Baseball / Gordon Edes : After Being Booed in Pittsburgh, Madlock Blames Broadcaster

Radioactive: Dodger third baseman Bill Madlock doesn’t believe that the booing he got last week in Pittsburgh, where he had spent the last 7 1/2 seasons, was entirely spontaneous.

Madlock blamed Pirate broadcaster Jim Rooker, a former teammate, for inciting the crowd by accusing Madlock of giving less than 100% in Pittsburgh, especially in his last season.

“He’s a half a ballplayer,” Madlock told Bob Hertzel of the Pittsburgh Press. “He never has been any more than that and never will be.

” . . . He was half a ballplayer, a five-inning pitcher living off five innings pitched in the 1979 World Series. . . . Sometimes guys who go to the broadcast booth forget they were once ballplayers.”

Rooker said that he was in Los Angeles after Madlock was traded to the Dodgers last summer and read that Madlock was “sick” of playing in Pittsburgh.

“If Madlock thinks they are booing him because of comments I made, then he hasn’t been truthful with himself,” Rooker said. “He was the so-called captain of the Pirates and he jumped ship, saying the drug thing was too much on his shoulders.

” . . . Why did Bill Madlock wait until the last night (the Dodgers were) in town to say he was upset? Why not the first night?”

The inference was that Madlock did not want to encounter Rooker face to face.

“If he wants to go face to face, I’m available,” Rooker said. “The Pirates gave him more of everything than any team ever did . . . more money, more freedom, and it made me sick the way he kicked them in the stomach for it.”

Rooker pitched for 13 major league seasons, compiling a 103-109 record before becoming a broadcaster in 1981. In the fifth game of the 1979 World Series, he limited Baltimore to one run over five innings in a game the Pirates won, 7-1.

The New York Daily News has scored the Mets’ fights this season:

--Met third baseman Ray Knight vs. Dodger pitcher Tom Niedenfuer, May 27: Knight in a unanimous decision.

--Met coach Bill Robinson vs. Pirate pitcher Rick Rhoden, June 6: A grudge match between former teammates. Robinson in a split decision.

--Met outfielder Darryl Strawberry vs. Atlanta pitcher David Palmer, July 11: A draw. Palmer threw his glove and missed, threw a left and missed. Strawberry missed with a right, then Palmer ran.

--Four Mets vs. the Houston Police Department, July 19: The judges haven’t scored this one yet.

--Knight vs. Cincinnati outfielder Eric Davis, July 22: Knight by a KO.

Said Met Manager Davey Johnson: “We just use our fists on the field. We practice with knives in the clubhouse.”

Packing the ‘Can’: One American League scout, on whether the Boston Red Sox should trade troubled pitcher Dennis (Oil Can) Boyd:

“If I’m (Red Sox General Manager Lou) Gorman, I don’t move him unless I can get equal value, even though the manager (John McNamara) will probably ask for a trade.

“The winter market might be pretty good, but right now a lot of teams are a little afraid of him. But he’s flamboyant, and in the right situation he could be another (Mark) Fidrych.”

The Red Sox had scouts last week in Pittsburgh, where Pirate General Manager Syd Thrift so far has resisted trading All-Star pitcher Rick Rhoden.

Would a Boyd-for-Rhoden trade be equal value? “Yes,” the scout said. “At least for this year.”

Add Boyd: McNamara, a target of Boyd’s clubhouse tirade after learning he had been left off the All-Star team, was asked if Boyd could ever pitch for him again. Washington Post writer Richard Justice described McNamara’s reaction:

“McNamara began his answer by staring blankly at the questioner. He then stood up, walked away from his desk, spit into a trash can, circled his office and sat back down again.

“ ‘Yes,’ he said, ‘he can pitch for me again.’

“He said it with all the conviction of a man being forced to watch a dream season unravel.”

Stylin’: Former Dodger R.J. Reynolds, who once attended cosmetology school, gave Dodger coach Manny Mota a haircut in the visitors’ clubhouse Thursday. The fashion-conscious Pirate outfielder also does his own hair.

Dodger first baseman Greg Brock, asked to describe Reynolds’ new ‘do: “Punk brother.”

Conscientious objector: During last Tuesday’s Giant-Cardinal brawl, Giant rookie Randy Kutcher was surprised when Cardinal Manager Whitey Herzog attempted to clothesline him.

“All I’m trying to do is break things up,” Kutcher said. “And Whitey says, ‘Oh, you want some of me?’ I just got up here. I’m not going after anybody, and I wouldn’t go after that guy.”

The Yankees, if they chose to switch to hoops, could start a front line of 6-foot 7-inch Dennis Rasmussen, 6-6 Dave Winfield, and 6-7 Tim Stoddard. Rasmussen played basketball at Creighton, Winfield played at Minnesota, and Stoddard was a member of the ’74 North Carolina State team that won the national championship.

Rasmussen, who played against Celtic star Larry Bird in college, was asked if he’d shut him down.

“What do you think?” Rasmussen said. “There are guys in the NBA who get paid $2 million and can’t shut him down. He was the same way in college.”

But he’s trying to learn the split-finger: In his first three starts with the Giants, Steve Carlton’s line score reads: 0-2, 14 IP, 21 H, 12 R, 9 ER, 5 SO, 6 BB, 5.79 ERA.

Fire sale: Cub President Dallas Green said he’s trying to unload high-priced pitchers Rick Sutcliffe, Steve Trout and Dennis Eckersley, but so far there have been no takers.

Green, who signed all three to long-term contracts after the Cubs had won the National League East title in ‘84, said he would have been “run out of town” if he had let the pitchers go to free agency.

“Now, am I going to do it again?” he said about long-term deals. “You might say I’ve learned some lessons.”

When slow-footed catcher Ron Hassey slid into first with a game-winning, infield hit in the 10th inning of the Yankees’ 3-2 victory over Cleveland last Wednesday, his effort elicited these responses in the Yankee clubhouse, according to the New York Times.

Don Mattingly: “It’s pretty ridiculous.”

Rickey Henderson: “One out of a million. Somebody had to make a mistake.”

Bob Shirley: “They speak of holes in one in golf and in football running back a kickoff for a touchdown. An infield hit by Hassey ranks right up there.”

Brad Hassey, his 6-year-old son: “You were out.”

Profitable business: Met pitcher Jesse Orosco, who was shuttled with pitcher Roger McDowell between the mound and the outfield in the Mets’ 6-3, 14-inning win over the Reds, made some money at his new position, which he’d never played before.

“I had $1.75 thrown at me out there,” Orosco said.

Orosco also caught a line drive hit by Tony Perez. “But I had better stick with pitching,” he said.

Texas rookie pitcher Mike Loynd, a seventh-round draft choice who won his first start, on why he wasn’t surprised to be in the majors just a month out of college:

“I proved I can be a 20-game winner.”

Loynd won 20 for Florida State, tying an NCAA record.

Manager Roger Craig of the Giants said he was inspired by Cardinal base-stealer Vince Coleman when he decided to have catcher Bob Brenly bat leadoff last Tuesday for what Brenly believed was the first time in his life.

“I dreamed last night that Bob Brenly can run with Vince Coleman,” Craig said. “He’s watched him run so much that maybe he can.”

Said Brenly: “I suspected we were going to shake up the lineup today, but I didn’t think it would be this drastic.”

Act of compassion: Cardinal Manager Herzog benched catcher Mike Heath after he had made two throwing errors, struck out twice, and watched the Dodgers steal five bases last Sunday.

Said Herzog: “I hate to see players get booed.”

The Cardinals traded Joaquin Andujar to Oakland for Heath, known for his strong arm. But after last Sunday, Heath had thrown out just 9 of 40 base-runners, or only 22.5%

Restaurant review: Yankee outfielder Dave Winfield, on a recent postgame spread in the clubhouse:

“The bread is wet and the meat loaf is dry. Am I in jail or what?”

Give him an Oscar: It turns out that Met first baseman Keith Hernandez was faking when he convinced plate umpire Greg Bonin that he had been hit by a pitch against Houston last week. While Astro Manager Hal Lanier was ejected for arguing that the ball had hit Hernandez’s bat first, Hernandez writhed on the ground in feigned pain until Mets trainer Steve Garland approached with freezing spray.

“I told him if he was going to spray anything to spray the bat,” Hernandez said.