Minor League Notebook : Harkey’s Game Plan With Cubs: Just Keep Pitching . . . and Waiting

The way Mike Harkey figures it, the better he pitches, the harder it is for the Chicago Cubs to keep him in the minor leagues.

Harkey, a former pitcher for Cal State Fullerton, is following his game plan diligently with the Cubs’ double-A team in Pittsfield, Mass.

Harkey, who signed with the Cubs in 1987 after his junior season at Fullerton, is quickly establishing himself. In 10 starts this season, Harkey is 8-2 with 47 strikeouts and a 1.25 earned-run average.

“I know they (the Cubs) are pleased with what I’m doing,” Harkey said. “They’ve told me to keep up the good work.

“I just have to make it where they can’t help but bring me up. I have to be consistent. I can’t win one, lose one, win one. That’s not going to work. I have to make it hard for them to keep me down here.”

Harkey was the fourth player selected in the June 1987 amateur draft after he went 10-2 record with 101 strikeouts and a 2.72 ERA in his junior season. Even though he was the Cubs’ first-round pick, the team said it planned to bring him along slowly.

Harkey said he thinks about playing in the majors every day but realizes the Cubs’ plan calls for several seasons of minor-league seasoning.

Harkey, who is 6-feet 5-inches tall and weighs 210 pounds, spent almost all of last season with the Cubs’ Class A affiliate at Peoria, Ill. In 12 games, Harkey was 2-3 with 48 strikeouts in 76 innings, and his ERA was 3.55.

He was moved to Pittsfield of the Eastern League for the final week of the season.

“I’m satisfied,” Harkey, who played at Diamond Bar High School, said. “I’m getting my innings in, and that’s all I can ask. I have to be patient and have some fun down here. When I go up, I don’t plan on coming back down. I might as well get all I can get out of the minors right now.”

In April, when Brady Anderson of the Boston Red Sox was struggling at the plate, Manager John McNamara had a conversation with the former UC Irvine outfielder.

“He came up and said, ‘Look, you’re not going down to Pawtucket (Boston’s triple-A team in Rhode Island),’ ” Anderson said. “That helped me a lot.”

But on Saturday, the Red Sox did what McNamara said the team wouldn’t do, optioning Anderson to Pawtucket. Anderson, a 10th-round pick in the June 1985 draft, hit only .230 with no home runs and 12 RBIs in 41 games with the Red Sox.

Add Red Sox: Anderson--in a series of roster moves made by the Red Sox Saturday--effectively took the place of Kevin Romine, a former standout at Fountain Valley High, Orange Coast College and Arizona State, in the Pawtucket outfield.

Romine, who has shuttled between Boston and Pawtucket, was hitting .368, tops on the club. He went 1 for 4 Wednesday in Boston’s 4-3 victory over the Yankees.

Romine, who was on Boston’s opening-day roster, has 53 hits and 26 RBIs in 144 at-bats for Pawtucket.

After he graduated from Fountain Valley in 1979, Romine helped Orange Coast win the 1980 state community college championship. He batted .389 in one season at OCC.

Romine transferred to Arizona State before his sophomore season and hit .406 with 12 homers and 54 RBIs, leading the Sun Devils to the 1981 national championship.

He signed with the Red Sox after his junior season at Arizona State.

John Christensen, a former outfielder and first baseman for Cal State Fullerton, recently signed with the Minnesota Twins and was assigned to their triple-A team at Portland, Ore.

He is hitting .250 with 15 RBIs in 168 at-bats for the Beavers, a member of the Pacific Coast League.

Christensen, who had been released by the Seattle Mariners at the start of the season, played for the Titans from 1979-81. A Troy High graduate, he helped the Titans win the 1979 College World Series.

His .349 career average ranks fifth on the all-time Titan list.

Christensen originally was drafted by the New York Mets, but a wealth of outfielders, including Darryl Strawberry and Lenny Dykstra, kept him from sticking with the team.