Major League Managers’ All-Star Poll : Strawberry Didn’t Win Over These Voters

Darryl Strawberry may be a hit with the fans, but he’s off the team as far as National League managers are concerned.

Strawberry, the New York Mets outfielder who was elected by fans to start the All-Star Game for the fourth straight season, failed to appear on a single ballot cast by NL managers in a survey conducted by The Associated Press.

He was not alone in his absence from the managers’ team.

Neither Mike Schmidt nor Gary Carter, both elected by fans, would start for NL managers. Cal Ripken and Terry Kennedy of Baltimore, and Dave Winfield of New York would not start if American League managers made out that lineup.

Instead, Dale Murphy of the Atlanta Braves would take Strawberry’s place, Tim Wallach of Montreal would play third instead of Schmidt, and Jody Davis of the Chicago Cubs would catch instead of Carter.

In the American League, Tony Fernandez of Toronto would play shortstop instead of Ripken, Kirby Puckett of Minnesota would start in the outfield in place of Winfield and Matt Nokes of Detroit would catch instead of Kennedy.

Twenty-four managers responded to the AP survey, conducted from June 29 to July 8. Tom Lasorda of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Tony LaRussa of the Oakland Athletics declined to pick a team.

Managers could not pick their own players. Three players received the maximum possible vote total -- Ozzie Smith of St. Louis at shortstop in the NL, and Wade Boggs of Boston at third base and George Bell of Toronto in the outfield for the AL.

The All-Star Game will be played Tuesday in Oakland.

Strawberry, who has been criticized by his New York Mets teammates for not playing hurt, seemed to feel vindicated by the fans’ selection.

“It’s a big honor,” he said Wednesday when the final fan votes were released. “It just shows there are people out there who do care. I’m just honored about the whole situation. No matter what happens, my being criticized, the people believe in me.”

But Strawberry was not among the eight top outfielders in the NL according to the managers. Besides their starting trio of Eric Davis, Andre Dawson and Murphy, the managers voted for Tony Gwynn, Vince Coleman, Jeffrey Leonard, Willie McGee and Tim Raines instead of the Mets’ outfielder.

“Basically it doesn’t bother me,” Strawberry said when told of the survey results. “If I’m not a starter, I would have been selected to the team anyway. I know that quite a few other outfielders are hitting for a better average, but I’m quite sure a lot of managers would pick me even if it were not to start.”

Murphy, who had been the first NL outfielder to start in five consecutive All-Star Games since Hank Aaron, edged Gwynn 6 1/2-6 for the final NL outfield spot behind Davis and Dawson. He said being chosen by the managers was some consolation.

“It’s a nice feeling. It’s an honor to be picked on anybody’s all-star team,” Murphy said. “Last year in my situation, the fans picked me and I started in the All-Star Game. I probably should not have.”

Nokes finished 15th in fan voting for catcher as a write-in candidate with 33,688 votes, nearly 900,000 behind Kennedy. But he defeated Ernie Whitt 6-5 in the managers’ voting with Kennedy getting two votes.

In another one-vote AL race, Fernandez edged Alan Trammell at shortstop 6-5. Ripken, who received 852,832 more votes than Fernandez from the fans, got just one vote fromthe managers.

Henderson got the third outfield spot with six votes, just ahead of Winfield and Jesse Barfield, who had five each. Puckett, who finished 56,121 votes behind Winfield in the fan balloting, had eight votes from the managers, second to Bell.

Third base was the only other close race in the NL. Wallach beat Schmidt 6-5 and at least one manager had mixed feelings.

“No question Schmidt is the guy, but Wallach was the key to Montreal’s good start without Raines,” Pittsburgh Manager Jim Leyland said. Leyland wound up voting for Wallach.

Davis, who finished more than 350,000 votes behind Carter in the fan balloting, got eight votes from the managers to one for Carter.

At pitcher, NL managers chose Mike Scott 6-2 over Sid Fernandez of the Mets.

“He’s been the most dominating pitcher in baseball the last three or four years,” San Francisco Manager Roger Craig said of Scott.

Bret Saberhagen dominated voting for AL pitcher, getting nine votes to three for Jack Morris and one for Roger Clemens.