A Record Judgment for Morris

In a victory for his pride and pocketbook, Jack Morris set an arbitration record Friday when he was awarded the $1.85-million salary he had been seeking.

Forced to return to the Detroit Tigers when he was unable to sell the Angels, Philadelphia Phillies, New York Yankees and Minnesota Twins on his free-agent contract proposals, Morris broke the arbitration record of $1.35 million, set last year by Wade Boggs of the Boston Red Sox, who got it in a losing arbitration.

Morris’ record may last only until the Yankees’ Don Mattingly goes to arbitration next week. Mattingly, who made $1.375 million in 1986, is seeking $1.975 million. The Yankees countered at $1.7 million.

Arbitrator Richard Bloch rejected the Tigers’ $1.35-million figure to rule in favor of Morris, who made $850,000 last year.

So Morris got a raise of $1 million. Outfielder Kirk Gibson was the highest-paid Tiger last year with a salary of $1 million.

The $1.85 million that Morris will receive this year enables him to match the Dodgers’ Fernando Valenzuela as baseball’s highest-salaried starting pitcher.

Relief pitchers Dan Quisenberry of the Kansas City Royals and Bruce Sutter of the Atlanta Braves earn more--once their annuities, deferments and incentives are included.

Valenzuela, who is in the second year of a three-year contract, will receive $2.05 million in 1988. It was the acknowledged goal of attorney Richard Moss, who represents both Morris and Valenzuela, to put the former on equal financial footing with the latter.

Moss and Morris would have preferred a multi-year contract similar to Valenzuela’s, which they pursued in December via whirlwind offers to the Angels, Yankees, Phillies and Twins, but Morris was forced to return to the Tigers and file for arbitration on the deadline of Dec. 19.

The Tigers, who had offered Morris two years at $1.25 million per year before the filing date, went to $1.35 in arbitration, where only one year contracts are at stake.

Morris, of course, could throw some impressive numbers at Bloch. He was 21-8 with a 3.27 earned- run average last year and has been the winningest pitcher in baseball over the last eight years, a span in which he is 144-94 and has pitched 241 innings or more in every year except one.

Vindication?

Morris, the man known as Union Jack because of his strong support of the Players Assn., said:

“Its importance is that it’s going to have a positive effect on players in the future I hope. That’s what I kept in mind all along.

“I know that I’m going to be watched even closer now (because of the salary), but I think I can handle it.”

Of his previously strained relations with the Tigers, Morris said: “I don’t think there’s any deep down hate between us. Business is business. They did what they had to do and I did what I had to do. When I go between the white lines, I don’t hear my mother yelling at me or my father cheering for me. I’ve got only one thing in mind.”