Baseball : Frank Robinson Gives Up a Memory to Manage the ’88 Orioles

He was one of the Baltimore Orioles’ brightest stars during six of their best seasons. Does anything now remind Frank Robinson of then?

“I can’t say it’s like old times because we never went through this (manure)when I was here before,” the new Oriole manager said the other day.

“I mean, I’ve seen teams in slumps. I’ve seen teams lose ball games. But I’ve never seen teams go through what we’re going through offensively.

“We don’t score runs. We don’t even hit the ball hard. It’s a little hard to believe.”

The 0-11 line in the standings through Saturday made it all too real. The glory of the past is a distant memory in Baltimore.

Robinson’s family tried to tell him it was better to live with that memory than attempt to deal with the present from the insecure position of manager, the Orioles having employed four in the last four years.

“They think I’m crazy,” he said, referring to his family’s opinion of his decision to give up being an assistant to General Manager Roland Hemond.

“They think that the team will have a tough time doing well, and they’re worried about how that will affect me.”

A Hall of Fame outfielder, Robinson found it difficult coping with the mediocre performances of players with less ability when he managed the Cleveland Indians and San Francisco Giants. It is often the case with a great player turned manager.

Robinson reflected and said he now realizes that no matter how he treats players, there are going to be problems.

“I’m still aggressive, but I’m not as abrasive as I was,” Robinson said. “I was more diplomatic in San Francisco than I was at Cleveland, and hopefully, I’ll be more diplomatic here.

“But,” he added, laughing, “you can be too diplomatic as well.”

Since he has already described the current situation as (manure), diplomacy may already have failed.

One of Robinson’s first moves is expected to be the hiring of Don Buford, a former Baltimore teammate, as a coach. Buford is an assistant baseball coach at USC, his alma mater, and is expected to join Robinson when the Trojans complete their season.

It will not be as easy filling the conspicuous gaps in the Orioles’ lineup and rotation. Last year’s 95 losses indicate how far the Orioles have fallen, and the statistics during their 0-10 start prove it.

Baltimore was outscored, 66-16, got 5 or fewer hits in 5 of the 11 games, yielded 16 or more hits 3 times and was let down by its Millionaires’ Row of Fred Lynn, Terry Kennedy, Eddie Murray and Cal Ripken Jr., who were a combined 21 for 145. Ripken was 2 for 39.

How badly are the Orioles doing? Hemond and other club executives were stuck in a Memorial Stadium elevator for 73 minutes after the ninth loss.

Dwight Gooden has opened the season 3-0. A shutout victory over the St. Louis Cardinals Friday diluted some criticism he was hearing because of his 4.91 earned-run average and his having pitched only 11 innings in his first two wins.

Gooden could care less about the criticism.

Style is no longer the issue for the New York Mets’ right-hander. Substance is, which refers to nothing more than wins and losses. No more talk about strikeouts, shutouts and low-hit games.

“I’m fed up with it,” Gooden said. “I’ve been fed up with it since 1986.

“I can have 100 victories by the time I’m 25, and that’s the bottom line. I can live with being just good.

“I’m (unbeaten) and people say, ‘What’s wrong?’ I’ve got to pitch a shutout all the time. Hopefully one day, maybe not this year or next year, people will accept it.

“I know now that I’ve put too much pressure on myself in the past. I got a lot of bad results trying to do things everybody expects me to do. No more. I just want to satisfy myself.”

John Candelaria, the former Angel, pitched the New York Yankees to a 14-3 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays Tuesday in his first complete game since Aug. 9, 1986.

Candelaria had started 32 games without completing one and had finished only 1 in his last 40. Manager Billy Martin seemed to take some credit for this one and jabbed at some of Candelaria’s recent managers.

Said Martin: “We used him a lot in spring training (34 innings). Maybe we prepared him better than anybody before.”

The Yankees’ 8-1 record after nine games represented the club’s best start.

Said Martin, explaining why the Yankees had never done it before or had never done it better:

“George (Steinbrenner) kept firing me. He would never let me start a season. He kept bringing me back in the middle of a season.”

The most impressive aspect of the Yankees’ three straight victories in Toronto last week wasn’t the continued torrid hitting of Dave Winfield and Rickey Henderson.

It was the pitching--the complete game by Candelaria, the eight shutout innings by Richard Dotson and the eight strong innings by Al Leiter in which he yielded 4 hits and struck out 11, including George Bell twice.

Those three are a combined 5-0 with a 2.47 earned-run average, and Leiter, 22, is living up to his billing. He is 2-0 with 18 strikeouts in 15 innings. Opponents are batting .157 against him.

The New York tabloids have publicized a war of words that started when the Mets’ Darryl Strawberry ripped Martin for benching shortstop Rafael Santana, a former Met, for a costly error in Monday’s loss to the Blue Jays.

Strawberry said he’d never play for Martin, which prompted Martin to call Strawberry “a little, kid” who needed “to grow up.” Martin said: “Strawberry couldn’t play for my club. He can’t carry my left fielder’s shoes. If he were in our league, he’d be doing his hitting from a lying down position.”

Former Yankee catcher Rick Cerone, who joined the Boston Red Sox Thursday, also had some words for Martin. Asked about his former manager’s penchant for second-guessing pitch selection, Cerone said: “I don’t know one catcher who gets along with Billy Martin.

On the Cardinals’ sluggish start, second baseman Tom Herr said: “We’re acting like we don’t know how to play the game. We’re running into outs, missing signs, not executing. We’ve always prided ourselves on doing those types of things. If we don’t do them, we’re not going to win.”

Responding to his mother’s arrival from the Dominican Republic, second baseman Julio Franco of the Cleveland Indians said: “There’s no more fooling around for me. I can’t make any errors. Momma knows two things--baseball and wrestling.”

Plagued by erratic pitching in a 2-6 start, Montreal Expos Manager Bob Rodgers said: “All I hear from my pitchers is that the umpires are squeezing them. All the umpiring in the world wouldn’t help them. I haven’t heard one pitcher say he was horse (manure).”

Roger Clemens emerged from his 2-0 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers Thursday with 33 strikeouts this season, one more than the entire Chicago White Sox staff. The Red Sox ace has pitched 21 straight scoreless innings against the Brewers, during which he has struck out 25 walked none.

Said Brewer coach Andy Etchebarren, the former Oriole catcher: “I’ve caught a lot of good pitchers in my time, but this guy could be the best I’ve ever seen.”

White Sox pitching coach Don Rowe’s suggestion on how pitchers can cope with the balk rule and come to a complete and discernible stop: Velcro belts.