A Record Judgment for Morris

Pitcher Jack Morris, who reluctantly agreed to stay with the Detroit Tigers after four other teams rebuffed him as a free agent, won a $1.85 million salary through arbitration Friday, the largest such award ever made.

“Jack Morris is one of the finest players in the game,” his agent, Dick Moss, said. “He deserves to be getting one of the top salaries in the game.”

The award was the highest since salary arbitration was instituted in the owners’ contract with the Major League Players Assn., and was $500,000 more than third baseman Wade Boggs got in 1986 when he lost his arbitration with the Boston Red Sox.

“It’s an either-or situation,” arbitrator Richard Bloch said from Chicago, where he heard presentations Thursday from Morris and the Tigers. Bloch, a Washington labor lawyer, is one of about 10 arbitrators who handle baseball salary cases.

Under the procedure, the arbitrator must choose either the figure asked by the player or the one offered by the club, and cannot settle for a middle ground. The Tigers had offered Morris $1.35 million.

Morris, showing little emotion, took the news in stride.

“Deep down, I thought we presented the case better than the Tigers presented their case,” he said from the Detroit suburb of Farmington Hills. “I thought the same thing in 1981 and lost in arbitration. I was more cautious this time.”

Morris said he felt confident he could put his differences with the Tigers aside and just play baseball.

“I don’t think there’s any real, deep down hate between the management and myself,” he said. “I just think it got to a point where business is business and I did what I had to do and they did what they had to do.

“When I cross the white lines, I eliminate everything--I eliminate my mom yelling at me and my dad cheering for me.”

“This is the way the arbitration process provides now and we will abide by it,” said Tiger spokesman Dan Ewald, adding the team wouldn’t comment further.

Morris, 31, baseball’s winningest pitcher in the 1980s with a 123-81 record, now becomes one of the game’s higher paid players, though not the highest.

“Next year there will be eight or nine players who will be making more money,” his agent said.

Morris, who became a free agent after last season, decided to stay with the Tigers and file for arbitration after failing to come to terms with the New York Yankees, Minnesota Twins, Angels and Philadelphia Phillies.

Moss repeated the earlier charge that Morris’ failure to get a contract offer from another team indicated collusion between the owners.

“They have violated the contract by conspiring not to sign free agent players,” he said. A charge of collusion made by the players union is being heard as a grievance by an arbitrator.

Morris had a 21-8 record with a 3.27 earned run average last season. His victory total was second only to Roger Clemens of the Boston Red Sox.