Baseball : Drug Deaths Don’t Change the Real Issue

The cocaine-induced deaths of Len Bias and Don Rogers have not altered the Major League Players Assn.’s opposition to mandatory drug testing.

“We’re saddened by an obvious tragedy, but you have to be careful in overreacting to a tragedy,” legal counsel Gene Orza said by telephone.

“I mean, their deaths do not alter the basic proposition that innocent people should not have to give their urine to an employer to analyze.

“It’s unfair and un-American.”

At the All-Star break of Peter Ueberroth’s second season as commissioner, the testing issue, as in professional football, remains the major obstacle in the pursuit of a joint drug agreement in baseball.

There had been periodic negotiations between Ueberroth and the union after Ueberroth’s April announcement of a plan calling for at least two random tests a year, but those discussions are now on hold, Orza said.

Both sides are waiting for a decision by arbitrator Tom Roberts on a grievance brought by the union in response to the owners’ refusal to guarantee multiyear contracts unless they contained a testing clause. The decision, which will give one side considerable leverage, is expected July 24.

If the owners are permitted to include testing clauses, then there is nothing the union can do to stop them.

A victory for the union, however, would seem to destroy the commissioner’s bid for mandatory testing, the foundation of his impassioned crusade against drugs.

Said Orza: “We are not opposed to random testing if it is truly voluntary, but we can’t have the players brutalized as they were last winter when the owners used (mandatory) testing as a condition of employment.”

Orza believes the union already has an edge, the owners having conceded that testing clauses in non-guaranteed contracts are unenforceable. In the meantime, the commissioner’s office has begun testing of the 50 or so players who accepted it in their guaranteed contracts.

San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein has the bar-and-sport set laughing over a Dear Bob letter sent to Giant owner Bob Lurie, who isn’t laughing.

The letter came in response to rumors that the Bechtel Corp., hired by the Giants to do a cost analysis on the city’s latest and probably last proposal for a downtown stadium site--at Seventh and Townsend--will soon report that the stadium can’t be built for less than $50 million.

Feinstein’s no-frills proposal had projected a cost of $36 million, which the Giants scoffed at, citing the fact that improvements alone, now being undertaken by the city on behalf of the San Francisco 49ers at Candlestick Park, will run $30 million.

In her letter to Lurie, Feinstein wrote that the city can’t afford more than $40 million for a new stadium.

The line that left them laughing was this:

“I just want to make sure we’re getting a cost analysis of a Buick and not a Cadillac.”

Will the All-Star break provide a respite in the latest war of words between Dave Winfield and New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner?

Reduced to a platoon role last week, Winfield raised the familiar complaint that Steinbrenner was making out the lineup and Manager Lou Piniella was his latest puppet. “The only chance you have around here is to be dead, retired or Reggie,” Winfield told the New York press corps.

Steinbrenner, of course, said he hadn’t ordered Piniella to do anything, but that he agreed with the decision and thought it might provide Winfield with a spur. He even released a statement saying that if Winfield wanted to continue thinking that he (Steinbrenner) made out the lineup, “from this point on, he may very well be accurate.”

Said Steinbrenner: “I know Dave Winfield gives 100%, but his lack of production in crucial pressure situations is what is hurting us. . . . He just hasn’t handled tough right-handed pitching as a big man must. Trying is a poor third to doing.”

Piniella had his own message.

“I’m the manager of the Yankees. I make out the lineup. Louie P. makes out the lineup. Forget Sweet Lou,” he said. “My job here is not to make people happy, it’s to win ballgames.”

The assignment has been tougher because Steinbrenner traded Don Baylor. The owner has admitted it was mistake, no solace to Piniella, who has publicly criticized a poorly arranged roster that is particularly vulnerable to left-handed pitchers.

The record in that category is 11-19, prompting talks with the Chicago White Sox concerning Ron Kittle. The White Sox reportedly want first baseman Orestes Destrade, New York’s top hitting prospect. No deal.

The Detroit Tigers seem in a similar state of disarray, with players grumbling about teammates when they’re not grumbling about a lack of direction from Manager Sparky Anderson.

Said Kirk Gibson: “Sparky says this is the nicest group of players he’s been around. It’s a nice atmosphere. We all have nice families and nice homes. Complacency has set in.”

Said Jack Morris, citing a lack of hunger and saying there were too many quitters: “I just kind of worry because there’s not a whole lot of concern by anyone in the organization. I don’t know what I mean by that, but it’s how I feel.”

This may illustrate the Tigers’ lack of fight: They are 2-34 in games that they trailed in the sixth inning or later, and in 19 of those they trailed by three runs or fewer.

The White Sox may be heard from in the second half, having won their first five series under Jim Fregosi, taking 11 of 15 games and their pitchers compiling an earned-run average of 2.96.

Fregosi, who has said that his 3 1/2 years as the Louisville manager provided insights into pitching, now accompanies his previous game’s starting pitcher to the bullpen the next day to correct mistakes.

Fregosi alluded to pitching coach Dick Bosman and said: “We try to emphasize a pitcher staying within himself and knowing mechanics so that he can become his own pitching coach on the mound.”

The former Angel manager needed only one review of last year’s films to correct a flaw in the delivery of struggling relief ace Bob James. In six games under Fregosi, James has four saves and two wins.

Will the White Sox become the Illinois White Sox or the Addison White Sox if they move to a new stadium on 140 acres that they own in suburban Addison? Chicago Mayor Harold Washington says Chicago is Chicago, and “You can’t take nothing with you.”

Responded co-owner Jerry Reinsdorf: “We’re not running off to Iowa or Timbuktu. Addison is Chicago as far as we’re concerned.”

Baseball Notes Nolan Ryan won’t be appearing in the hometown All-Star game Tuesday night, but the Houston Astros star has pitched well enough to have made the National League team since returning from the disabled list. He has struck out 35 and given up only 6 earned runs in 29 innings of 5 starts. “All the talk about me being finished has kind of been an incentive,” he said. “Of course, I thought about it, too. Wouldn’t you if it was your career?” . . . Atlanta Braves Manager Chuck Tanner, baseball’s Pollyana, has ordered publicity director Robin Monsky off the road and off the field for including what he perceives to be negative notes in her daily press releases. Monsky is one of the best at her job and is reportedly considering legal action over what she views as gender discrimination. . . . Ted Higuera of the Milwaukee Brewers heads into the All-Star game with an American League-leading eight complete games and rumors of a sore arm. He is 1-2 with a 6.27 earned-run average for his last four starts and has failed to go beyond five in his last three. Nevertheless, he is penciled in to follow Roger Clemens and Charlie Hough in Tuesday night’s game. . . . The Oakland A’s have signed Jose Canseco’s brother, Ozzie, a pitcher released recently by the Yankee farm system. The A’s have assigned him to their Class A farm team as an outfielder. “We have identical abilities,” Jose said. “Believe me, he’s as big as I am. He just needs to develop his talents.” . . . Dennis (Oil Can) Boyd, who tore up the Boston clubhouse when notified he hadn’t made the All-Star team, didn’t touch Tom Seaver’s locker out of respect. “Whatever he says, it’s like E.F. Hutton to me,” Boyd said. “It’s like, ‘Hey, Tom, how’d you get to be so terrific?’ He rubs my head, man. He’s spoiled me to death.”