Baseball : If the Balloting Were Rigged, It Would Probably Go Like This

Liberty weekend. A celebration of freedom, including the right of self-determination.

Yes, fans, here comes your annual midsummer reprimand, a July flogging for failing to pay attention when submitting your All-Star ballots.

Actually, you can relax some.

While all of the votes have not been tabulated, you’re not doing badly.

Aside from a serious mistake or two in the outfield, the rest of it, for the most part, is debatable.

Here’s how the voting stands, measured against the column’s selections:

AMERICAN LEAGUE

First base--Fans: Wally Joyner. Column: It’s a toss-up between Joyner and Don Mattingly, but Joyner probably had the greater first-half impact. Go with Joyner.

Second base--Fans: Lou Whitaker. Column: Whitaker and Frank White are having solid seasons again, but the All-Star nod should go to the Cleveland Indians’ Tony Bernazard, who is having a career year, batting .322 through Thursday.

Shortstop--Fans: Cal Ripken. Column: Ripken.

Third base--Fans: George Brett. Column: No way. Brett has been up and down, displaying an uncharacteristic lack of consistency. Wade Boggs has to be an overwhelming choice.

Outfield--Fans: Reggie Jackson, Rickey Henderson and Dave Winfield. Column: You can make a case for Jackson and Henderson, but Winfield is having a bad year offensively. The choices should be Jose Canseco, Kirby Puckett and Robin Yount.

Catcher--Fans: Lance Parrish. Column: Parrish.

Pitchers--Kansas City Royals Manager Dick Howser will select the eight-man staff. The column’s nominations: Roger Clemens, Dennis (Oil Can) Boyd, Ted Higuera, Mike Boddicker, Charlie Hough, Kirk McCaskill, Don Aase and Willie Hernandez.

NATIONAL LEAGUE

First base--Fans: Keith Hernandez. Column: Bob Horner’s power statistics are better, but it’s hard to quibble with Hernandez’s overall contribution. Go with Hernandez.

Second base--Fans: Ryne Sandberg. Column: A provincial vote for Steve Sax, though his power numbers aren’t comparable to Sandberg’s.

Shortstop--Fans: Ozzie Smith. Column: Ozzie has even been a wizard with the bat this year, but the All-Star shortstop, based on first-half production, should be Hubie Brooks.

Third Base--Fans: Mike Schmidt. Column: Tim Wallach and Ray Knight are having excellent seasons but Schmidt, with 16 home runs, deserves to start.

Outfield--Fans: Darryl Strawberry, Dale Murphy and Tony Gwynn. Column: Gwynn, yes. Strawberry and Murphy, no. Tab Tim Raines and Dave Parker, with Chili Davis drawing strong consideration.

Catcher--Fans: Gary Carter. Column: Carter.

Pitchers--Said St. Louis Cardinals Manager Whitey Herzog, who will handle the National League team:

“If you want to be fair about it, there should be 10 Mets on the team, but I don’t think Chub Feeney will let me get away with that.”

Herzog’s 10 Mets would include six pitchers: starters Dwight Gooden, Sid Fernandez, Ron Darling and Bob Ojeda, along with relievers Roger McDowell and Jesse Orosco.

But the indication is that he will settle on Gooden, Fernandez and Orosco, plus Shane Rawley, Fernando Valenzuela, Bob Knepper, Dave Smith and Jeff Reardon. The column would eliminate Knepper in favor of Houston teammate Mike Scott.

The American League’s first base vote has the New York Yankees enraged.

Henderson, for example, said that in no way is Joyner better than Mattingly, that they were obviously stuffing ballots in Anaheim. Willie Randolph said: “It’s a popularity contest that the fans in California are winning. The players know who the best first baseman is.”

And even Mattingly got involved, firing a subtle broadside at the fans.

“I guess it’s Wally’s world,” he said. “Sure I think the voting should be closer, but how can I be upset. I know who’s voting.”

The Dodgers reached a point where they weren’t really sure. The San Francisco Giants have no doubt about it. The Candy Man can. Particularly in a pinch.

Candy Maldonado, who can’t break into the outfield on a full-time basis, came off the bench in Cincinnati last week to deliver his fourth game-winning pinch-hit.

Then, in Atlanta, batting against Gene Garber, who had allowed only one previous home run, Maldonado tied it with a pinch homer in the ninth and stayed in to win it with a two-run single in the 10th.

Awed by Maldonado’s pinch-hitting exploits, Chili Davis wagged a finger at Manager Roger Craig and said: “Don’t you ever start him again.”

Maldonado is pleased to be contributing but is still not happy with his role, just as he was not happy being a platoon player with the Dodgers.

He’s batting .225 as a regular and .420 (11 for 26) as a pinch-hitter. He has 14 RBIs for the 11 hits, including four home runs, tying the club record (including the team’s years in New York). The four pinch homers are only two shy of the major league record.

Said Maldonado: “I don’t want any pinch-hit records. I want everyday records.”

With nothing else for his Cardinals to shoot at, Herzog is going to let Vince Coleman make an all-out run at Lou Brock’s National League single-season record of 118 steals in a season.

Herzog, who on occasion has stopped Coleman from stealing, will give him a permanent green light.

“People want to see it,” Herzog said. “As far as I’m concerned, nothing else is happening. Not that I’m a showman, but they like to see him run. With the team out of the race, he might get 20 more steals (than otherwise).”

The recent firing of Tony LaRussa and Jim Frey by the White Sox and Cubs, respectively, marked only the second time in Chicago’s baseball history that the two teams have fired managers in the same season.

It first happened in 1979 when LaRussa replaced Don Kessinger with the White Sox and Joe Amalfitano replaced Herman Franks with the Cubs.

The new managers--Jim Fregosi of the White Sox and Gene Michael of the Cubs--haven’t gotten off to the most cordial beginning. Michael was quoted as saying the White Sox hadn’t given LaRussa “a fair chance.”

Fregosi didn’t like it. “I’m not going to try to run the Cubs,” he said. “He (Michael) is going to have enough troubles doing that. I’ll run the White Sox.”

Even Willie Randolph can’t tell the players without a program? Or where are you Bucky Dent?

The acquisition of Paul Zuvella in the trade that sent Ken Griffey to Atlanta means that Randolph will have played with 26 different shortstops in his 10 years as the Yankee second baseman.

Said Randolph: “Every once in a while I’ll look up and think, ‘Who is that at shortstop?’ ”

Reflecting on the momentum now enjoyed by the Boston Red Sox, former Baltimore relief pitcher Sammy Stewart said: “This team feels like the early Orioles in ‘79, when we were hungry. You get a league lead, tear off the rear-view mirrors and drive like the Italians.”

Davey Lopes, who merely stole 47 bases and hit .284 at 39, is having another banner season at 40, though it has been lost amid the Cubs’ abysmal performance. Lopes, in his last 28 games, is batting .370 (30 for 81) with 5 home runs, 24 runs scored, 12 RBIs, 13 stolen bases and 10 multi-hit games.

Said Manager Michael:

“He’s a good example to the young people of this country to stay in shape.”

Add 40-year-olds: Reggie Jackson is to be admired for a successful change of style that has him playing Little Ball instead of Long Ball, but it is preposterous to think that Jackson contributes more to the Angels as a singles-only hitter.

Jackson batted only .223 two years ago, but he drove in 81 runs and slugged 25 homers. He hit .252 last season with 85 RBIs and 27 homers. Now he is second on the club with a .294 average, but his power pace projects to a career-low 14 homers and 60 RBIs. He has not homered since May 14. This is The Hammer? This is the sixth-leading home run hitter of all time?

This is a situation swamped by theories and undercurrents, but there is only one conclusion: You don’t disarm one of the game’s most reliable and exciting weapons. You don’t turn a howitzer into a pop gun. How about it, Little General?

The Yankees could have prevented Tom Seaver from going to the Boston Red Sox but refused to trade one of their younger pitchers--Dennis Rasmussen, Doug Drabek or Bob Tewksbury--primarily because their farm system is already bankrupt talent-wise.

“If we were seven games in front, it might be a different story,” Manager Lou Piniella said. “But we’re seven behind and we would have had to give up some pitchers who could help us in the future.

“It’s a good gamble for Boston because they’re in front, but not for us.”

Seaver, meanwhile, said he had given the White Sox a deadline for trading him.

“Another week or so and I was going home,” he said. “I made the club aware of that. I was totally, emotionally spent. I had my mom’s death (in May), then my shoulder went on the blink and there was the LaRussa situation (an ongoing uncertainty over the manager’s status). I almost quit when we were in Baltimore (in late May), but my wife and lawyer talked me out of it.”