Spring Training Roundup : Oil Can Apologizes to Boggs, Then Yells at Writers

Here’s the way things are going for the Boston Red Sox these days.

Saturday, pitcher Dennis (Oil Can) Boyd, noting that the Red Sox wanted him to see a psychiatrist after his 1986 outbursts, wondered why third baseman Wade Boggs, who has admitted to being a sex addict, had not been forced to take the same steps.

Said Boyd: “If that had been me instead of him, I would have been out of here so fast I wouldn’t have known what hit me.

“They were talking about banning me out of baseball because I’ve got a temper,” he told the Boston Herald. “I had to go to a psychiatrist because I got mad. Here’s a guy who says he’s a sex fiend. Now who needs the psychiatrist?”

Sunday, Boyd apologized to Boggs, and things were peaceful for a while.

But a few hours later, Boyd went into a rage and shouted obscenities when confronted by writers at the team’s training camp in Winter Haven, Fla.

Then there is Cleveland Indians center fielder Joe Carter’s problem.

He said Sunday the major reason he turned down a contract offer of $9.6 million for five years was because of the team’s rule prohibiting players’ wives from accompanying their husbands on charter flights.

Carter, who filed for and won an arbitration case that awarded him a salary of $1.65 million in 1989, said that unless the team changes the rule, he would have to “realistically look” at becoming a free agent after the 1990 season.

“My family is not happy with the way things are in Cleveland, and that was the main reason I didn’t sign a long-term contract,” Carter said.

Before the arrival of Hank Peters as president of the Indians in November, 1987, the club policy was to allow players’ wives to fly home with the team on charter flights at the end of each trip.

That policy was changed by Peters in 1988. The club’s new policy is that wives may fly with the team when it flies commercial flights, but not on charters.

“All I’m asking for is that they make the families feel more like part of the team,” Carter said. “It’s like they’re promoting for the families not to be there. To some this may seem like a minor issue, but not to me. I don’t want to go home every day and have my family unhappy.”

Carter met for an hour with Manager Doc Edwards to discuss his complaint.

“I’d love for my wife to be on trips as much as anyone,” Edwards said. “But I’m from the old school. To me the plane is like a part of the clubhouse, and I wouldn’t bring my wife into the clubhouse.”

In the 17 years George Steinbrenner has owned the New York Yankees, he has made 16 managerial changes. On Sunday, during his annual State of the Yankees address, he said he doesn’t foresee another one anytime soon.

About his newest manager, Dallas Green, Steinbrenner said: “I will bet you he will be there at the end of the World Series when we win it. Dallas is going to surprise you. He will do a very good job.

“Dallas has no problems this year at all. You watch. Dallas will be there.”

Steinbrenner seems to have forgiven first baseman Don Mattingly, who infuriated the owner last August when he said Yankees’ players receive money but no respect. Trade rumors swirled around Mattingly from that point on.

Said Steinbrenner: “The more I think about it, Donnie was within his rights to say what he said when he said it.”