12 runs--only 4 earned--and 6 wild pitches.

The tone was set by Texas starter Bobby Witt, a rookie from the University of Oklahoma. Witt was the No. 3 selection in last June’s amateur draft, then played half a season in Triple-A. He is said to have a wicked fastball--and problems controling it.

The question: Will he gain control before his arm falls off? He left the Milwaukee game after five innings with a no-hitter. He was tied, 2-2, having thrown 108 pitches. He struck out 10 but walked 8 and threw 4 wild pitches.

“I knew he had a no-hitter but I also knew he wasn’t going nine,” Manager Bobby Valentine said.

What did he tell Witt?

“I told him, ‘Don’t make me do it again.’ ”