Baseball : Several Managers Are Already Feeling the Heat of Slow Starts

In the storied tradition of Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny, now it’s Lance Parrish’s turn to be booed in Philadelphia.

Having finally found employment as a free agent, the former Detroit Tigers catcher is off to a staggering start with the staggering Phillies.

He had only 5 hits in 28 at-bats through Thursday and had failed to throw out any of the last 13 runners attempting to steal.

That his pitchers hadn’t been helping by holding the runners close was lost on fans frustrated by a 1-7 start after high expectations.

“They’re already testing him,” Mike Schmidt said. “He’s in the lions’ den here and he’s fighting them.”

Refusing to blame his pitchers or the back injury that sidelined him for the second half of last season, Parrish said he has never experienced similar throwing problems.

“If these people can’t accept that I’m trying to do my best, that’s their problem,” he said. “They have that right, I guess, but it’s not helping the situation.”

Parrish’s problems are just one factor in what seems to be a deteriorating environment. It has gotten ugly early in Philadelphia. The status of Manager John Felske is already in doubt.

“We talked all winter about playing like winners and now we’re playing like (bleep)ing losers,” Felske said.

Pitcher Kevin Gross made a scene Wednesday night, hurling bat, helmet and angry words after being lifted for a pinch-hitter in the sixth inning of a game he was losing, 1-0. Gross had allowed only two hits when he was removed for a hitter with two outs and a runner at third.

Felske said that he had been “babying” Gross since the pitcher’s arrival and that Gross was still only an “immature boy.”

But Felske himself had shown some immaturity the night before, tearing up his clubhouse office after another defeat.

Then he held a pregame meeting Wednesday to apologize and review the problems.

Club President Bill Giles said it was fortunate that Felske had called the meeting because he was about to. Giles’ ensuing message seemed both a threat and a vote of confidence.

“I don’t think you can blame the manager,” he said. “It’s up to the players, but it’s up to the manager to get the players ready.

“We’re playing awful baseball, but we’re not going to make any personnel changes or any changes at all. We’re just uptight. We’ve got to stop making stupid mistakes. I still believe in this team. We’ve just got to be patient. It’s hard to be, but we’ve got to be.”

Another troubled manager is the demanding Larry Bowa of the slow-starting San Diego Padres. Bowa has ranted, raved and already claimed that some of his players are only interested in collecting their paychecks.

General Manager Jack McKeon met with Bowa Thursday and suggested that he relax and stop trying to stuff an entire season into one week.

Asked previously if he had been able to sleep, Bowa said: “Sleep! You can count the hours I’ve had on one hand. I’ve been watching CNN, ‘Nightline,’ X-rated movies. By the time I finally go to sleep, I wake up, it’s 4:30, a quarter to 5, and I’m trying to make up another lineup. These have been the most miserable days of my life.”

Bowa, perhaps, should adopt the philosophy of Oakland outfielder Mike Davis, who reflected on the A’s poor start and said: “We just had to back up so we could get a running start. We’re almost like a tea bag. The flavor doesn’t come out until you put us in hot water.”

The Texas Rangers, last year’s overachievers, have been underwhelming this year. Consider how they put their 1-7 start together:

--Starting pitchers failed to last 6 innings in 6 of the 8 games and compiled an 0-4 record.

--The bullpen was 0-3 in save opportunities and allowed 7 of 8 inherited runners to score.

--The defense committed 11 errors and allowed the winning run in a pair of 2-1 losses to score on errors.

--The offense batted .217 with runners in scoring position.

Manager Bobby Valentine, who was determined to restrain his emotions this year, thinks that might have made a mistake, since his team has reflected a less competitive attitude.

“My attitude going into this year was that I wasn’t going to be as fiery with umpires,” Valentine said. “I wasn’t going to get on other teams’ nerves.

“I was going to try more professionalism, as some people put it. If, in fact, a team reflects the manager, then the things I haven’t liked about the team are the things I haven’t liked about myself (this year). I haven’t liked the feeling. I haven’t been in tune with my emotions. It hasn’t worked.”

Add Valentine: A consortium of six New Jersey bankers is reportedly close to buying the Rangers and retaining current owner Eddie Chiles as the chief executive officer. That means that the management team would remain in place, apparently strengthening Valentine’s conviction that he will be staying with the Rangers--at least until his contract expires after the ’89 season.

Don Baylor is among the black players who want to move up. In the Boston Red Sox yearbook, Baylor lists his goals as manager, general manager and/or commissioner.

On the same subject, it’s interesting that Hank Aaron, the Atlanta Braves’ director of player development, doesn’t have one black manager in his farm system.

There was no predicting the no-hitter by the Milwaukee Brewers’ Juan Nieves. The 22-year-old left-hander lost each of his last eight starts last year and allowed 8 hits and 6 runs in the 5 innings of his first 1987 start against Texas.

And even in the no-hitter at Baltimore, he had thrown more than 90 pitches after 6 innings, was leading by only 1-0 and had Manager Tom Trebelhorn thinking that he might have to make an unpopular decision.

Trebelhorn turned to coach Chuck Hartenstein after the sixth and said, “Chuck, we have a welcome-home luncheon in Milwaukee tomorrow. If I take him out with a no-hitter, do you think we’ll get welcomed home?”

Even later, when the no-hitter was history, the possible consequences to Nieves’ arm weighed on Trebelhorn.

“This was a great achievement, but the next 12 years represent a great achievement, too,” he said. “You have to do what’s right for him.”

Tales of the split-fingered fastball: Kelly Downs’ three-hit, 1-0 victory over San Diego Wednesday night got lost amid Nieves’ no-hitter and Mike Scott’s one-hitter the same night, but San Francisco Manager Roger Craig thinks that Downs, 4-4 as a rookie last season, will become his biggest winner.

“He’s my Mike Scott,” said Craig, who taught Scott, the Houston Astros’ ace, how to throw the split-finger and now has Downs throwing both the split-fingered fastball and a split-fingered change-up.

Roger Mason, the Giant pitcher who went into the record books Monday night when he yielded home runs to the first three San Diego batters, said that Marvell Wynne hit a slider, Tony Gwynn a fastball and John Kruk a split-fingered fastball.

“I’m glad I don’t have a fourth pitch,” Mason said.

The Giant-Dodger series starting Monday will be seen on Giants Vision in the Bay Area. The cable company has been running ads that show a plate of pasta with a Dodger cap on top of it. The ad, in part, reads: “Hold onto your linguine . . . Lasorda and his meatballs are coming! Watch our guys have The Great Linguine and his meatballs for dinner . . . three nights in a row.”

There is a chance that the two-year contract Roger Clemens finally signed with Boston the other day will be rejected by Bobby Brown, the American League president, in which case it would go back to the negotiators.

The contract guarantees Clemens $500,000 this year and $1.2 million next year. There is a roll-over incentive arrangement dealing with the All-Star Game. It’s a complicated package that can earn Clemens a bonus of as much as $300,000 if he is chosen for the 1987 team.

Red Sox Manager John McNamara, who is scheduled to manage the American League team and select the pitchers, said that the size of the bonus puts him in an awkward position. He is expected to ask Brown to select the pitchers or have the league’s managers vote on the staff.

“It’s not a good situation no matter who’s involved,” McNamara said. “It can be disruptive to your own team and leave pitchers on other teams gunning for you.”

McNamara’s concept is not new. The league’s managers have always sent in their pitching recommendations, with the final choice made by the league office in conjunction with the All-Star manager. A league official predicted that Brown would probably approve the contract, though he does have concerns about the size of the bonus.

The Detroit Tigers led the Chicago White Sox, 7-2, the other day but continued to pour it on. A stolen base, a bunt, a hit-and-run. Manager Sparky Anderson said he received a painful reminder last Aug. 29 that no lead is large enough. The Angels scored nine runs in the ninth inning and beat the Tigers, 13-12.

Said Sparky, with characteristic hyperbole: “I’ll never forget that thing in Anaheim. It had more impact on me than anything in my career.”

New York Met Lee Mazzilli turned 32 and said: “Girls used to come up to me and say, ‘My sister loves you.’ Now they say, ‘My mother loves you.’ ”

Cleveland Indians pitcher Scott Bailes bought a $20 gold necklace on a New York street corner and said: “I’m going to take a shower tonight and see if it runs.”