Baseball : Tony LaRussa Goes on the Recording, Again

A year ago, Tony LaRussa left a message on his answering machine, saying that his Oakland Athletics hoped to win 100 games.

They won 104 in the regular season and four more in the American League playoffs with the Boston Red Sox. The hunger remains, according to LaRussa’s current phone message.

“Everyone asks can the A’s repeat,” LaRussa says after first informing callers that he is not available. “My answer is definitely yes. We want more wins, more fun, more championships. We’re hungry for it and we’re going for it.”

There are 21 players earning $2 million or more, including pro-rated signing bonuses and deferments. Roger Clemens, who joined the list with his three-year, $7.5-million contract from the Boston Red Sox, can also make $300,000 a year in award bonuses.

His agent, Randy Hendricks, was asked why there is no All-Star bonus.

Said Hendricks: “I told (Red Sox General Manager) Lou Gorman that for $2.5 million a year, you’re entitled to an All-Star.”

Bobby Cox of the Atlanta Braves is the only general manager in the National League West not to have made a trade during the winter.

His inactivity is even drawing criticism from sportscasters on TBS, owned by Ted Turner, who also owns the Braves.

“Nobody likes to be criticized, but I’ve become calloused,” Cox said.

There is still a suspicion that Cox will deal Dale Murphy for a package of players. Murphy now apparently wants it. He had a videotape made of his recent arthroscopic knee surgery so that he can show interested clubs it went smoothly.

Add Braves: On the prospect of coping with the same roster, Manager Russ Nixon said: “If it takes you longer than 10 minutes to make out your lineup, you’re in trouble. Last year, it sometimes took me longer than it did to drive home.”

Nixon lives 40 miles from Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium.

In a speech to a civic organization in Orlando, Fla., the other day, New York Mets Manager Davey Johnson accused George Steinbrenner of “ruining the Yankees” last year by again bringing in too many star free agents without regard to team alignment.

But Johnson added: “I’m not concerned with any other team. I’m only concerned with the Mets. We can self-destruct. We’ve got seven millionaires. The more they make, the bigger their egos get.”

Johnson also said he tries to advise his players on investments but has given up with Sid Fernandez.

Johnson said that Fernandez told him he came close to buying a house in Hawaii after the 1987 season but backed off because it cost $200,000.

“My contract is for $220,000, and I didn’t think I could live on twenty grand a year,” Fernandez told Johnson at the time.

George Argyros, owner of the Seattle Mariners, writes to say that he has never broken his lease at the Kingdome and has never been accused by King County of having broken it.

His letter was in response to a Times analysis of Peter Ueberroth’s tenure as commissioner. Ueberroth was criticized in the analysis for having failed to support the city of Seattle during a period in which Argyros has “repeatedly broken” the lease.

True, Argyros has never been judicially cited for a lease violation. He has, however, been accused of lease violations by city and county officials, according to stories in the Seattle papers and conversations with officials.

The strongest and most recent accusation may have come from King County Executive Tim Hill, who sent a letter to Ueberroth, charging Argyros with a lease violation for failing to build a winner by properly funding the Mariners, as Argyros had stipulated he would, Hill said.

Ueberroth, set to step down March 31, hopes to resolve the Texas Rangers’ ownership situation and sign new contracts governing super-station indemnity and the national radio rights before then. Of his still hectic schedule, he told the Dallas Morning News:

“I was going to start 45 days ago and really work hard to get my 52-year-old body in shape, then take spring training and shag balls, pitch a little batting practice and have fun. My last time around I could get away with it. If I’d done it before, you (reporters) would have never left me alone. . . . maybe they’ll let me come back next year and do that.”

Over the objections of Manager Dallas Green, who is intent on building a rotation of younger pitchers, Tommy John is getting one last chance to make the New York Yankees staff.

Owner George Steinbrenner couldn’t shut the door on John, 45. He will receive $250,000 for going to spring training and another $250,000 if he makes the team.

Green is planning a four-man rotation, further complicating John’s task. Andy Hawkins, Dave LaPoint and John Candelaria are assured of spots, and there are several candidates for the fourth.

John isn’t fazed.

“There’s still six weeks and an awful lot can happen in six weeks,” he told Newsday. “When I was here in 1986, I was the 21st out of 23 (pitchers). Lou (Piniella) told me, ‘You’re down on the chart. Don’t expect to get much work.’

“But after a while, things started happening. Some guys broke down. Some didn’t pitch well. I started to move my way up. For me, it’s like Lotto. A dollar and a dream.”

Why did he accept the Yankees’ offer, rather than that of the Chicago White Sox or another club.

“My kids begged me,” he said. “They didn’t want to leave again. My daughter is in ninth grade. She’s in the school play and she’s in cheerleading. It’s not fair to them. In 1986, she was in four schools (two in New Jersey, one in Florida and one in North Carolina). All that moving’s not good for them.

“But I’ll tell you what. My kids can make plane and hotel reservations without help.”

Milwaukee Brewers General Manager Harry Dalton signed all six of his players who filed for arbitration, maintaining his record of never having a player go to arbitration since the process began in 1974.