Baseball / Ross Newhan : Williams Too Tough, Boros Too Soft; Padres Need Middleman

The inmates seem to be running the asylum in San Diego. The same Padre players who said former Manager Dick Williams was too tough now apparently can’t live with successor Steve Boros because he is too soft.

Boros heard the same rap when he was fired as manager of the Oakland A’s.

This time, he has heard it publicly only from shortstop Garry Templeton, but there may be more soon. The players are privately questioning Boros’ strategy and lack of clout.

Management is said to be quietly convinced that Boros has lost control and that a change will be necessary, although Boros may be retained in his former capacity as instructor and scout.

It does seem surprising that the Padres have not been a greater factor in the National League’s mild West, but is that the result of the manager’s being too gentle, too nice a guy?

Do Templeton’s .217 batting average, Graig Nettles’ .210, Steve Garvey’s .248, Terry Kennedy’s eight home runs and the failure of any Padre pitcher to have won more than eight games stem from an absence of managerial fire and muscle?

Only last spring, in the wake of Williams’ departure, the players were overjoyed to get Boros. That mood is gone now, and the Padres are expected to be looking soon for someone neither too tough nor too soft.

They apparently want someone from the middle of the road, someone used to taking abuse. Maybe CalTrans has a candidate.

Equally Amazing: The Angels will retire Rod Carew’s No. 29 uniform in pregame ceremonies at Anaheim Stadium Tuesday night.

Carew, who had his best summers in Minnesota, averaged only 119 games and 40 runs batted in a season while hitting .314 during his seven years with the Angels. But that’s not what makes the Angel decision a surprise. Carew, after all, is being honored on the basis of a distinguished career that will eventually earn him a deserved niche in Cooperstown.

The surprise is that the Angels have never retired a player’s number and are honoring Carew ahead of both:

--Jim Fregosi, who spent more than a decade as their heart, soul and shortstop, establishing many of the club’s offensive records, then returned to manage the ’79 team to the organization’s first division title.

--And Nolan Ryan, who pitched four of his five no-hitters for the Angels, rewrote the strikeout portion of the baseball record book while here and became the club’s first real gate attraction.

Said Tom Seeberg, public relations vice president: “Both Jimmy and Nolan merit consideration and received some, but the feeling was that we didn’t want to do anything while they were still in uniform, still active in the game.”

The unstated factor seems to be that the Angels felt compelled to honor Carew, having painted themselves into a public relations corner with his unceremonious release during the ’85 World Series and the subsequent uncertainty as to whether he was or wasn’t retired.

Now the question is: Have the Angels set a precedent that will result in the retirement of No. 44, now worn by Reggie Jackson, another future Hall of Famer?

Add Retirement: Having already retired Nos. 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 15, 16, 32 and 37 in tribute to Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra and Bill Dickey--who both wore No. 8, Roger Maris, Phil Rizzuto, Thurman Munson, Whitey Ford, Elston Howard and Casey Stengel, respectively, the New York Yankees are now retiring the No. 1 of a .257 career hitter named Billy Martin.

Does owner George Steinbrenner now believe his four-time manager won’t ever have need for it again?

George Foster left the New York Mets with a .227 batting average, 13 home runs and 38 RBIs. The club noted that he had 2 hits, 1 RBI and 10 strikeouts in his last 28 at-bats. He was hitless in five pinch-hitting appearances since losing his platoon assignment in left field and was 1 for 14 overall as a pinch-hitter.

Foster hit 99 homers in his 4 1/2 seasons with the Mets, but his release wasn’t entirely motivated by numbers.

Foster first angered teammates and Manager Davey Johnson July 22 when he said of outfield rivals Kevin Mitchell and Danny Heep: “I don’t want to discredit Mitch and Danny, but they can’t do what I can do when I get hot.”

Said second baseman Wally Backman: “You don’t say things like that, even if they’re true. And they weren’t true. Mitch was hitting .320. George got hot for two weeks in June and thought Davey owed him something.”

Then Foster additionally disturbed management as he reacted to his diminished role in left field by failing to dress for batting practice and arriving late at the park. Johnson reportedly had been urging the Mets to release Foster even before Foster was quoted in the Westchester-Rockland (N.Y.) newspapers Wednesday:

“I think the Mets would rather promote a Gary Carter or a Keith Hernandez (both white) to the fans so parents who want to can point to them as role models for their children, rather than a Darryl Strawberry, a Dwight Gooden or a George Foster (who are black).

“I’m not saying it’s a racial thing, but that seems to be the case in sports these days. When a ballclub can, they replace a George Foster or a Mookie Wilson with a more popular white player.”

Foster later held a meeting with his teammates and said his remarks had been “twisted” but did not deny saying them, according to players. Foster told Newsday that the remarks had not been directed at the Mets necessarily, that he had intended to demonstrate how the factor of race can affect economic decisions.

“If it were written or reported . . . from a business or economic standpoint, it would not be construed as racist,” he said.

Johnson and Frank Cashen, the club president, viewed it otherwise. And Backman said of Foster’s release: “Good riddance. He brought it on himself. You don’t bury teammates and act the way he’s acted the last few weeks. You don’t come up with this racist stuff and call yourself a teammate. No teammate would respect that.”

There is a measure of irony to Foster’s remarks. He was replaced in left field by Mitchell, who is black.

Add Foster: The 37-year-old outfielder is guaranteed the rest of his 1986 salary of $1.8 million and must be paid another $1 million as the buy-out on his 1987 option year. He will also qualify for a $100,000 bonus if the Mets, who have drawn 1.8 million, exceed 3 million in attendance this year.

Foster can still be signed by another club for the major league minimum, a modest investment for a pennant contender. The Chicago White Sox, who don’t seem to fit that description, have already approached his agent.

Shouldn’t the Dodgers? The former Leuzinger High star has consistently responded to home cooking. Foster hit two homers on May 18, his last game at Dodger Stadium. In all, he has hit 23 homers there, the most by any opposing player.

Anita Piniella watched husband Lou, the Yankees’ manager, stage a dirt-kicking, cap-throwing exhibition that resulted in his ejection from a game at Cleveland last weekend.

“I’m 43 and married to a 4-year-old,” she said.

Eddie Murray was taken off the Baltimore Orioles’ disabled list Thursday. The Orioles went 18-10 without him, largely because Jim Traber, who has been playing first, had 8 homers, 3 doubles and 22 RBIs in his first 12 games after having hit only 12 homers at Rochester all season.

“He’s been like a gift from heaven,” Baltimore Manager Earl Weaver said of the 24-year-old Traber, who was once a starting sophomore quarterback at Oklahoma State.

Said Traber: “When you’ve looked at the Oklahoma defense and played at Nebraska, you get used to pressure.”

Has he turned Murray into Wally Pipp, the former Yankee first baseman who lost his job to Lou Gehrig?

“I’ve been filling in for a Hall of Famer, not a Wally Pipp,” said Traber, who will now move to either left field or become the designated hitter. Or as Weaver said, when asked where Traber would next be seen: “At bat.”