Baseball : Giants and A’s Expected to Battle for Division Titles, Fans

Can the Bay Area support two baseball teams? That lingering question is about to be tested as never before.

First, the San Francisco Giants are defending their championship in the National League’s Western Division and are outspokenly confident of their ability to go even further this year.

Then, you have the remodeled Oakland Athletics, boasting Jose Canseco, Mark McGwire, Dave Parker, Don Baylor and more muscle than Gold’s Gym.

Some are already predicting a Bay Bridge World Series, and the early indication is that the fans want to be in from the start.

The Giants, who sold about 450,000 tickets in advance of last season, when they set a club record of 1.9 million in attendance, have already sold more than 950,000. They are doing better at the box office than at the ballot box, considering that their bid for a downtown stadium was recently rejected by the voters.

“We have every reason to expect to draw 2 million if the club plays as well as we hope,” said Duffy Jennings, public relations director.

The A’s also expect to break their club record of 1.7 million, set in 1982. They sold about 700,000 tickets in advance of last season, when the All-Star game provided a unique marketing vehicle, and expect to sell 800,000 to 900,000 in advance this year.

“I don’t think it’s unrealistic to think in terms of 2 million,” Vice President Sandy Alderson said.

Alderson and others helped fuel Bay Area interest the other day, engaging in a war of words with the Giants as to which team is the more exciting and owns the area.

Lloyd Herberg of the Arizona Republic recorded it, first quoting Giant President Al Rosen as saying: “There is no doubt in my mind that the Bay Area, what I know of the Bay Area, is Giants’ territory, no doubt.”

Responded Alderson: “Well, that’s BS. I think it’s a little premature to claim the Bay Area belongs to any particular team.”

Said Canseco: “Look at the players we have. We have a much more exciting team than the Giants, player for player a much better team. . . . I don’t believe in building castles in the sky. If they have the team to win it, let them prove it. I wouldn’t bet on them. They’re just an optimistic team. Everyone has a right to say they’re going to finish first.”

Answered Giant Manager Roger Craig: “I didn’t realize he knew so much about my club. Exciting? I think we’re one of the most exciting clubs in baseball. Our 24 are just as good as theirs are. We won last year, and they didn’t.”

Craig continues to provide his division rivals with motivational fodder.

A copy of his spring prospectus has been posted in the Houston clubhouse, with the following underlined:

“With such a solid club and so many talented guys waiting in the wings, we have to be the team to beat. We won our division by six games last year and should do better this year.”

Sitting in his office at Scottsdale Stadium the other day, Craig said:

“I’d be a damn fool to come to spring training after winning and say we were going to lose. I know in my heart and mind we have the best 24 men in the National League and that the maturity and experience we gained last year will make us better.

“I told my players that we should expect to win because we have the best club in the division. I told them we can’t just talk, we have to go out and do it.

“I’ve only said the same things that Pete Rose and Hal Lanier and Tommy Lasorda would. I don’t care in the least if they put it up on their bulletin board.”

A two-team attendance of 4 million or more in a population area of 4 million would be impressive.

There’s more to it, however, than the simple question of whether the Bay Area can support them both. It’s a question of style.

“Sure, the Bay Area can support two teams, but I don’t know if it can support two teams with the payrolls of the two New York or Los Angeles teams,” Alderson said.

“The Bay Area imposes certain economic limitations that make it difficult to sustain a competitive team over a period of time.”

His point: A competitive team’s payroll figures to increase annually, ultimately outdistancing the revenues of a limited market.

“We have to maintain a constant influx of young (and less expensive) talent,” he said. “Two teams with the payroll of the Seattle Mariners can make money in the Bay Area, but the more competitive you are, the more difficult it is to maintain a payroll that low.”

The A’s payroll will be about $10.5 million, Alderson said. The Dodgers may have 1988’s highest, about $16.5 million. The A’s are hopeful of 2 million in attendance, the Dodgers anticipate 3 million.

“Every 800,000 to 1 million in attendance means about $5 million in (ticket) revenue,” Alderson said. “You can do a lot with $5 million in terms of building a club.”

The Philadelphia Phillies, seeking to replace Steve Jeltz, are still trying to trade for a shortstop.

The Atlanta Braves, who traded theirs, may be wishing they hadn’t.

The Braves traded Rafael Ramirez to the Houston Astros in December, leaving Andres Thomas as the shortstop. Thomas had five errors and three hits in his first nine spring games.

Jeltz, the only shortstop who had more errors than runs batted in last year, 14 to 12, was on a comparable pace through Thursday, having made seven errors with only one RBI.

Al Leiter, one of baseball’s top pitching prospects, has apparently won a berth in the New York Yankee rotation, having pitched 10 scoreless innings with 3 hits and 6 strikeouts.

Leiter, 22, enhances a suspect unit, but durability is still a question mark. He has never pitched more than 140 innings in a season. The other Yankee starters, Rick Rhoden, Richard Dotson, John Candelaria and Tommy John, each failed to reach 200 last year.

No surprise that Jack Clark would be sidelined even before the season starts, the victim of a torn calf muscle.

Clark, in his 11 big league seasons, has played more than 143 games only three times. He has been on the disabled list in four of the last seven seasons, not including 1987, when he missed the last 24 games with an injury to his right ankle but was not put on the disabled list.

The Detroit Tigers are moving Santa Ana outfielder Billy Bean to first base, leaving Darrell Evans as the full-time designated hitter.

Manager Sparky Anderson, who has never seen a prospect he didn’t like, said of first baseman Bean:

“He’s a natural. He reminds me of Ron Fairly.”

The Tigers will be attempting to defend their Eastern Division title with a bullpen that totaled only 31 saves last year.

Among the Tigers’ division rivals, the Yankees’ Dave Righetti has averaged 34 saves over the last four years, Boston’s Lee Smith has averaged 33 over the last four years, and the Toronto Blue Jays’ Tom Henke has averaged 31 over the last two years.

The incendiary situation created by George Bell’s refusal to designated hitter prompted Peter Hardy, a member of the Toronto Blue Jays’ board of directors, to hold a clubhouse meeting Friday in a bid for peace.

Good luck.

Bell, whose new contract calls for more than $4 million over three years, confirmed in an interview with two broadcasters Friday that he will not DH under any circumstances.

Asked about it by other members of the Toronto media, Bell snapped: “Write what you want. You do anyway.”

Bell was fined and suspended for one game Wednesday when he refused to DH. He was in left field Friday and went 3 for 3. Said agent Randy Hendricks: “You’ve got a hard-headed manager and a hard-headed player. Something has to be resolved, but I can’t help them.”

The Blue Jays resolved a secondary aspect of the Bell situation by capitulating to center fielder Lloyd Moseby’s refusal to play left, filling Bell’s vacancy.

They gave Moseby a one-year contract extension for $1.1 million.

Moseby is now said to be happy and willing to play anywhere.

The Blue Jays are far from happy. Bell isn’t the only problem. All-Star shortstop Tony Fernandez has neither played regularly nor thrown 100% in the aftermath of the elbow fracture he suffered when upended by Bill Madlock late last season.

He is also nursing a hip injury and may yield his opening day starter’s role to Manny Lee.

The Blue Jays’ reluctance to trade Lee because of the uncertainty over Fernandez has reportedly killed a possible deal that would have involved Baltimore Orioles’ pitcher Mike Boddicker.

The Cleveland Indians’ 1987 earned-run average of 5.28 was among the worst of all time.

The Indians responded by inviting virtually every unemployed pitcher to camp, 46 in all. They are still carrying 37 with only two weeks of training left and will have played 14 B-team games in an effort to sort them out.

“They know they’re fighting for their lives,” Manager Doc Edwards said. “We told them even in B games to pitch like it’s the seventh game of the World Series.”

The Texas Rangers signed Cesar Cedeno to a minor league contract, prompting Manager Bobby Valentine to say: “I didn’t know about it, but they didn’t need my approval because he’s not in my plans.”

Lonnie Smith, who was not offered a new contract by the Kansas City Royals at the end of last season, signed a minor league contract with the Braves for $25,000, a $675,000 drop in pay.

Of the Mariners’ 23 spring errors, General Manager Dick Balderson said: “What we’re doing this spring is trying gloves that were made in Pittsburgh by Bethlehem Steel.”

The anonymity that cloaks players in Canada has prompted so many complaints that the Montreal Expos have hired Mark McCormack’s International Management Group to work with Manager Buck Rodgers, Tim Wallach, Tim Raines, Hubie Brooks and Mitch Webster in the development of marketing concepts.

Billy Jo Robidoux, who opened the 1986 season as the Milwaukee Brewers’ touted first baseman, was among the first players cut by the Brewers this spring. Knee injuries restricted Robidoux to 97 games and a .211 average over the last two years.

The Brewers had lost eight straight exhibition games before defeating the Giants Wednesday, 13-6.

“Maybe we’re having our May in March this year,” Brewer Manager Tom Trebelhorn said, recalling that miserable May of last season when the Brewers lost 12 in a row and 18 of 20.

Billy Martin’s son, Billy Joe, is attending Texas Tech as a--yes--public relations major.

We may know a lot about the Minnesota Twins’ ability to defend their Western Division title even before they play their first division rival. The Twins will play 12 of their first 15 games against the Eastern Division Yankees and Blue Jays and will not play a team from their own division until May 17.

San Diego Padres pitcher Dave Leiper has named his new son Justin Casey.

Why?

“I’m always up in the bullpen just in case they need me,” he said.

Angel Manager Gene Mauch may have felt like he was right back in the ballpark when he took a treadmill test during his recent hospitalization. The name of the supervising doctor: Ty Cobb.